Examination of international research agenda in health tourism with bibliometric analysis method

Health tourism has emerged in recent years as a prominent field of research, showing significant development at both theoretical and practical levels. The growing academic interest from researchers across various disciplines has led to the accumulation of an extensive yet fragmented body of knowledge within the literature. This body of knowledge needs to be evaluated within a holistic framework, as it is of critical importance for understanding the current state of the field and identifying future research directions. The aim of this study is to examine the scientific literature published in the field of health tourism through bibliometric analysis, in order to systematically reveal the structural characteristics, intellectual trends, and thematic evolution of the field. In this context, a comprehensive search was conducted in the Web of Science database using the keyword "health tourism" along with 15 related terms. As a result, 1,812 articles that met the inclusion criteria were incorporated into the analysis. The data were analyzed using Biblioshiny, a web interface of the R-based Bibliometrix package. The study first presents descriptive analyses of the publications, followed by the identification of the most influential authors, institutions, countries, and documents contributing to the field. The conceptual structure of the domain was explored through keyword frequency analysis, trending topics, thematic maps, and co-occurrence network analyses (including co-word and co-citation networks). Additionally, international collaboration patterns and geographical centers of scholarly output were visualized through country collaboration analyses. vii The findings of the study indicate that the health tourism literature has shown a steady growth over the years and is characterized by a structure based on multinational collaborations. Sustainability stands out as the journal with the highest number of publications in the field, while Jeremy Snyder and Valorie A. Crooks emerge as the most prolific authors. Simon Fraser University is identified as the most productive academic institution. Furthermore, Connell's (2006) article published in Tourism Management is the most cited work, making the greatest intellectual contribution to the field. The United States, China, and Canada are the top contributing countries to the literature, and global collaboration networks are predominantly centered around these nations. Turkey, on the other hand, ranks among the top ten most influential countries and demonstrates a rising trend in academic productivity within the field. Medical tourism is identified as the most frequently occurring keyword across the analyzed articles. Additionally, commonly used terms in the field include those representing different types of health tourism (e.g., wellness and spa tourism), concepts reflecting service delivery and customer experience (e.g., service quality, satisfaction, marketing), geographically focused keywords (India, Iran, Malaysia, and Canada), and terms related to the impact of the covid-19 pandemic. In recent years, sustainability has emerged as a trending theme in health tourism research. According to the thematic mapping analysis, topics such as cross-border reproductive care and surrogacy appear as niche areas, whereas bariatric surgery and patient safety are identified as emerging themes in the literature. The co-citation network analysis reveals the presence of three main scientific clusters within the field: (1) studies with a theoretical and conceptual focus, (2) those addressing ethical and socio-cultural dimensions, and (3) research concentrated on patient behavior, service quality, and destination marketing. In conclusion, this study provides an analytical synthesis of the health tourism literature, offering researchers and practitioners a comprehensive overview of the current state of the field as well as its future development potential