Bibliometric Analysis of the Cittaslow Movement in the Dilemma of 'Sustainability' and the 'Tourism Paradox' through Academic Studies

Abstract

The ‘Slow Movement’, which emerged as an anti-globalization movement, spread throughout the city, and the Cittaslow movement emerged in 1999. Irregular construction, deterioration of the cultural fabric, and environmental problems caused by the increase in the urban population have been the starting point of this movement. The reaction against these developments overlaps with sustainability policies to a great extent. However, the transformation of slow cities into tourism destinations as a result of this title brings with it a ‘tourism paradox’. In this context, in some Cittaslow cities, notably Seferihisar, the interest brought by the status and the uncontrolled tourism pressure are progressing in parallel. This study examines the Cittaslow movement in relation to the concepts of ‘sustainability’ and ‘tourism paradox’ and analyzes the academic literature related to these three concepts through a bibliometric methodology. Publications obtained from the Web of Science database were analyzed at the level of year, country, and field of study; keyword relationships, citation networks, and conceptual clusters were visualized with the VOSviewer program. The findings revealed that studies on ‘Cittaslow’ were mostly produced in Türkiye compared to other countries, while publications on the concept of ‘sustainability’ showed interdisciplinary prevalence. Citation networks show that studies on Cittaslow and tourism are often located in distinct clusters of authors. The study has enabled a systematic analysis of the relationships between the concepts through numerical data.

Keywords

• Cittaslow
• sustainability
• tourism paradox
• overtourism
• VOSviewer

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