A Scientometric Analysis of Rural Tourism’s Impact on Agricultural Land Use Change

This study examined the effects of rural tourism on changes in agricultural land use, with the aim of identifying trends and patterns of land use change under the influence of rural tourism. In terms of purpose, the research is applied, and in terms of data collection method, it is descriptive. The study was conducted using a scientometric approach, and its statistical population consisted of studies related to the impact of rural tourism on agricultural land use change indexed in the Scopus database during the period 2000–2025. To retrieve relevant articles, the keywords “rural tourism,” “land use change,” “land cover change,” and “agricultural land” were applied in the Scopus database, resulting in the selection of 527 articles as the statistical population.To visualize the thematic networks of the reviewed studies, VOSviewer software was employed, and correlation analysis was used for data analysis. The results indicated a positive and statistically significant correlation (0.679) between the development of rural tourism and land use change. In addition, the main thematic clusters identified included “tourism development,” “land use change,” “sustainability and natural resource conservation,” and “environmental challenges.” These clusters reflect the complex relationships between tourism and land use change and emphasize the necessity of formulating effective policies and sustainable strategies to manage such changes. The findings also demonstrate that as tourism development increases, land use changes rise significantly, and tourism can exert both positive and negative impacts on natural resources and the environment.