Abstract
The quality of tours is significantly influenced by tour guides’ communication skills, regional knowledge, and storytelling abilities. Guide effectiveness depends on factors such as training, skill development, and professionalism in guest care. Given their pivotal role in shaping tour quality and experiences, the literature consistently highlights these effects. The present study aims to make a comprehensive contribution to the existing knowledge in the field by analyzing the academic literature on the performance of tour guides using bibliometric methods. Analysis reveals that the most cited publications on tour guide performance are found in tourism and management journals, such as Tourism Management. The analysis further indicates that China is a leading nation in studies and citations related to tour guide performance, with a notable increase observed since 2012. The most frequent terms—performance and satisfaction—highlight the critical link between guide performance and tourist satisfaction. Notably, the co-occurrence network’s strongest connection is between these terms. In addition, terms such as group tours, leadership, and management have found more space in the literature since the 2010s, and studies on the modeling and effects of guide performance have increased after the 2020s.
Keywords
tour leader, performance evaluation, emerging themes, RStudio
Chinese Abstract
导游绩效的文献计量分析：趋势、有影响力的出版物及新兴研究主题
旅游质量深受导游的沟通技巧、地域知识和叙事能力的影响。导游的绩效取决于培训、技能发展以及旅客服务的专业性等因素。鉴于导游在塑造旅游质量和体验方面发挥着关键作用，文献也普遍强调这些因素的影响。本研究借助文献计量方法分析导游绩效相关的学术文献，旨在对该领域现有知识作出全面贡献。分析显示，导游绩效最常被引用的出版物多见于旅游与管理类期刊，如《旅游管理》。分析进一步指出，中国在导游绩效相关研究与引用方面居于领先地位，且自2012年以来呈现显著增长。“绩效”和“满意度”这两个词组出现频率最高，突显了导游绩效与游客满意度之间的重要联系。值得注意的是，这两个词组在共现网络中的连接最为紧密。此外，自2010年代以来，“跟团旅游”、“领导力”和“管理”等词组在文献中占据了更多篇幅，而关于导游绩效建模及其影响的研究自2020年代后也有所增加。
导游领队、绩效评估、新兴主题、Rstudio
ORCID Identifiers
Aybuke Ozsoy: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6906-5679
Nese Yilmaz: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0168-2907
DOI
10.5038/2640-6489.10.2.1355
Recommended Citation
Ozsoy, A., & Yilmaz, N. (2025). Bibliometric analysis of tour guide performance: Trends, influential publications, and emerging research themes. Journal of Global Business Insights, 10(2), 190-210. https://www.doi.org/10.5038/2640-6489.10.2.1355
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
