Progress of rural wine tourism research: A bibliometric analysis

This study examined the development of rural wine tourism research by conducting a 33-year literature review of the SCOPUS database and employing bibliometric analyses. The analyses show that the literature grew rapidly, especially in the 2000s, and reached high production rates after 2009, 2015, and 2019. The average annual growth rate of the literature is approximately 14%. Among the authors, A.D. Alonso, J. Bruwer, and E. Kastenholz stand out with their high production and citation numbers. Among institutions, Trás-Os-Montes and Alto Douro Universities stand out significantly from others. When countries’ contribution to the literature is evaluated, Portugal is at the forefront, followed by the USA, Italy, Australia, and Spain. Among publication sources, the International Journal of Wine Business Research and the Sustainability journals stand out for the number of publications and citations. Thematic analyses reveal that rural wine tourism literature was initially treated as a single theme within wine tourism but has since been enriched by new themes, including rural tourism, agriculture, and viticulture, since the 2000s. New themes such as social media and climate change have been added to the literature since 2016. In the 2020s, rural wine tourism has emerged as a theme in the literature. These findings show that rural wine tourism intersects with tourism studies and with areas such as agriculture, the environment, and digital media. The study’s most important limitation is its reliance on publications indexed in the SCOPUS database. For future studies, topics such as innovation, digitalization, and climate change are important areas of research. In addition, topics such as regenerative tourism, which aim to protect and renew areas and resources through tourism, also have significant potential for future research.