From E-Dominance to Integrated ESG: Management Challenges of the Sustainability Transition in Tourism

Abstract

 This study examines how sustainability challenges in tourism are reflected in the CSR and ESG literature and how they can be interpreted as management challenges of the sustainability transition. Building on the authors’ previous bibliometric studies, the research analyses an updated and conceptually extended Scopus-based dataset. After PRISMA-based screening, the final sample included 581 publications. The analysis combined bibliometric performance analysis with VOSviewer-based science mapping. The results show that the literature has expanded dynamically after 2018, while the environmental dimension remains dominant. CSR is mainly associated with practical, hospitality-related, employee-, customer- and destination-oriented responsibility contexts. ESG, by contrast, is more strongly connected to governance, reporting, performance measurement, and corporate sustainability. The study interprets CSR and ESG not as competing or substituting concepts, but as complementary approaches with different functions in the sustainability transition of tourism.