Sustainable Tourism Entrepreneurship: Insights from a Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Background: Sustainable tourism entrepreneurship has emerged as a critical domain at the intersection of tourism, sustainability, and entrepreneurship, with growing scholarly attention over the past decade. While individual studies have explored community-based enterprises, social entrepreneurship, gender empowerment, rural revitalization, and technological innovation, the literature remains fragmented and lacks a comprehensive synthesis.

Methodology: This study adopts a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) guided by the PRISMA 2020 framework combined with bibliometric analysis. The search was conducted in Scopus and Web of Science using the string TITLE-ABS-KEY (“Sustainable Tourism”) AND TITLE-ABS-KEY (“Entrepreneurship”). From an initial dataset of 1,633 records, 73 eligible studies published between 2015 and 2025 were included after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria. Bibliometric analysis was carried out using Biblioshiny (R-package Bibliometrix) to generate insights on annual scientific production, country-level contributions, trending topics, thematic maps, and co-occurrence networks.

Results: The review reveals steady growth in publications, with notable peaks in 2020–2022, coinciding with debates around resilience and sustainability during COVID-19. Research output is globally distributed but dominated by China, Spain, the United States, and selected European and Asian countries. The bibliometric analysis highlights evolving themes such as sustainability, entrepreneurship, ecotourism, and social entrepreneurship, while emerging trends include gender relations, social policy, and business development. The SLR synthesis identifies nine thematic clusters: (1) Community-based & Social Entrepreneurship, (2) Women, Gender & Inclusive Entrepreneurship, (3) Rural & Agritourism, (4) Smart Tourism & Innovation, (5) Gastronomy & Cultural Tourism, (6) Business Models & Industry Studies, (7) Governance & Policy, (8) COVID-19 & Resilience, and (9) Measurement, Scales & Other Themes.

Conclusion: This review consolidates fragmented knowledge, maps the intellectual structure of the field, and identifies gaps in underexplored areas such as gender, social policy, and rural innovation. The integration of bibliometric and qualitative synthesis contributes to both theory and practice by guiding policymakers, destination managers, and entrepreneurs toward sustainable models. Future research should expand empirical coverage to developing regions, employ longitudinal approaches, and deepen inquiry into digital and gender-inclusive entrepreneurship.