Fake News in Tourism: A Systematic Literature Review

Fanni Kaszás (), Soňa Chovanová Supeková and Richard Keklak
Additional contact information
Fanni Kaszás: Doctoral School of Regional and Business Administration Sciences, Széchenyi István University, Egyetem tér 1., 9026 Győr, Hungary
Soňa Chovanová Supeková: Faculty of Media, Pan-European University, Tomášikova 20, 821 02 Bratislava, Slovakia
Richard Keklak: Faculty of Media, Pan-European University, Tomášikova 20, 821 02 Bratislava, Slovakia

Social Sciences, 2025, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-34

Abstract: In recent years, the number of fake news stories has significantly increased in the world of media, especially with the widespread use of social media. It has impacted several industries, including tourism. From a tourism point of view, the spread of fake news can contribute to the reduction of the popularity of a destination. It may influence travel decisions by discouraging tourists from visiting certain places and thus damage the reputation of the destination, contributing to economic loss. After a literature review on the communication aspect of fake news and a general introduction of fake news in the tourism and hospitality industry, we conducted a systematic literature review (SLR), a research methodology to collect, identify, and analyse available research studies through a systematic procedure. The current SLR is based on the Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases of existing literature on the topic of fake news in the tourism and hospitality industry. The study identifies, lists, and examines existing papers and conference proceedings from a vast array of disciplines, in order to give a well-rounded view on the issue of fake news in the tourism and hospitality industry. After selecting a total of 54 previous studies from more than 20 thousand results for the keywords ‘fake news’ and ‘tourism,’ we have analysed 39 papers in total. The SLR aimed to highlight existing gaps in the literature and areas that may require further exploration in future primary research. We have found that there is relatively limited academic literature available on the subject of fake news affecting tourism destinations, compared to studies focused on hospitality services.

Keywords: communication; communication strategy; fake news; tourism; systematic literature review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/8/454/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/8/454/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:14:y:2025:i:8:p:454-:d:1708952

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Yvonne Chu

More articles in Social Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().