Wellness tourism. A bibliometric analysis of research published on Scopus

Abstract This paper aims to identify the state of academic research on wellness tourism. Existing methodologies were analysed to conduct this research. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology was used to select the data and the analysis was complemented with bibliometric indicators. This research identified 183 relevant articles related to wellness tourism. The review of the academic literature demonstrated that publications have increased over the last two decades. Tourism Recreational Research is the main source employed by scholars and Smith, M. is the research leader. Finally, the key words analysis evidence two main clusters in the research, tourist behaviour and motivations. Conclusions: This paper contributes to the existing literature on wellness tourism. Even more, it provides insights of the research clusters developed by academics and identifies the sources and academic leaders.