Intangible cultural heritage and tourism. Analysis of scientific production published in Ibero-American tourism journals

Abstract

Tourism based on intangible cultural heritage (ICH) has been gaining prominence within current tourism practices, and also in tourism studies. In this sense, this bibliometric study aims to characterize the production and publications in Ibero-American tourism journals in order to determine the advances and gaps in research on ICH. Fifty-nine articles from 12 tourism journals were analyzed. The findings reveal that, although cultural heritage tourism is a global trend, the publications analyzed here do not reflect this. Regional publications honour their geographical scope both in the origin of their authors and in the topics covered, which gives this work a purely regional perspective. There is no marked tendency for publications or authors to engage in systematic research and publication on ICH in its relationship with tourism. Brazil and Spain stand out as the most prolific countries in terms of the number of authors and affiliate institutions, and issues related to the tourist use of heritage, heritage education and the impacts of tourism are also prominent. These results allow researchers in tourism or ICH to locate specialized articles on Ibero-America and editors of regional tourism journals to recognize the lack of articles on ICH, as well as the need to publish in English to gain visibility. Future research should incorporate post-COVID-19 recovery within a sustainable approach to tourism use of the ICH.