Has “Islamic Tourism” Emerged After Over Fifty Decades of Publications? A Systematic Review

Abstract

With the expansion in the volume of Islamic tourism literature, this paper’s purpose was to undertake a systematic review to analyse this research area’s breadth and difficulties, providing evidence for the emergence of Islamic tourism. Using VOSviewer, a scientometric analysis of 922 scientific papers published between 1979 and early 2022 was conducted. To conduct a systematic review of the Islamic tourism literature, The Scopus database was adopted to extract bibliographic data to provide the principal dataset. Six clusters of Islamic tourism themes emerged from the findings, namely: (1) Halal tourism and hospitality for Muslims; (2) Tourism and Islamic heritage for non-Muslims; (3) Travel behaviour; (4) Developing countries and politics; (5) Islam, genderism and legislation, as well as (6) Religion, host community and product development. There are indicators that the Islamic tourism concept remains at an immature stage, with the unique version of Islamic legislation-based tourism yet to be comprehensively introduced. The research provides an empirically grounded taxonomy of Islamic issues research, with an emphasis on the tourism context. Therefore, the research could be useful for practitioners working to develop novel types of tourism, in addition to hospitality goods and services compatible with the Islamic faith. Furthermore, the research is beneficial for academics seeking to develop tourism based on authentic Islamic principles, as opposed to simply emphasising the congruence and contradictions between Islamic and typical forms of tourism.

Keywords

• scopus
• islamic tourism
• tourism marketing
• halal tourism
• bibliometrics
• vos viewer