ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Affairs and Policy
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1623424
Coastal, Marine or Blue tourism governance? Spotting academic trends through a bibliometric analysis
Provisionally accepted
- University of Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain
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Recognising the critical role of oceans in sustainable development, as emphasised by the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), this study examines the evolution of academic research on blue tourism governance, a growing field situated at the intersection of marine sustainability, tourism development, and ocean governance. Governance encompasses the structures, processes, and relationships through which decisions are formulated, implemented, and evaluated by a of actors. Within the context of blue tourism, it delineates the frameworks and mechanisms for managing maritime and littoral resources. Blue tourism—encompassing coastal and marine tourism—is the largest and most economically significant component of the blue economy. However, the governance dimension of this sector remains relatively underexplored. To address this gap, a structured bibliometric analysis of Scopus-indexed publications from 1986 to 2024 was undertaken, using VOSviewer to identify conceptual patterns, thematic trends, and institutional contributions. The results indicate a sharp increase in research output from 2010 onwards, particularly following the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the launch of the Ocean Decade. Early literature focused predominantly on economic development and resource use, whereas recent publications increasingly emphasise sustainability, climate change, marine policy, stakeholder engagement, and integrated governance models. The analysis also identifies disciplinary convergence, with environmental sciences, economics, and social sciences frequently intersecting in blue tourism governance discourse. This study contributes to the literature by clarifying the conceptual positioning of blue tourism within the blue economy framework and highlighting the shift towards governance-oriented scholarship. It identifies critical research gaps—including the need for 1 adaptive, multilevel governance approaches—and offers a foundation for future work aimed at enhancing the sustainability and equity of tourism in marine and coastal regions.
Keywords: blue economy1, sustainable development2, Ocean Decade3, tourism trends4, Governance evolution5, VOSviewer6
Received: 05 May 2025; Accepted: 28 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Balestracci. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Giulia Balestracci, University of Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain
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