Tourism research: A systematic review of knowledge and cross cultural evaluation of doctoral theses

Abstract

Tourism studies have become distinct in the past years due to the
emergence of specialized journals, but also of universities,
departments and research centers offering PhD programs,
fundamental for the development of research and for the
foundation of new scholars across the world.
The purpose of this paper is to assess the recent development of
knowledge by evaluating the nature of the dominant scientific
fields and their core research subjects, through a cross cultural
approach considering the UK, Spain, France, Germany, Italy and
Portugal. This study addresses this gap and provides an original
contribution through the analysis of the doctoral theses published
between the years 2000-2013 in these countries. The selected
research methodology is based on content analysis of keywords
and concepts. Recommendations are offered for future
developments.