Mapping Research on Memorable Tourism Experiences and Adventure Tourism A Bibliometric Analysis of Twenty-Two Years

Abstract

This research endeavours to analyse the intellectual structure, scientific productivity, theme development, and current trends concerning Memorable Tourism Experiences (MTEs) and Adventure Tourism research between 2003 and 2025 through a bibliometric approach. Even though there has been considerable academic focus on the concept of memorable tourism experience, very few studies have undertaken a bibliometric analysis incorporating both MTEs and adventure tourism aspects. The study attempts to connect this gap by conceptually analysing 350 English-language research papers indexed on the Scopus database through 108 publications. It is established that there was a steady growth rate of almost 19% every year, which highlights the increasing popularity of this research field. In total, 887 researchers have engaged in MTEs and adventure tourism research, and almost 25% of the published articles had some level of international collaboration involved. Three research questions are addressed in this study, namely: (1) Which countries are most productive in terms of publication and citation? (3) What are the prominent thematic topics and future research directions? Results show that China dominates in research output, followed by Indonesia, Australia, and Portugal. Through citation analysis, two seminal works by Tung and Ritchie (2011) and Kim et al. (2010) have been identified as highly influential, significantly affecting the conceptualization and operationalisation of MTEs. In terms of thematic mapping, the analysis conducted using VOSviewer and Biblioshiny software shows that the major topics are memorable experience, satisfaction, revisit intention, place attachment, and emotion, while the emerging topics are sustainability, well-being, authenticity, and post-pandemic behaviour in tourism.