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This qualitative study explores the relationship between tourism and places recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites, whether tangible (WHS) or intangible (ICH). In the last two decades there has been a growth in the number of resources with UNESCO recognition. It aims to fill the research gap in the analysis of heritage tourism using bibliometric techniques. Data were collected from 886 documents in the period 1994-2023 (December) from the Web of Science database. Using the VOSviewer software, scientific maps were created showing the current and future line of research in this scientific field. The results show evidence of related research on Tourism sustainability at UNESCO sites in China and Tourism sustainability of cultural heritage for the whole period. In addition, two new research topics from 2016 are identified: Motivation and satisfaction of heritage tourists and Authenticity of intangible heritage. The results help to visualise the structure and trends of heritage tourism research, which can help researchers, policy makers and destination marketing organisations (DMOs) to gain knowledge and understanding of existing studies and current research topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geotourism has attracted an increasing academic interest in recent years due to the new demands of society for sustainable and alternative destinations and its their effective management is essential. This study conducts a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of geotourism management covering research published from 1991 to June 2023. The objective of this study is to perform a bibliometric analysis to demonstrate the current research and key findings on geotourism management. In addition, we identify the existing limitations in the current literature to show research trends and future directions. To achieve this objective, we analysed 813 publications with 10,937 cited references from Web of Science. Our analysis encompassed three key bibliometric techniques (co-authorship, co-citation and co-occurrence of keywords). The main results show the increasing popularity and investigations in geotourism and destination management. Using mapping techniques, our study shows the relevance of research in geoconservation, sustainable tourism and, to a lesser extent, in geological heritage. The findings contribute to a broad and diverse understanding of the management of geotourism, which can provide insights for DMOs and policymakers in establishing proper management in geotourism to ensure conservation in geodestinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]