Towards a new body of marine tourism research: A scoping literature review of nautical tourism

Nautical tourism is a long established and expanding form of tourism within the wider maritime tourism industry. This study addresses the blurred boundaries of this form of tourism and proposes an original definition. Then it explores economic and management related literature via a scoping review of 118 articles published in Scopus-listed journals from 2001 to 2020. Findings confirm a growing attention to nautical tourism over the years but with relatively limited research agendas. Literature often concentrates on very specific issues while ignoring essential research areas related to the economic relevance and impact of nautical tourism, the management and marketing issue for nautical tourism firms and the traits and behaviour of nautical tourists. Research is also geographically concentrated: three-quarters of authors are affiliated with institutions in the United States, Croatia, Spain and Italy, which form also the most investigated regions. This paves the way for further studies to fill the gaps in the literature and stimulates a stronger structuring of the research field and of the community of scholars who are devoted to it.