Trends and trajectories of sustainability in gastronomy tourism: a bibliometric analysis

Gastronomy tourism has swiftly advanced into a considerable segment within the global tourism landscape, driven by heightened consumer interest in local cuisines and authentic food experiences. Scarcity of literature exhibiting coherence between sustainability and this form of tourism led to this exploration via Biblioshiny application of RStudio to decipher the performance analysis and science mapping outputs. Surprisingly, the initial search conducted on Scopus database revealed a mere 121 publications, which were scrutinized to yield 67 relevant journal articles published since its inception (1993–2024), contributed by 192 authors. Most evident nations in terms of publications were Indonesia, Italy, and China. Sims, R from United Kingdom, was the most influential author with a single publication in 2009, fetching 879 citations. ‘Sustainability’ outperformed the number of publications amidst all the assessed journals, whereas the analysis limiting year 2024 had the maximum count compared to prior years. Concentration of research output from flourishing tourism economies and underrepresentation of regions possessing rich culinary heritage demands sincere attention of the scholars, as SGT (Sustainability in Gastronomy Tourism) research is a growing phenomenon which can significantly improve empirical depth, contextual significance, as well as sustainability oriented policy outcomes by strengthening international collaborations, especially for the global south. Travel intermediaries, andhospitality managers can contribute by meticulously planning their marketing strategies to provideinternational, as well as domestic tourists with memorable gastronomic experiences in line with aprofound concern for sustainability, in order to promote cultural, economic, and social development of adestination.