Tourism-Led Infrastructure Development: Towards a Theoretical Framework Through Grounded Theory Synthesis

In the context of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and current regional development strategies, tourism is increasingly viewed as a potential driver of economic and infrastructural transformation across regions. While the literature has largely focused on the influence of infrastructure on tourism growth, the reverse relationship—in which tourism may stimulate infrastructure development—remains insufficiently conceptualized. This article therefore examines the tourism–infrastructure development (TLID) thesis through two research questions: (1) To what extent can tourism growth contribute to the development of regional infrastructure beyond strictly tourism-related infrastructure? (2) What theoretical mechanisms explain the relationship between tourism dynamics and infrastructure investment? The study employs a bibliometric analysis of the recent literature, combined with a theoretical synthesis inspired by Grounded Theory, to identify emerging conceptual relationships in recent scientific contributions. The results highlight three main contributions. First, they confirm the bidirectional nature of the relationship between tourism and infrastructure. Second, the analysis identifies several key explanatory mechanisms, notably economic incentives, territorial competitiveness strategies, and public governance dynamics. Third, the study proposes an integrative conceptual framework for tourism-led infrastructure development. These findings enrich the literature on tourism and territorial development and have useful implications for the design of public policies related to infrastructure investment.