The tourism biodiversity knowledge system: towards an integrated research agenda

Biodiversity loss is one of the pressing challenges of our time and deeply intertwined with tourism. Despite growing research interest, tourism studies struggle to establish a coordinated research effort on tourism and biodiversity. In this paper, we propose a tourism-biodiversity knowledge system based on an interdisciplinary integrative literature review of 136 scientific and 11 policy documents. By analysing the inputs, processes, forcefields, outputs and feedback loops of the system, we assess key factors shaping knowledge creation and the barriers challenging research trajectories. We argue that advancing research on tourism and biodiversity requires active reflection on the meaning of biodiversity, commitment to place-based approaches and the deliberate inclusion of tourism planners and destination stakeholders in the (co)production of actionable knowledge.