Privacy concerns in tourism: a systematic literature review using machine learning approach and bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the current privacy concerns in the tourism industry by uncovering the key factors leading to such concerns (i.e. smart public services, cyber security issues, consumer behaviour and governance). Using papers from multiple sources, the relationship between technology advancements and tourist’s privacy concerns has been established. Design/methodology/approach: This study adopted a machine learning-based systematic literature review approach to find out the clusters. The study analysed 68 papers using the topic modelling approach. A four-cluster solution was considered to be most representative of the extant literature identified using bibliographic coupling. Finally, content analysis of the selected literature has been performed. Findings: This study identified four factors majorly leading to privacy concerns amid increasing technological advancements. Moreover, these factors were found to have a dyadic relationship with technological advancements. To everyone’s amazement, sustainable tourism was also found to have led to privacy concerns among tourists along with a lack of governance and cyber security issues. Furthermore, cluster-wise future research directions are provided based on the content analysis. Originality/value: This study contributes to the literature by systematically reviewing and identifying the four dimensions leading to privacy concerns. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the study done is the only attempt to synthesize the extant literature on tourists’ privacy concerns using an unbiased scientific approach.