*3.7. Thematic Areas*

Next, the thematic areas by which the resources within Scopus and WoS are classified are analyzed. In relation to the area of knowledge, the social sciences is the area that predominates, with 39 articles (46%) and a total of 932 citations accumulated in Scopus; in WoS it accounts for 19 (37%) articles and 327 citations (Table 7).


**Table 7.** Classification of articles by subject area.

\* R = ranking; J = journals; f = frequency (number of articles published); TC = total number of citations received for published articles; C/f = average of citations received for published articles. Source: own elaboration.

### *3.8. Keywords*

In recent years, keywords have been the most used mechanism for the identification of documents by the scientific community. Despite their relevance, today it is possible to observe articles that lack keywords, on the one hand, because the dissemination structure does not include this criterion, which makes it difficult to place them within the metadata of the different bases. In this study, 45 Scopus and 14 WoS documents do not have metadata in relation to the authors' keywords. The rest of the documents show that the term "tourism development" is the central descriptor, with a frequency of 31 in Scopus and 19 in WoS (Table 8).


**Table 8.** Classification of articles by keywords.

\* R = ranking; f = frequency. Source: own elaboration.

### **4. Bibliographic Analysis**

The bibliographic analysis is based on the methodology of iterative analysis by Madden and Shipley [13], which proposes a documentary organization based on categories and subcategories, which are then reflected in an easy-to-understand relational concept map. The categories of analysis are established in: (a) intention, type of process applied; (b) study area, geographical perspective of study; and (c) analysis element, central theme of study. Within these three categories, a series of subcategories are generated that allow them to deepen their analysis. In relation to the intention, they are determined as subcategories: analytical, theoretical, and application; the study area is divided into urban, rural, or both (urban-rural); and the analysis element is classified into heritage, tourism, society, and economic development.

### *4.1. Intention*

The distribution in this category was 64 analytical works, 26 case studies, and 13 theoretical studies. The analytical works show a greater concentration in rural areas, with 30 documents [50–52]. This data is of interest because these areas tend to be of less interest for the development of research due to the absence of regulation or planning. On the other hand, 13 documents refer to urban areas, highlighting the works of Kodir [53], which show an analysis of economic development from tourism experienced by the city of Batu, Indonesia; as well as the work of Kranjˇcevi´c et al. [54], whose aim is to determine the potential for the development of cultural heritage, and in particular, the urban and architectural heritage of Liˇcki (Croatia). Finally, 21 documents with considerably large areas of study are identified, covering both urban and rural areas. This is the case of the work by Ledo et al. [55], whose aim is to contribute to territorial development from both rural (the path) and urban development (the city of Santiago de Compostela, Spain) of the Camino de Santiago. In addition, the work by Lemmi and Tangheroni [56] is included in this category. These authors propose to take advantage of cultural heritage in general, and religion in particular, in the different areas that make up the region of Tuscany in order to start new tourism market segments.

The case studies (26) are very diverse, and most models or applications were developed for the different study areas they address. This is the case of Arthur and Mensah [57], who formulate and implement the plan called "Estrategia Elimina 2015" in Ghana. On the other hand, Armaitiene et al. [58] develop a discriminant analysis model on the conditions of erosion, entry, and accumulation of sediments in order to propose a model of tourism development for the transboundary Curonian Spit World Heritage site, which is based on the results.

Finally, the 13 theoretical studies address the conceptualization of culture and heritage within tourism development [20,59], relationships with society and key actors [60], as well as the conceptualization of the relationships between rural development, cultural heritage, and tourism [61]. Due to the geographical scope that can be covered, 5 works can be seen in urban-rural contexts, 6 in rural contexts, and only 1 in an urban context.

### *4.2. Element of Analysis*

This category includes 43 documents on tourism, 27 on cultural heritage, 20 on society, and 13 on economic development. Tourism includes works whose general objective is to address tourism as a tool for local development [62–65], the development of products or tourist uses of heritage [66–70], and the formulation of strategic planning or development plans [71–73], in addition to sustainable strategies for the enhancement of heritage within tourism [74,75].

Within the cultural heritage category, there are studies that propose strengthening the identity of the areas through the use and enhancement of material or intangible heritage for tourism activities [76,77]. Other studies analyze the impact of heritage on local development [78–80] or the conservation and recognition of the heritage value [81–84]. Finally, studies on creating policies or cultural heritage planning are also collected [85,86].

In the society category, we find works that address the perception of the resident population in relation to the use of heritage [87–91], the relationships or levels of community participation in exploitation processes [92–94], and the benefits perceived by society from the use that heritage gets [95,96].

Economic development is the last subcategory. Included here are studies that highlight the economic and territorial achievements reached [97–100], as well as studies that propose or analyze economic development plans based on heritage [101,102]. Studies that are related to business networks based on heritage that generates economic development are also collected [103].

### *4.3. Study Area*

This category includes 51 papers that address rural areas for the application of research [104–109]. A total of 23 studies consider heritage located in urban centers [110–114]. Finally, 29 documents cover entire countries, as well as national and international regions composed of several countries [115–119] (Figure 5).

**Figure 5.** Concept map of themes. Source: own elaboration. \* The circles represent the subcategories of analysis. The size corresponds to the proportion of items they contain. The lines detail the quantity relationships that connect each subcategory.

### **5. Conclusions**

These types of studies have, in recent years, constituted a highly valuable consultation tool for new researchers, as this analysis shows a detailed overview of the evolution and current state of the subject under study. In this way, there is information available on the following: the most productive authors based on citations and documents produced, the main journals whose interest is in the publication of topics related to the subject, and countries and institutions focused on the development of related research, among others.

The bibliometric analysis shows that the study of cultural heritage and regional development in tourism began in 1994. Currently, 25 years of scientific literature are consolidated in 103 articles, of which 50 in Scopus and 19 in WoS are unique to each database, recording an overlap of 32 articles between the databases.

The highest production year is 2017, during which no collaboration networks were developed due to the fact that of the 21 published documents, 6 of them were developed individually; while the year with the highest number of citations is 1998, with 378 citations. The line of evolution of the subject determines that it is in an exponential growth stage, and due to its distribution, it is far from reaching a linear adjustment growth, which shows that the subject is still very new, mainly due to the presence of a greater number of qualitative exploratory studies.

In relation to the production by authors, there is a predominance of transient researchers, and an absence of large producers is clear, which confirms that the subject is new. On the other hand, depending on the growth presented by the subject, the emergence of a small group of aspiring authors is shown, each presenting between 2 and 4 studies, of which 63% have Malaysia as their geographical affiliation. This group represents 3% of the total of authors and is responsible for 17% of the articles. The co-authorship index in this subject is 2.34 authors/article.

As for affiliations, a wide variety of latitudes can be seen regarding both geographical and institutional affiliation. In the latter case, universities are the type of center with the highest number of researchers (70.2% of the total), with the Universiti Sains Malaysia (Malaysia) leading the ranking. In relation to geographical affiliation, China is the leading country, comprising 26 authors, 28 authorships, and 15 centers; its collaboration networks are nationwide.

The Bradford core is 64 and is made up of 62% of the articles in 51% of the journals, which determines the absence of a concentration core. The journal with the highest concentration of articles is the *Journal of Heritage Tourism*, with 4.85% of articles. The predominant classification area in the journals identified is social science, in both databases. It was also observed that 31% of the total of Scopus resources are indexed in the third quartile of their respective areas, while 53% of WoS resources lack the quartile calculation due to having recently been re-entered or removed from their indexation.

On the other hand, the correct use of keywords in studies can become a complex task to achieve, and in many cases is poorly recognized. It can be seen that the authors tend to use simple terms that allow them to achieve the greatest coincidence of their studies in the general searches that are developed in the scientific community. Unfortunately, this does not ensure that the terms fully express the objective achieved by the document, which is why should be highlighted that in order to obtain quality results in advanced searches, it is necessary to develop a greater effort so that these terms become correct descriptors of the investigation.

Regarding the limitations presented by the research, several points can be mentioned: (1) other databases are not taken into account, although their inclusion presents challenges to overcome, these could offer a more complete view of the subject (EBSCOhost, REBID, GoogleSchoolar, ProQuest, etc.); (2) the problem of homogenizing the names of the authors (different authors with the same name); (3) the bias of using a certain search equation. Finally, this study has contributed to describing the current situation of this subject in a descriptive and quantitative way, ruling out the intention of assessing the quality of the articles.

**Author Contributions:** All authors contributed equally to this work. All authors wrote, reviewed, and commented on the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

**Funding:** The dissemination of this work was possible thanks to the funding granted by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and by the Junta de Extremadura to the DESOSTE research group through the aid with reference GR18052.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
