Conceptualising industrial heritage tourism management

The paper analyses industrial heritage tourism management (IHTM) through a meta-analysis conducted with a review of international peer-reviewed journals in the English language. The literature on this topic, although showing an increasing interest, appears disarticulated and without a clear understanding of the main aspects and issues related to it. The aim was to explore IHTM concept and assess the state-of-the-art in literature, mainly looking for the connection with the tourism sector. A list of scientific articles has been created using these databases: Emerald, EBSCOHost, Science Direct and Google Scholar. Each paper has been analysed using several bibliometric indicators (number of articles, trends, methodologies, analysis of keywords, etc.) while the meta-analysis permitted to deepen the contents. Results highlighted the existence of three main themes: tourism demand; local development; destination governance. Conclusions offer some implications useful to academic debate and policy-makers regarding how to manage and innovate destinations seeking to restore and revitalise the industrial heritage.