Background: The International Academy for the Study of Tourism (IAST) has undeniably contributed to tourism research. However, the evolution of its members’ research outcomes remains underexplored. Additionally, understanding the academic community’s focus is key to assessing its contribution to knowledge development. This paper, therefore, seeks to examine the scientific publications, publication trends, and metrics of IAST scholars. Methods: The publication patterns of ninety IAST scholars were systematically investigated through a bibliometric and advanced science mapping analysis. This research utilized VOSviewer and the Biblioshiny-R-Studio package for data processing and visualization. Results: This study uncovers dynamic publication trends over the last five years, marked by an acceleration in scholarly production from 2001 to 2012, with an anomalous decrease in 2010. These contributions are widely disseminated across leading academic journals, reflecting a significant intellectual influence through high citation indices and their role as foundational references. Thematically, these scholars consistently foreground central issues such as sustainable tourism development and the protection of vulnerable regions, encompassing cultural and natural heritage. The spectrum of investigated topics spans all levels—from global to local scales—with a multidisciplinary emphasis on tourism economics, governance, tourist consumer behavior, stakeholder roles, and the marketing and sustainability aspects of tourism. Conclusions: IAST scholars’ publications clearly demonstrated trends, impact, and significant terminology in tourism studies. Therefore, academic communities, among others, should broaden their focus, with IAST serving as an example of a community—where scholars produce knowledge-based from diverse perspectives.

To effectively support new rural CBTs and create development plans, it is necessary to have a broad understanding of rural CBT in developing countries. This study uses Indonesia as a case study to map and analyze patterns in earlier research in order to establish a conceptual framework. The study used a qualitative content analysis methodology to find important themes and trends in Indonesia's rural CBT development by examining journal papers indexed by Scopus that were referenced by other researchers. By charting these academic works, the researchers were able to get a wider view and identify potential problems in the sector. The analysis identified five interconnected dimensions - spatial aspects, local attractions, rural capacity, economic viability, and socio-cultural components - that form the foundation of rural CBT. These dimensions are critical in building a comprehensive framework that guides development planning, stakeholder collaboration, and long-term sustainability. Findings emphasize the importance of aligning rural CBT development with the principles of the circular economy, which promote environmental stewardship, community empowerment, and sustainable resource management. The study also highlights how preserving social capital, fostering inclusiveness, and enhancing local welfare are long-term goals achievable through strategic mapping, capacity building, and equitable profit distribution. The study also emphasizes how important social media and digital platforms are in influencing public perceptions and interest in rural tourism, which has aided in the quick ascent of rural CBT organizations throughout Indonesia. It becomes clear that community involvement and government assistance are essential to turning rural regions into sustainable travel destinations. Nonetheless, it is necessary to address enduring issues including environmental degradation, human resource problems, and infrastructure constraints. Ultimately, the study offers a rural CBT framework that can assist policymakers, tourism planners, and local stakeholders in making context-sensitive decisions. By integrating socio-spatial understanding, participatory planning, and capacity-focused strategies, stakeholders can create more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable tourism systems. This framework not only supports local livelihoods but also aligns with global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), offering a replicable model for other developing countries seeking to implement rural CBT initiatives effectively.

The global goal of development concerns has embraced global action, leading to framework initiatives grounded in future-proof projects. Closely aligned with circular economy (CE) initiatives, which minimize single-use materials and address practices that reflect sustainability concepts, studies are rapidly emerging to identify practices in CE literatures relevant to SDGs. Therefore, a study to identify the CE literatures' contribution towards domains and targets in SDGs is highly urgent. By drawing a total of 4431 as a sampling of final literature analyzed using instrument tools in metrics mapping. Our discovery shows that CE studies contribute to posts in SDGS target achievement, which keeps on increasing. To dive deep into CE research on CE’s relevance to SDGs, it was observed that China’s scholars offered their publications in various viewpoints. Significantly, SDG12 (n = 68.9%) and have exceeded half a percentage of publications covering CE relevance to SDGs, implied that CE studies focused heavily on sustainable consumption and production patterns through actions in reaching SDGs. Followed by SDG7 (n = 6.3%), strongly reinforcing CE provides assessed value in SDGs calling for affordable and sustainable development and energy for all, in line with relied CE actions in considering innovation models to recreate product and energy resource reuse practices in a bid to minimize the adverse impacts for future. Given additional insights on circular economy targets related to SDGs, the research implication was to provide a policy recommendation to encourage the practice of circular economy based on SDGs targets.

Indonesia’s tourism industry has emerged as a strategic sector, contributing to the country’s foreign exchange earnings. Given the prominence of this sector, there is significant potential for further development. Indeed, a mapping study to assess the dissemination of the trend and the potential for further issues to emerge would be highly beneficial. It is encouraging to note that academics have produced substantial literature on the subject, offering insights into its many facets. However, there is still a need for more in-depth analysis to understand the trends and issues currently facing the sector entirely. Consequently, this article examines the core themes in Indonesia’s tourism studies and maps the potential for future research on tourism issues and regulations. To this end, it employs a qualitative, four-year data set (2020– 2023) and a SWOT analysis to identify critical aspects of Indonesian tourism issues. The data was collected in three forms: government reports, statistical data, and research articles (n = 252 samples) from the Scopus database. The results demonstrate that the predominant trend in Indonesia’s tourism industry is the widespread embrace of ecotourism at both the local and regional levels. Instead of identifying a limited number of leading destinations, the focus has shifted towards developing tourism villages and multi-stakeholder tourism. The primary concerns are the Indonesian tourism industry’s growth potential and sustainability. The development potential of Indonesian destinations based on SWOT objectives is a crucial aspect, and its score shows that Indonesia’s tourism sector is strategically positioned to take advantage of strengths and opportunities.

The article aims to evaluate the participation of below-poverty-line local community in tourism-related business activity in Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. Further, this article addressed for those who work in the tourism sector. The study employs a mix of methods, including survey data from 500 respondents with a random sampling approach, using Analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistical tools for analysis, other methods were interviews and observations at six tourism sites in Garhwal and four sites in Kumaun. Our findings showed that there has declined in community participation in tourism development, due to the lack of economic benefits obtained in the tourism sector, many believe that the tourism sector does not provide much income growth for them and does not make a significant contribution to the development of their region. Moreover, lack of understanding is considered the basis for community’s inability to play an active role, and lack of stakeholders’ involvement in encouraging them to improve their economy and culture through the tourism sector. Ultimately, this research also underlines the existence of some efforts by tourism travel to encourage public trust, which can help reduce poverty and increase community trust in tourism development in their region.

Southeast Asia faced an urgent waste crisis, particularly in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philip-pines, threatening severe environmental, ecosystem, and public health consequences. Without a comprehensive waste management policy, conditions deteriorated significantly. This research explored waste management policy studies with a bibliometric lens in four Southeast Asian countries: Indonesia, Thailand, Malay-sia, and the Philippines. Using the Scopus database, powered by the VOSViewer software and the biblio-metrix-R studio package, this research provided a precise visualization. The findings revealed that four countries exhibited an upward yet fluctuating trend in publication output, with Indonesia emerging as the leading contributor in recent years. Furthermore, most documents studied by scholars, the highest impact documents, and most documents in journal sources were also discussed. Two affiliates in Malaysia were the leading affiliates, followed by two affiliates from Thailand. Moreover, environmental science and social science were areas of interest for scholars. Term network trajectory mapping and thematic maps were comprehen-sively included. In sum, Indonesia fought hard against plastic waste to minimize climate change, while Malaysia focused on addressing waste emissions and household waste. The Philippines sought to raise awareness about the microplastic problem in the ocean and promote public awareness of waste management. Thailand requires attention to financing waste management equipment, implementing environmentally friendly solutions, and revising waste management rules. Its implications underlined a new complex of waste issues in Southeast Asia, requiring adapted strategies and solutions to address each country’s waste challenges and concerns. Current research contributed to the existing state-of-knowledge by providing disaggregated views of national waste management policy in those countries. It also highlighted key potential future hotspots for targeted interventions and resource allocation; thus, future policies and collaborations in waste management might have become more effective and impactful.