Golf tourism and sustainability: Content analysis and directions for future research

Abstract

Golf tourism is an important sector in the tourism industry, in terms of average daily expenditure per visitor. However, golf tourism also generates social and political controversies, mainly due to its impact on the environment. The main objective of this paper is to observe the progress of research on golf tourism from the perspective of sustainability. For this, the study is based on identifying the scientific production on the subject from the Scopus and Web of Science databases. Thus, we have detected 46 articles published in scientific journals in the last 22 years. The findings indicate five lines of research, such as environmental impacts, environmental management, environmental attitudes and behaviors, conflict of interests, and sustainable management and planning. Environmental impact is the most prolific content, while environmental attitudes and behaviors are the least frequent, but the latter is the most current line of research.