This study examines how environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices operationalise sustainable tourism development and contribute to the achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), addressing persistent gaps in the theoretical evolution and practical implementation of ESG frameworks.
A systematic bibliometric analysis was conducted on 189 peer-reviewed articles indexed in the Web of Science database, published between 2013 and 2024. The analysis combined co-citation analysis to map established theoretical foundations and bibliographic coupling to identify emerging knowledge frontiers.
The analysis identified five theoretical clusters shaping the intellectual structure of ESG research in tourism, with ESG–financial performance integration and stakeholder governance emerging as dominant themes. Eight emerging knowledge frontiers were mapped through bibliographic coupling, highlighting integrated implementation strategies, technology-enabled ESG innovation and cross-cultural adaptation as priority research directions.
The findings give tourism executives, destination managers, industry associations and policy makers a structured basis for prioritising ESG action. They indicate where the evidence base is most consolidated, in financial performance integration and in measurement and reporting, and where it remains fragmented, in cross-cultural adaptation and regenerative models, so that investment and standard-setting effort can be directed accordingly.
This study contributes a bibliometrically informed implementation framework that links the intellectual structure of ESG research in tourism to specific SDG targets, giving researchers and practitioners a traceable account, of which theoretical foundations underpin which sustainability pathways. The dual design, combining co-citation and bibliographic coupling, maps the established foundations of the field and its emerging frontiers within a single analysis.
Anderson Antônio Lima, Thiago de Luca Sant'ana Ribeiro, Heidy Rodriguez Ramos et al.· Journal of Hospitality and T...· 0 citations
This study examines the intersection of stakeholder engagement and value co-creation in tourism, synthesizing theoretical and empirical contributions spanning two decades of scholarship to develop an integrative governance framework applicable across destination management contexts.
A systematic literature review following the PRISMA 2020 protocol was conducted across nine international databases, covering publications from 2004 to 2025. The final sample of 59 peer-reviewed articles was selected through a four-stage screening process combining dual-reviewer eligibility assessment and a 50-point quality scale, yielding a mean quality score of 38.6.
Thematic synthesis of the 59-article corpus reveals a shift from transactional stakeholder consultation toward collaborative value ecosystems. The study introduces the COCREATE Model, an eight-dimension framework grounded in the reviewed evidence, and shows, through comparison with five antecedent frameworks, that equity is a constitutive rather than a contextual dimension of co-creation governance, absent from prior integrative models. Fourteen of the 59 articles identify power asymmetry as the primary inhibitor of co-creation outcomes, which grounds this elevation of equity.
The COCREATE Model offers destination managers, policymakers and platform developers a set of implementation indicators for auditing the equity, transparency and accountability of co-creation processes, and it provides researchers with a structured 2025–2035 agenda for empirical validation across contrasting destination governance settings.
The COCREATE Model is the first framework to integrate service-dominant logic, stakeholder engagement theory and digital governance into a single operational architecture and to position equity as a structural rather than a contextual dimension of co-creation governance.
Anderson Antônio Lima, H. Ramos, Thiago de Luca Sant'ana Ribeiro et al.· Journal of Hospitality and T...· 0 citations
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