Establishing the Theoretical Foundations of Metaverse-Sustainable Tourism Nexus. Mapping the Research Front

The tourism sector is widely recognized as a pivotal catalyst for global development and economic growth. However, it faces significant challenges, which have intensified the search for alternative and more sustainable tourism models. Digital technologies have become essential tools for transformati...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: López Cabarcos, María Ángeles, López Carballeira, Analía, Miramontes Viña, Vanessa
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2026
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (USC)
Repositorio:Minerva. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:dnet:minerva_____::b8341f04bf54f795b7b707905c31bbe0
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10347/46557
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Digital technologies
Metaverse
Sustainable tourism
Bibliometric analysis
Descripción
Sumario:The tourism sector is widely recognized as a pivotal catalyst for global development and economic growth. However, it faces significant challenges, which have intensified the search for alternative and more sustainable tourism models. Digital technologies have become essential tools for transformation, with the metaverse emerging as a disruptive and promising innovation strategy for the tourism industry. Thus, this study aims to provide a comprehensive review of all previous scientific literature related to the adoption of the metaverse in the context of sustainable tourism, developing a bibliometric analysis (through techniques such as co-citation analysis of references and author keyword co-occurrence) of all articles indexed in Web of Science database from January 2021 to September 2025. Specifically, the references co-citation analysis has concluded three main thematic clusters related to conceptual foundations, technological advances, and metaverse adoption possibilities, respectively. The results obtained indicate that research on the metaverse in sustainable tourism is still at an early stage of development and is primarily conceptual in nature. This study contributes to the emerging research field of metaverse and sustainable tourism by offering a comprehensive review to establish its theoretical foundations and identify opportunities for future research.