Open research questions in Diverse Aspects of Tourism Research
310 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 7,787 Diverse Aspects of Tourism Research papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.
What the literature leaves open
The limitations of this study include a limited sample size (n = 100), the dominance of culinary sector data, and a cross-sectional design that does not yet capture long-term dynamics.
Strengthening the Multiplier Effect Through Local Community Involvement: A Case Study of the Jatiluwih Festival, Bali · 2026 · DOIInsufficient Research Limitations of data sources and coverage: The current study solely relies on UGC texts from three major platforms—TikTok, Xiaohongshu, and Ctrip—and does not incorporate other high-traffic platforms such as Weibo and WeChat, nor offline interview data, which may lead to data bias.
Research on Dynamic Evaluation and Optimization Strategies of Tourists' Immersive Experience Based on Multi-platform UGC Texts in Smart Tourism Scenarios: A Case Study of Chang'an 12th Hour Theme Street · 2026 · DOIis high, recommendations to close friends and family are also strong (Bigne et al., 2001). Recommendations from other people are the most trusted and sought-after source of information for people with travel intentions. The next dimension is ‘positive reviews.’ Tourists' positive reviews to people around them 2.4. Health tourism in Türkiye about their experiences are an indication of their high loyalty to the destination (Liu et al., 2012). is parallel to satisfaction. That is, when satisfaction Health tourism is a rapidly growing global sector that serves as an economic driver with a multiplier effect on national economies (Drinkert & Singh, 2017; Reisman, 2010). Key factors driving its growth include rising economic incomes, improved transport, an aging population, and advances in e-tourism. The sector’s share of the global economy has been increasing. Türkiye provided healthcare services to 756,926 patients, generating USD 1,459,132 thousand in tourism revenues from foreign visitors and expatriates seeking medical care in 2019. However, due to the global pandemic in 2020, there was a significant decrease in the number of patients coming to the country due to health tourism. From 2022, a significant acceleration in health tourism activities was achieved, and 1,381,807 health tourists preferred Türkiye. In this period, the revenue generated from this sector was recorded as USD 2,206,750 thousand. The year 2023 was one of the years when the health tourism sector reached the highest number of patients, and a total of 1,538,643 people received health services in Türkiye. During this period, the revenue generated by health tourism reached USD 3,006,092 thousand. In 2024, the high number of patients in the health tourism sector was maintained, and 1,506,442 people benefited from health services. The revenue generated by the sector increased slightly compared to the previous year and was recorded at USD 3,022,957 thousand (USHAŞ- International Health Services Inc, 2024). Figure Figure 1 1 illustrates the growth in the number of tourists visiting Türkiye for health tourism over the years.
Travel Motivations and Behavioral Intentions of Tourists Visiting Istanbul within the Scope of Health Tourism: Mediating Role of Perceived Value · 2026 · DOISecond, future research could examine how resource management operates across multiple governance levels, including village, regency, provincial, and national institutions, to better understand how formal policies accommodate customary systems. Future studies could focus more directly on women involved in agrarian livelihoods, Lontar-based production, coastal crafts, and seaweed processing as important sources of local knowledge and tourism labor.
Integration of indigenous knowledge in tourism resource management strategies: a case study of tourism villages in Jeneponto Regency · 2026 · DOITherefore, an effective advertising strategy should not be limited to a single channel, but should include a combination of audiovisual storytelling (films/series/shows), a strong online presence (search, content, reviews) and, at the same time supporting , materials that ‘ reinforce the experience (travel guides, curated routes).
Cultural narratives and tourism mobilization: An empirical study of literary tourism through Italian travelogues about Crete · 2026 · DOIthis study proposes H1: substitute satisfaction has a significant positive impact on behavioral intention. H1a-H1c further propose that functional, emotional, and symbolic satisfaction each have significant positive impacts on behavioral intention. intention [20]. Therefore, loyalty, support revisit to Value reconstruction is expected to mediate the relationship between substitute satisfaction and behavioral intention. Substitute satisfaction is an external experiential response, but behavioral cognitive requires transformation. When tourists shift from passively accepting a substitute to actively recognizing its value, substitute experiences can become meaningful and behaviorally influential [18, 23]. Accordingly, H2 proposes that value intention internal reconstruction mediates the relationship between substitute satisfaction and behavioral intention. H2a-H2c propose the functional, emotional, and same mediating effect for symbolic satisfaction respectively. Expected gap compensation is expected to moderate the relationship between substitute satisfaction and value reconstruction. When the gap between the desired and actual tourism experience is stronger, tourists' compensatory needs may become more salient, increasing the likelihood that substitute satisfaction will be transformed into reconstructed value [23, 24]. Accordingly, H3 proposes that expected gap compensation moderates the relationship between substitute satisfaction and value reconstruction. H3a-H3c further propose this moderating effect for the three dimensions of substitute satisfaction. Based on these hypotheses, this study constructs a model with substitute satisfaction as the antecedent, value reconstruction as the mediator, expected gap compensation as the moderator, and behavioral intention as the outcome. The model clarifies both the direct path from substitute satisfaction to behavioral intention and the conditional indirect mechanism through value reconstruction. therefore levels of explanation: the experiential level represented by substitute satisfaction, the cognitive-value level represented by value reconstruction, and the conditional psychological level represented by expected gap compensation. This structure allows the study to test not only whether substitute tourism is satisfying, but also how and under what conditions satisfaction becomes behavioral intention.
When the First Choice Is Unattainable: A Study on the Value Reconstruction Process and Behavioral Intention of Functionally Substitutive Tourism among Generation Z · 2026 · DOISecondly, the long-term impacts of tour- ism on cultural authenticity and social cohesion remain underexplored. While the literature suggests that cultural herit- age can effectively support rural tourism (Lane, 2009), this study shows that ethnographic resources alone are insufficient to stimulate tourism development.
The Ethnographic Diversity of Rural Areas in the Wielkopolska Region as a Potential for Development of Tourism · 2026 · DOIOutbound tourists The information on the total number of arrivals and departures of South African residents is collected from the scanning of passports. However, data on the country visited are not collected from passengers; country of final destination; intended duration of stay and purpose of visit. With this limitation, it is impossible to identify the number of tourists from the data on South African residents.
When Nations “Clash” but Tourists Travel: Understanding Hospitality Orientation towards Inbound Tourists during Strained Bilateral Geopolitical Relations · 2026 · DOIThis study described in the article was based on a comparative analysis of survey data, and the sample of Polish respondents was relatively small, which means that the results may not be easily generalised. There is a lack of broad, systematic, large-scale empirical research that would enable the assessment of the effectiveness, quality, and long-term outcomes of care farms in Poland. The investigation of this subject is further complicated by differences in regulations and the lack of a uniform system for monitoring this type of activity. CRediT Authorship Contribution Statement The authors declare that they jointly wrote the introduction, literature review, discussion, and conclusions. The research and analysis were conducted by Michał Roman.
Nevertheless, the community continues to strive to revitalize digital promotion through creative content, collaborations, and the use of social media to increase tourist visits The limitation of this study lies in the social media of Kampung Wisata Bekelir in the form of Instagram, which has been operating since 2017, but the social media of Kampung Wisata Bekelir last operated in March 2024.
Analysis of Social Media Management Strategies: A Case Study of Bekelir Tourist Village · 2026 · DOIThis study still has several limitations worthy of attention. First, the research sample adopts purposive sampling only in the Taiwan region, which restricts the external generalization of research conclusions. Although Taiwan’s tourism and sports environment is suitable for this research, the conclusion cannot be directly applied to other cultural and geographical scenarios. Future research can verify the applicability of the 29 Information Management and Business Review (ISSN 2220-3796) Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 19-32, 2026 research model in different countries and tourism markets. Secondly, this study mainly relies on tourists’ self-reported questionnaire data, which may be affected by common method bias. Although procedural and statistical control measures have been adopted, the interference of homologous variance cannot be eliminated. Follow-up research can adopt multi-source data collection, experimental design and longitudinal tracking method to improve research rigor. Thirdly, although the measurement scale is revised on the basis of mature literature, it still needs further optimization to adapt to the characteristics of different tourism scenarios. Tourists’ expectations and experiential perception also have obvious differences among different demographic groups and behavioral types. Future research can further examine the path difference of the model among different tourist segments.
Environmental ethics should be incorporated into tourism development, as it is vital for ensuring sustainable economic growth on a global scale. Ethical business principles, which consider both profitability and environmental responsibility, should be applied to the development of the tourism industry so that natural resources can serve as long-term economic benefits and not be depleted as quick-fix earnings. Through the inculcation of stewardship, ecological integrity, and intergenerational justice into tourism policies and planning systems, nations can advance the high-value, low-impact tourism models, which create employment, foreign exchange, and entrepreneurship locally and at the same time reduce environmental degradation. Ethical governance, transparent regulation, and responsible investment also increase destination credibility and bring sustainable finance, which promotes resilient tourism economies. In addition, decentralization of local communities and creation of ethical consciousness among tourism stakeholders and tourists themselves result in inclusive development and equitable allocation of benefits. Globally, environmentally ethical development of tourism enhances economic resilience, complies with the international commitments to sustainability, and ensures that tourism remains a significant contributor to the long-term economic development without undermining the ecological and social welfare.
Perceived value in STS refers to tourists’ subjective assessment of the utility of technology-integrated services, based on a comparison of the benefits received with the costs or effort involved (Zeithaml, 1988). This evaluation is influenced Smart tourism services: Emerging trends and research agenda 187 by perceived usefulness, ease of use, interactivity, personalization, and accessi- bility (Davis, 1989; Parasuraman et al., 1985). In the context of smart tourism, technologies and mobile applications enhance perceived value by enabling real- -time decisions and seamless experiences throughout the travel journey (Chuang, 2023; Wang et al., 2016). Moreover, under the SDL, tourists actively co-create value by interacting with service providers and contributing to personalized ex- periences (Gretzel et al., 2015b; Vargo & Lusch, 2004).
Limitations Owing to time constraints, this study is limited to a sample size of 200 individuals, focusing exclusively on the top four countries within emerging markets as measured by technology adoption.
While this research offers valuable and novel insights, several limitations must be acknowledged. Notably, the study lacks experimental validation, as no real-time empirical research has been conducted to substantiate the findings. Additionally, the findings have not undergone systematic investigation or statistical validation, which may affect the robustness and generalizability of the results.
ManagingEconomic Leakages for Building Resilient and Sustainable Tourism DestinationPerformance · 2026 · DOITo address the identified gaps, future research should prioritise experimental designs to investigate the effectiveness of various nudging strategies, such as default options, social norms, and other behavioural interventions, in shaping tourist preferences and choices toward local products and services. The findings of such experiments must undergo rigorous statistical validation to ensure reliability, robustness, and global 39 AV Krishna Chaitanya / Sampada Kumar Swain / Babu GeorgeEconomic Leakages for Building Resilient and Sustainable Tourism Destination Performance Vol. 74/ No. 1/ 2026/ 22 - 44An International Interdisciplinary Journal applicability across diverse tourism contexts. The proposed methodology and experimental design are detailed in the supplementary file, with the experimental design adopted from the standard experimental framework proposed by Schneider et al. (2018). Additionally, future studies must focus on destination-specific nudging strategies by analysing the characteristics of source markets, including tourists’ preferences and choices. This approach would facilitate the design of tailored interventions that enhance the relevance and effectiveness of nudges across different cultural and geographical settings. Another avenue for future research involves differentiating between short-term and long-term behavioural approaches. Short-term strategies may target immediate behavioural shifts to mitigate adverse tourism im- pacts, such as reducing single-use plastic, promoting towel reuse, minimizing pollution, and encouraging CO2-efficient air travel. In contrast, long-term approaches could focus on achieving economic sustainability and resilience within destinations. Further research could also delve into a comparative analysis of nudging strategies targeting foreign and domestic tourists across diverse demographics, cultural contexts, nationali- ties and many more. Such investigations would unravel behavioural patterns unique to each group, enabling tourism authorities to formulate customized strategies that effectively guide tourists toward local options, thereby maximizing economic benefits for host communities. Finally, longitudinal studies are recommended to assess the long-term effectiveness of nudging interventions. These studies would provide valuable insights into evolving behavioural patterns and trends among tourists over extended periods.
ManagingEconomic Leakages for Building Resilient and Sustainable Tourism DestinationPerformance · 2026 · DOIThis study is grounded in an interpretivist, qualitative content-analytic stance that prioritizes the analysis of meaning construction within officially curated digital texts. Accordingly, the findings reflect analytically derived interpretations of how sustainability and technology-related narratives are framed, rather than objective measurements of underlying practices or causal relationships. In line with this epistemological positioning, the study does not seek to test hypotheses in a predictive or generalizable sense; instead, it advances theoretically informed, context-bound insights into representational patterns. The empirical base is deliberately restricted to textual content from official tourism websites; it does not code multimedia elements, interactive dashboards, or app-only features that may contain additional technology or sustainability information (Ismail et al., 2022). Website content is inherently dynamic; despite systematic archiving, the analysis captures a temporal snapshot (January 2026), and subsequent updates, redesigns, or campaign cycles may alter the communicative landscape (Elgammal, 2024). The focus on English-language pages further narrows the evidentiary scope and may underrepresent narratives articulated in Albanian or Serbian, particularly where locally embedded meanings, policy nuances, or stakeholder priorities differ across linguistic contexts. Importantly, the analysis is concerned with representations rather than implementation. The presence of sustainability-related claims, indicators, or narratives on official portals should therefore be interpreted as communicative signals, not as evidence of operational performance or verified outcomes (Rodrigues et al., 2023). Similarly, the corpus—comprising a limited number of officially curated sources within a specific geopolitical and institutional setting—does not support broad generalizations beyond comparable contexts. The findings are best read as indicative of tendencies within this bounded frame, offering analytical transferability rather than statistical generalizability. Finally, heritage governance introduces an additional layer of complexity and sensitivity. UNESCO inscriptions and State of Conservation processes are shaped by political, administrative, and diplomatic considerations. This study draws exclusively on publicly available documents and examines how such obligations and narratives are communicated online, without access to internal decision-making processes or site-level management practices (UNESCO, 2025).
Smart Tourism, Sustainability, and Competitive Positioning: Evidence from Kosovo’s Official Tourism Websites · 2026 · DOILimited integration of tourism practices as both outcomes of social media influence and drivers of evolving social media dynamics over time. The findings demonstrate that UGC from social media constitutes a valuable resource for analyzing and managing tourist flows at environmentally sustainable destinations (RQ1). Social media data facilitate the estimation of visitation intensity and spatiotemporal variability, the identification of tourism hotspots, and the analysis of activity patterns and drivers of destination popularity, particularly in contexts where traditional monitoring approaches are difficult or costly to implement. At the same time, the review highlights important limitations related to platform-specific bias, selective user representation, and geolocation uncertainty, all of which constrain the validity and generalizability of such analyses. This review further confirms that social media play a pivotal role in shaping the image of environmentally sustainable destinations and influencing travelers’ intentions (RQ2). Empirical studies highlight the importance of UGC, eWOM, and influencer-related factors such as authenticity, credibility, and engagement in shaping 1 3Social media and environmentally sustainable tourism: insights from a… 46 Page 28 of 44 positive destination perceptions and motivating eco-friendly travel decisions. However, the literature remains largely focused on self-reported intentions, with limited insight into how sustainability-related perceptions translate into actual travel behavior across diverse cultural, generational, and platform contexts. With regard to tourists’ perceptions, experiences, and values, the analysis shows that social media provide rich insights into how environmentally sustainable destinations are evaluated and discussed (RQ3). Reviews and social media posts are widely used to assess perceptions of pro-environmental practices, map visitor experiences and satisfaction, and identify attributes shaping the value assigned to nature-based and sustainable destinations. At the same time, the review reveals persistent shortcomings, including the dominance of English-language content, limited testing of explanatory mechanisms, and insufficient procedures for verifying the credibility and authenticity of UGC. Finally, the reviewed literature highlights social media as a key driver of tourists’ environmental mindset formation throughout the travel cycle (RQ4). Existing studies show that social media engagement shapes environmental awareness, values, trust, pro-environmental intentions, and reported behaviors. However, the predominance of cross-sectional and self-reported designs limits the understanding of how environmentally sustainable mindsets develop over time and how they translate into recurring tourism practices.
Social media and environmentally sustainable tourism: insights from a systematic literature review of the tourist perspective · 2026 · DOIOur SLR identifies a set of interrelated research gaps that are best understood not as isolated deficiencies but as missing links within the conceptual model presented in Fig. 4. These gaps correspond to four complementary research avenues, each reflecting underexplored mechanisms through which socio-digital antecedents are translated into tourism-related practices and outcomes. Importantly, these avenues collectively point to the need to move beyond fragmented, outcome-oriented analyses toward a more integrated, mechanism-driven theorization of how social media shape environmentally sustainable tourism. Across these avenues, future research should move beyond the dominance of single-method and cross-sectional designs, which limit causal inference and temporal sensitivity. What is required is a shift toward research designs capable of capturing processes rather than merely static relationships. In particular, longitudinal and experimental approaches, combined with behavioral tracking across the tourist journey, are essential for understanding how exposure, interpretation, and action unfold over time and for addressing the persistent intention–behavior gap. Cross-cultural, 1 3Social media and environmentally sustainable tourism: insights from a… 46 Page 22 of 44 cross-generational, and cross-platform comparisons are equally critical, not only as robustness checks but also as a means of theorizing context dependency in digitally mediated sustainability transitions (Bou Aragones et al. 2025; Chan and Imad 2024; Luong and Nguyen 2025). From the perspective of advancing knowledge on the use of social media data to analyze and manage tourism flows at environmentally sustainable destinations, existing research demonstrates the analytical promise of UGC but remains constrained by limited theorization of how platform-specific infrastructures shape what can be observed and inferred. Platform bias, sample selectivity, and data instability are not merely technical limitations but constitutive features of socio-digital systems that may systematically distort representations of tourism flows (Barros et al. 2019, 2020; Tenkanen et al. 2017; Walden-Schreiner et al. 2018). Differences in platform architectures, algorithmic exposure, and user composition may produce divergent spatio-temporal patterns, particularly in data-scarce contexts (Heikinheimo et al. 2017; Wilkins et al. 2021b). In addition, geolocation inaccuracies and semantic inconsistencies further complicate inference (Fisher et al. 2019; Ghermandi et al. 2020; Mangachena et al. 2023). Future research should therefore move beyond treating UGC as a neutral proxy and instead explicitly incorporate platform infrastructures as active components of social media dynamics.
Social media and environmentally sustainable tourism: insights from a systematic literature review of the tourist perspective · 2026 · DOIclarity while capturing the multidimensionality identified in prior research. It is theoretically grounded in the complementary perspectives of Affordance Theory (Evans et al. 2017; Hutchby 2001) and Social Practice Theory (Schatzki 2019; Shove et al. 2012; Reckwitz 2002), which together provide the conceptual logic linking sociodigital structures with tourism-related practices. The model operates on two complementary levels: a process-oriented level that visualizes how antecedents, mechanisms of practice configuration, practices, and effects are interconnected, and a foundational theoretical level that conceptualizes social media as an affordance-based infrastructure that both reproduces and shapes tourism practices. At the input stage, social media are conceptualized as a unified socio-digital infrastructure rather than a set of isolated variables. This antecedent block encompasses UGC, platform affordances and algorithms, content visibility and circulation dynamics, as well as patterns of exposure and participation, which jointly define the conditions under which tourism-related information, experiences, and environmental sustainability signals are produced, encountered, and interpreted. As highlighted in 1 3A. Janik, A.
Social media and environmentally sustainable tourism: insights from a systematic literature review of the tourist perspective · 2026 · DOIIn addition to examining traveler data, future research could explore potential discrep- ancies by analyzing the answers on Q&A websites. Moreover, although our data was limited to FY2021, incorporating data from sub- sequent years, particularly during the tourism demand recovery phase, could yield profound insights, as changes in the wording of questions can be anticipated dur- ing this period.
Effect of Covid-19 Pandemic on Tourism-Related Posts in Japan: Analysis Based on Questions Andanswers on Q&A Websites · 2026 · DOIclimate resilience initiatives indicators community participation, aligned with should be expanded Promoting sustainable tourism development in Odisha requires an integrated approach that combines environmental conservation, technological innovation, and effective governance. The Odisha Tourism Policy should be strengthened by incorporating measurable sustainability internationally recognized tourism sustainability frameworks. Destination- specific management plans should be prepared for major tourism destinations, particularly ecologically sensitive areas such as Chilika, Bhitarkanika, and Similipal. These plans should include carrying-capacity assessments, biodiversity conservation measures, environmental monitoring systems, strategies. Community-based and through ecotourism participatory planning, skill development programs, and equitable revenue-sharing mechanisms. Training local youth tourism as livelihood entrepreneurs can generation and environmental stewardship.
Destination Tourism and Environmental Sustainability: A Critical Review on Tourism Sector of Odisha, India · 2026 · DOIFor offline overheated experiential zones (like Xiaozhai Valley and Fenghuang Ridge), where physical dwell time is long but online buzz is insufficient, efforts should concentrate on implanting scenario-based interactive installations to transform the deep experiences of physical tourists into online word-of-mouth, realizing an effective mapping from offline traffic to online marketing.
Spatiotemporal Behavior and Hotspot Analysis of Tourists in Yuntai Mountain Scenic Area Based on Multi-source Data · 2026 · DOIWhile these priorities remain important, they are insufficient for addressing the social tensions generated by rapid tourism development, including unequal benefit distribution, symbolic community participation, heritage commodification, labor vulnerability, digitally mediated tourist behavior, and fragmented governance.
This study shows that the youth of Bir–Billing is actively engaged in tourism. However, this motivation and enthusiasm need additional formal guidance to benefit both the youth and Bir–Billing as tourist destinations. With increased youth participation, this can be achieved, which could help tourism flourish not just in the well–known tourist spots but also boost other tourist destinations across Himachal Pradesh.
Most-cited papers in Diverse Aspects of Tourism Research
- Pandemics, transformations and tourism: be careful what you wish for · Tourism Geographies · 2020 · 820 citations
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- Destination image and tourist behavioural intentions: A meta-analysis · Tourism Management · 2020 · 434 citations
- Social costs of tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic · Annals of Tourism Research · 2020 · 430 citations
- The COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity for escaping the unsustainable global tourism path · Tourism Geographies · 2020 · 410 citations
- A review of experiments in tourism and hospitality · Annals of Tourism Research · 2020 · 408 citations
- Reset redux: possible evolutionary pathways towards the transformation of tourism in a COVID-19 world · Tourism Geographies · 2020 · 355 citations
- The good, the bad and the ugly on COVID-19 tourism recovery · Annals of Tourism Research · 2020 · 343 citations
- The effects of natural disasters on international tourism: A global analysis · Tourism Management · 2020 · 332 citations
- Forecasting tourism recovery amid COVID-19 · Annals of Tourism Research · 2021 · 320 citations
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