A review of tourism and climate change as an evolving knowledge domain

The academic debate on tourism and climate change has expanded considerably in the last few years. This paper's narrative and systematic review of 459 English-language academic publications (1986 to 2012) synthesises the research on tourism and climate change, identifies key trends and social networks, and provides a critique for further discussion in this evolving knowledge domain. The analysis shows that the size of the field has grown, that research includes multiple dimensions (e.g., climate impacts, adaptation, mitigation, and policy), and that studies have become more integrative and critical. The co-authorship network is characterised by a core, which is disconnected from a more fragmented periphery, whereby the “centre of gravity” comprises a relatively small number of researchers who tend to co-author a large number of publications. The paper concludes that, overall, research on tourism and climate change has developed into a knowledge domain in its own right.