Trends in tourism research on Qatar: A review of journal publications

Research is important for tourism development in many countries. In Qatar, some tourism research has been published in scholarly journals. However, no studies have identified or examined the thematic, methodological, and authorship trends of Qatar tourism research. This study bridges this knowledge gap by reviewing tourism research on Qatar published in journals. Seven databases such as ScienceDirect, Hospitality and Tourism Complete, Emerald Insights, Scopus, ProQuest, Taylor & Francis Online, and Sage Journals Online were used to search and identify articles on Qatar tourism. Twenty-eight articles were identified for content analysis. The main results show that the dominant research themes/foci are sports tourism (35.7%), tourism planning and development (17.9%), and heritage (10.7%). From the methodological perspective, 68% of the data type was secondary. Furthermore, data analysis techniques, validity, trustworthiness, and research limitations were neglected by most authors. This paper also states the implications of these findings.