Tourism Management: Scopus, Scope & Submission Guide

Key Takeaways

• Publisher: Elsevier; the journal is hosted on ScienceDirect and its publisher-facing product information identifies Pergamon as the imprint.
• Scopus: indexed, with Source ID 16547 supplied for the journal record; verify live coverage and quartile in the current Scopus profile.
• Current publisher-displayed metrics: CiteScore 26.5 and Impact Factor 12.4 as viewed for this guide; reporting years may differ across databases.
• Core editorial expectation: a paper should contribute to theoretical and/or methodological advancement and show implications for tourism management or policy.
• Peer review: double anonymized; suitable submissions are typically sent to at least two independent reviewers.
• Publishing model: hybrid choice—subscription publication with no author publication fee, or optional open access with a listed APC of USD 4,740 excluding taxes, subject to eligibility and current pricing.
• Important author details: abstract up to 150 words, 1–7 English keywords, an Impact Statement up to 150 words, anonymized files, and only one corresponding author for manuscripts submitted under the policy effective September 2025.

Journal Information at a Glance

What This Page Covers

• Aims and scope
• Scopus and indexing
• Current metrics
• Article types
• Peer review
• Manuscript requirements
• Methods expectations
• Open access and fees
• Journal-fit decisions

Methodology and Source Note

This profile was prepared from the journal information supplied with the task and current authoritative publisher sources, principally the Tourism Management journal page, Elsevier journal insights, Guide for Authors, open-access information and editorial-board page. Scopus Source ID 16547 is used to identify the intended journal unambiguously.

Tourism Management Aims and Scope

The journal’s official aim is broad in geography but demanding in contribution. It examines management, planning and policy in travel and tourism at international, national and regional levels, while also welcoming focused management questions. The journal describes its approach as interdisciplinary, which allows authors to draw from management, marketing, economics, geography, transportation, policy, psychology, sustainability, technology and related fields where the work materially advances tourism knowledge.

The important editorial phrase is not simply “tourism.” Tourism Management expects published papers to advance theory and/or methodology and to explain consequences for management or policy. That means a study of destination behavior, artificial intelligence, mobility, climate risk, service interactions, regenerative tourism, taxation, crisis response or tourist decision-making can potentially fit, but only when it is framed as a meaningful contribution to tourism-management scholarship rather than a descriptive application of a familiar model.

The journal’s recent 2026 content illustrates this breadth: published topics include customer-to-customer misbehavior in tourism services, framing strategies for regenerative tourism, senior travel cessation, terrorism and inbound tourism flows using explainable machine learning, tourism taxation and sustainability, short-video engagement, influencer effects and dark-tourism memory. These examples should not be treated as a checklist of preferred topics; they show the journal’s willingness to engage contemporary management, behavioral, policy, methodological and societal questions.

What may be a weaker fit?

Tourism Management’s own author guidance provides unusually useful signals about weak-fit manuscripts. It warns that papers based on a single convenience-sample survey are likely to be desk-rejected. It also states that the journal does not publish pure bibliometric studies or standard systematic literature reviews under its Progress category. Conceptual papers are generally not published as Research Articles, although a Research Note may be conceptual when it advances knowledge and is grounded in prior scholarship.

Article Types and Expected Scale

Indexing, CiteScore, Impact Factor and Quartile Questions

Tourism Management is currently presented by Elsevier as indexed in Scopus and the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). Elsevier’s journal insights page also lists SJR and SNIP among the journal’s impact/indexing resources. The supplied journal record points to Scopus Source ID 16547, which is the most reliable identifier when distinguishing this title from similarly named journals.

As of this guide, Elsevier displays a CiteScore of 26.5 and an Impact Factor of 12.4. These are strong visibility indicators, but authors should avoid treating a single metric as proof that a manuscript is suitable. A high-impact journal will usually screen heavily for contribution and fit. If a university specifically asks whether Tourism Management is Q1, or needs SJR, SNIP, percentile or JCR category data for a particular year, verify those values in the current Scopus/SCImago or Clarivate record rather than copying an undated third-party ranking page.

Editorial Leadership and Peer Review

Elsevier’s editorial-board page currently lists Cathy C. H. C. Hsu of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University as Editor-in-Chief and Sangwon Park of Kyung Hee University as Managing Editor. Because editorial roles can change, these names should be rechecked if an author is preparing a cover letter months after reading this profile.

The journal uses a double-anonymized peer-review process. Editors first assess suitability. Manuscripts that pass this stage are typically sent to a minimum of two reviewers for independent expert assessment, after which editors make the publication decision. The journal also describes conflict-handling procedures for editors and permits formal appeals when the requirements of Elsevier’s appeal policy are met.

For authors, double anonymization affects file preparation. The title page should contain author names, affiliations, corresponding-author details and acknowledgements, while the anonymized manuscript should omit identifying information. Supplementary files should also be checked for names in document properties or embedded metadata.

Manuscript and Formatting Requirements Authors Should Know

1. Use editable files. Word submissions should be .doc or .docx in single-column format; LaTeX submissions may use the journal’s template. A PDF is not accepted as the editable source file for final production.
2. Prepare a concise abstract. The abstract must not exceed 150 words and should state purpose, principal results and main conclusions without unnecessary references or undefined abbreviations.
3. Choose 1–7 English keywords. The journal asks authors to avoid unnecessarily long multi-word keyword phrases and to use abbreviations only when firmly established.
4. Add an Impact Statement. Tourism Management requires a separate editable Impact Statement of up to 150 words explaining demonstrable benefits or effects beyond academia—for society, economy, tourism industry, culture, public policy, services, health, quality of life or environment.
5. Number article sections. Main sections and subsections should use a clear numerical hierarchy such as 1, 1.1 and 1.1.1, with the abstract excluded from section numbering.
6. Prepare author vitae. The guide asks for a short biography of each author, maximum 100 words, and a passport-type photograph as a separate figure.
7. Use one corresponding author. Under the policy effective September 2025, only one corresponding author is permitted per manuscript throughout the publication process.
8. Keep references complete and internally consistent. The journal does not impose a strict reference style at initial submission, but every in-text citation should match the reference list and core bibliographic details should be complete; DOIs are encouraged.

Methods Expectations: Where Tourism Management Is More Demanding

The journal’s methodology guidance is particularly important for desk-review readiness. Tourism Management states a preference for studies using multiple sources of data where this can improve external validity, complementary empirical evidence, credibility or transferability. Online experimental work should generally be supplemented with additional data sources when appropriate.

For quantitative research

Authors should be prepared to provide the questionnaire, including an English translation where the original instrument is in another language; a list of scale items with descriptive statistics; and evidence that sample size adequacy has been tested. These requirements signal that reviewers are expected to inspect measurement quality and the evidential basis of the analysis, not only final model coefficients.

For qualitative research

The guide asks for a clear statement of the research paradigm, an explanation of participant or respondent selection, and—in most cases—discussion of the researcher’s place in the research process. A strong qualitative submission should therefore make reflexivity, sampling logic and analytical credibility visible rather than leaving methodological assumptions implicit.

Open Access, Subscription Publishing and Publication Fees

Tourism Management uses a hybrid publishing model. Authors can choose open access or publish through the subscription route. Elsevier currently lists an open-access APC of USD 4,740 excluding taxes. The amount may be reduced through institutional agreements, funder arrangements, discounts or waivers, and Elsevier may present personalized pricing during submission.

For the subscription route, Elsevier states that no publication fee is charged to authors, while the article is immediately available to subscribers. This distinction is useful for researchers who must publish in the journal but do not have an open-access budget. Authors should check funder mandates and institutional agreements before selecting the route.

Publisher-Reported Review and Publication Timelines

These figures are useful for planning but should not be treated as guaranteed service levels. Reviewer availability, revisions, special-issue workflows, methodological complexity and editorial queries can change the timeline substantially.

How to Decide Whether Tourism Management Fits Your Manuscript

Common Reasons a Manuscript May Be Unsuitable

Some rejection risks can be identified before submission. The strongest journal-specific warning is the journal’s statement that a paper based on a single survey with convenience sampling is likely to be desk-rejected. Other risks include a primarily descriptive result, limited theoretical advance, weak alignment with tourism management or policy, a review method that the journal does not publish in the intended article category, inadequate methodological transparency, or a contribution that is incremental relative to recent Tourism Management literature.

As a practical publication-readiness step, authors should not respond to these risks by overstating novelty. Instead, refine the research question, identify the actual theoretical gap, justify the design, narrow claims to what the evidence supports and make the management implications specific.

Preparing a Stronger Tourism Management Submission

Submission Process and Final Checks

Tourism Management uses Elsevier’s online submission workflow. The system asks authors to enter manuscript details and upload files, then generates a PDF for peer review. Editable files are required for final publication. Before submission, authors should ensure that one corresponding author is designated, all figures and tables have captions, supplementary materials are included, references match in both directions, permissions are secured for third-party material and declarations are complete.

Authors should also review Elsevier’s policies on authorship, competing interests, funding, preprints, generative AI use, inclusive language and research integrity. The guide requires disclosure when generative AI or AI-assisted technologies have been used in manuscript preparation, while basic grammar, spelling and reference-checking tools do not require that declaration. The authors remain responsible for the article’s content.

How Contentxprtz Can Support Publication Readiness

Contentxprtz can assist researchers with journal publication support that stays on the preparation side of the editorial boundary. Relevant support may include manuscript assessment, academic editing, language polishing for ESL authors, journal formatting, reference and citation checks, cover-letter editing, reviewer-response editing and thesis-to-article preparation.

For a Tourism Management submission, an ethical readiness review can focus on whether the manuscript states its theoretical contribution clearly, whether methods are explained at the level the journal requests, whether anonymization is complete, whether the Impact Statement is specific, whether claims match evidence, and whether the paper’s structure makes the management or policy implications easy to evaluate.

No editing or publication-assistance service can guarantee acceptance. Editorial screening, reviewer judgments and final decisions remain with the journal. Authors remain responsible for originality, research integrity, data, methods, authorship, declarations and the final submitted manuscript.