Bibliometric Mapping of Research on Magic Towns of Mexico

Abstract

The tourism program “Pueblos Mágicos” was created in 2001 by the Mexican Secretary of Tourism (Sectur), together with its brand, with the aim of promoting tourism by preserving secular and ancestral traditions, as well as revitalizing cities and towns that make great efforts to protect and safeguard their cultural wealth. In this context, the aim of this research work is to show the current state of scientific research carried out within the context of the Magic Towns of Mexico. The work methodology is based on the bibliometric analysis of the scientific production indexed in two main international databases: Web of Science and Scopus. The application of this technique will make it possible to obtain a scientific mapping of the production (growth, researchers in the subject, production impact through the number of citations, network analysis, etc.), with the aim of observing the evolution in the generation of knowledge regarding this tourism development tool that acts as a distinctive brand for tourism in Mexico. This mapping is useful for researchers as it provides information on the research carried out so far, allowing them to identify gaps to work on in their future research work. The systematic search process identified 52 articles. The results indicate that the research carried out in this context is incipient, with few researchers addressing the subject on a continuous basis and most of them being transient researchers with a single article. Most of the research was approached from the perspective of cultural heritage, cultural resources, inherited resources, cultural tourism, public policy, local development and sustainable tourism, and sustainable development. In light of the number of articles published, all of these can be considered to be incipient lines of research.

1. Introduction

Tourism is a very important sector due to the economic benefit it generates [1]. One of the benefits of tourism is its ability to motivate the local development of communities [2], which is reflected in the management of environmental conservation, the preservation of cultural elements and the use of tourism resources to generate leisure and recreation activities that contribute to the development of well-being indicators [1]. This has led many countries to focus on tourism as an action through which different types of benefits can be obtained [3].

In Mexico, tourism has been viewed as one of the priority axes for national, regional and local development. Public policy and business initiatives are guided by discourses on the subject, resulting in the implementation of specific programs [4]. The promotion of culture and tourism based on diversity dates back to the beginning of the 21st century; specifically in 2001 when the Mexican Secretary of Tourism (SECTUR) designed the “Pueblos Mágicos” (PM) program as a new option for diversifying interior tourism in Mexico [5].

The “Pueblos Mágicos de México” program seeks to take advantage of the historical and cultural characteristics of small places throughout the country, calling on towns with a certain tourism potential to engage in this economic activity as part of their local development [6]. This program has granted greater recognition to those communities with favorable conditions for tourism [7]. In addition, towns that are significant in the national imagination, and which have a wealth of heritage that can be used for local development, were also revitalized [4]. This tourism promotion program began to be replicated by other countries in America and Europe, such as Argentina, Colombia, Panama, Guatemala, Bolivia, Paraguay, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Honduras, Salvador [8,9] and Spain [10], some of which kept the name “Pueblos Mágicos” (Magic Towns), while others did not.

Due to its growing relevance, it is necessary to identify and analyze the current literature on “Pueblos Mágicos”, which is the objective of this research. The methodology used to meet this objective is bibliometric analysis focused on two elements: scientific publications as an indicator of research results [11] and citations as a measure of scientific impact [12]. The novelty of the research is that there is no research to date that adopts a systematic review method to collect and synthesize all the empirical evidence with the aim of obtaining a general image of the research carried out that is focused on the development of the “Pueblos Mágicos” program. The objective of the program is to help municipalities to value their local resources by promoting local tourism development, both economic and social. The main objectives of the program are: “to structure a complementary and diversified tourist offer; take advantage of the uniqueness of the localities for the generation of tourist products that signify a high degree of attractiveness; put in value, consolidate and reinforce the attractions; make local tourism become a tool for sustainable development; and ensure that the host communities of the participating localities take advantage of and benefit from tourism as a beneficial activity” [13].

Regarding the methodology used, bibliometric analysis is considered to be adequate because it serves to quantitatively study the bibliographic material [14] and provides useful methods and techniques to describe and understand the scientific process [15]. Bibliometrics is defined as the quantitative description of a set of related documents that provides a general description of a field of research according to a wide variety of indicators [16]. There are different ways to classify the material in a bibliometric analysis. The most common approaches use the total number of articles or the total number of citations; while the number of articles shows productivity, the number of citations reflects the influence of articles [17]. The most frequent use of bibliometric techniques in the literature relates to providing a comprehensive overview of a research field [18].

This paper is organized into five sections. After this introduction, a general description of the Magic Towns of Mexico program is included in the following section. This is followed by a description of both the sources and the methodological process used to obtain the information. Subsequently, the main results obtained through the bibliometric indicators are detailed and discussed, and, finally, the main conclusions reached, as well as the limitations, are presented.

2. Magic Towns of Mexico

The great natural and cultural diversity of Mexico facilitated the use of heritage for economic development purposes through tourism [4]. In this regard, in 2001 the Mexican Secretary of Tourism launched the Magic Towns program, which is a tourism policy and management program, as well as a distinctive brand for tourism in Mexico [19]. The program has its origins in the period in which Vicente Fox was the president of Mexico and there was a focus on developing policy that aimed to stimulate public services with private initiatives. The program was is also inspired by the new tastes and trends of cultural tourism in the world [20].

A Magic Town is a town that has symbolic attributes, legends, history, major events, and aspects of everyday life; in short a town that possesses “Magic” that is released in each of its socio-cultural expressions, and which represent a great opportunity for tourism development [6]. The towns that are part of the Magic Towns program have acquired, through this designation, a category that identifies them as possessing diverse elements of what the country has to offer in terms of tourism [3]. A locality that is designated as a Magic Town must have unique architectural, historical or contemporary elements, emblematic buildings, festivals and traditions, as well as craft production, traditional cuisine and a supporting tourist destination within a radius of influence no more than one hour [21].

After 20 years of work and development, a total of 132 designations have been granted, of which 20% (26) are distributed in the northern region, 64% (85) in the central region and 16% (21) in the southern region of the country. The Magic Town designations have been granted gradually. Figure 1 shows that 2012 and 2015 were the years in which the highest number of designations were granted; there were also some years such as 2008, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2019 in which no designations were granted.

Figure 2 shows the number of Magic Towns by state. The states of Puebla and the State of Mexico have the highest number of Magic Towns, both with ten; the states with the lowest numbers are Baja California, Colima, Guerrero and Tabasco, with only one Magic Town. It is worth mentioning that Mexico City does not appear in the graph, as it does not have Magic Towns.

The aim of the program is to attract visitors to small towns that preserve architectural and cultural characteristics, turning them into an attraction as Mexico’s colonial towns [22]. The name Magic Town proved to be an effective brand in terms of tourism development. However, some authors such as Hernández [23], Clausen and Velázquez [24], Valverde [25], López [26], Rodríguez [27] and Mendez [28] point out that in this desire to attract visitors, there is a risk of turning the valuable heritage of these towns into a theme park.

The Magic Towns programs raises the possibility of benefiting small towns that had been left out of the tourism sector. It opens up the opportunity to also recover the cultural, festive, gastronomic, natural, artistic, historical heritage and even the proposal and management capacities of some local groups. However, the program also includes towns with extensive tourism experience and which serve as role models [4]. According to the OECD, this is one of the most successful tourism programs, because it has managed to boost the growth of rural communities and towns, in addition to generating the conservation of natural landscapes and local cultural traditions [29].

3. Methodology

In order to identify the bibliographic portfolio, the PRISMA process (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-analyses) was followed [30], which allows a systematic review, applying structured methods, to identify, select and critically evaluate relevant research. The PRISMA phases adopted in this research are: identification phase (the process of extracting the documents from the selected databases is carried out through the selected search terms); screening phase (the identification of the documents was refined by limiting the search to certain parameters, in this case, type of document and period of time); eligibility phase (the abstracts of the documents were read to discard those works that did not fit the investigated subject); and inclusion phase (represents the set of articles that configure the database to be used in the analyzes) (Figure 3).

The decision was made to use two main international databases: WoS (Web of Science) and Scopus. Both databases as an online scientific information service, are important tools for researchers as a source of documentation to support their work [31].

With respect to the time period for the information search, the lower limit was set at 2001, as this is the year when the Magic Towns programs began, and the upper limit was the year 2020, due to this being the last full year prior to the search. With respect to the words used in the algorithm, these were Pueblo * Mágico * OR Magic * Town *, which showed results that did not correspond only to the geographic area of Mexico, and thus the articles were filtered manually using the title and abstract. Those documents that refer to Magic Towns of Mexico were selected.

Table 1. Search equations by database.

Database	Equation
Scopus	(TITLE-ABS-KEY (magic * AND town *) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY (pueblo * AND mágico *)) AND (LIMIT-TO (PUBYEAR, 2001–2020)) AND (LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, “ar”))
WoS	TOPIC (Magic * town *) OR TOPIC (Pueblo * Mágico *). Refined by: DOCUMENT TYPES (ARTICLE). Timespan: 2001 to 2020

Source: Own elaboration.

shows the search equations used in both databases.

In the bibliometric analysis, different activity indicators were used [32] which provide data on the volume and impact of research activities. In this research, the following were used: productivity, number of citations, average number of citations per study, most cited articles, authors, countries, institutions, journals, research areas and keywords. Bibliometrics allow us to see the current state and evolution of the subject of reference, in addition to having a view of the topic or field of interest in works collected in a single area, identifying future research routes to follow [33]. For the management and analysis of the information, the Excel program of the Microsoft statistical package and VosViewer were used as a free software tool to build and visualize bibliometric networks, allowing for the creation of maps based on network data and visualizing and exploring maps.

4. Results and Discussion

4.1. Documents/Productivity

46 articles were identified in WoS and 17 articles in Scopus. Eight years after the Magic Towns program was launched in 2001, the first study was published; an article indexed in both databases, “Tequila: Magical center, traditional town. Heritage or privatization?” by J.J. Hernández López [22]. Despite the fact that Scopus has a greater number of indexed journals compared to WoS [34], in this subject of analysis, “Magic Towns”, WoS has a greater number of indexed articles. Figure 4 shows the productivity in the subject and the increase over the years. The most productive year is 2018 in both databases.

Figure 5 shows the correlation between the number of articles indexed in WoS and Scopus. Taking into account the correlation coefficient (0.4216), which has a positive correlation and the R² of 0.63 (coefficient of determination: the portion of the total variance of the variable explained by the regression and reflects the goodness of fit of a model to the variable to be explained, the closer it is to 1, the better the fit of the model to be explained), it can be interpreted as a moderate positive correlation, taking into account that the value of the correlation coefficient can vary from −1 to +1.

Overlap in Databases

Due to the fact that information was obtained from two different databases for the analysis, it was necessary to analyze the overlap in the databases. Forty-six articles were identified in WoS and 17 articles in Scopus. In total 63 articles were identified, of which 52 articles were different. Thirty-five of these were single articles in WoS, six were single articles in Scopus and eleven were found in both databases. As such, 78.85% were single documents and 21.15% of the articles overlapped between the databases (

Table 2. Single articles of WoS and Scopus.

Database	Percentage of Singularity = (1 − Overlap)	Meyer’s Index = $\frac{\sum Sources\ast Weight}{Total Sources}$
WoS	76.09%	0.88
Scopus	35.29%	0.68

Source: Own elaboration.

).

Meyer’s Index was used in order to observe the degree to which a database covers a particular topic [35]. The analysis indicates the degree of overlap between the two databases and provides the percentage of single documents. The higher the index, the greater the singularity of the database (i.e., the database contains a greater number of single documents) [36]. WoS shows higher singularity with 76.09% articles and a Meyer Index of 0.88.

Another way to evaluate the overlap between databases is through traditional overlap (TO), proposed by Gluck [37]. The result is interpreted as the level of similarity between the two databases; the higher the TO, the greater the similarity. In this analysis, there is a 21.15% similarity and 78.85% disparity.

$$\%TO=100\ast \left(\frac{\left|A\cap B\right|}{\left|A\cup B\right|}\right) ;\%TO=100\ast \left(\frac{\left|11\right|}{\left|46+17-11\right|}\right);\%TO=21.15\%$$

(1)

The relative overlap was also calculated [38] to observe the percentage of coverage of Scopus with respect to WoS and vice versa. Scopus covers 23.91% of WoS articles on the subject of “Magic Towns”, while WoS covers 64.71% of Scopus.

$$\begin{gathered} \% \mathrm{Overlap} \mathrm{WoS}=100\ast \left(\frac{\left|11\right|}{\left|46\right|}\right)= 23.91\% \\ \% \mathrm{Overlap} \mathrm{Scopus}=100\ast \left(\frac{\left|11\right|}{\left|17\right|}\right)= 64.71\% \end{gathered}$$

(2)

These differences in overlapping articles may be due to different indexing policies but are mainly caused by the discrepancy in the number of journals collected by both databases [39].

4.2. Citations

Figure 6 shows the evolution of the total number of citations received by the articles during the period of analysis (2001–2020). The works indexed in Scopus, specifically 17 articles, have a total of 39 citations, with 2016 being the year with the highest number of citations. As such, the average number of citations per article is 2.3. In the case of WoS, with 46 indexed articles, 34 citations were obtained in the same period, which represents an average of 0.8 citations per article.

Figure 7 shows the correlation between the number of citations per article published in WoS and Scopus. The function is also presented, from which we obtain a correlation coefficient of 0.4629 and an R² of 0.90, which is a moderate positive correlation (the variation of the correlation coefficient ranges from −1 to +1).

Table 3. Ranking of the most cited articles on “Pueblos Mágicos”.

R	Article	Scopus		WoS		Main Results
		C	C/Y	C	C/Y
1	Seizing community participation in sustainable development: Pueblos Mágicos of Mexico Clausen and Gyimothy [40]	17	4.25	14	3.50	They demonstrate how different groups bargain on behalf of the ‘community’ and how they seize the opportunity to promote different development priorities. In particular, they address the role of a North American migrant community in shaping sustainable tourism development as cultural brokers, social entrepreneurs and mediators of market knowledge. The paper criticizes the notion of homogenous local communities as an instrumental condition of sustainable and participatory development.
2	Tequila: magical center, traditional town. Heritage or privatization? Hernández [23]	9	0.82	4	0.36	Through the analytical readings of the cultural landscape of Tequila’s historical downtown, in Jalisco Mexico, we can notice the transformation of specific perimeters of a town similar to many others in Latin America, which gradually—and due to the economic and political intervention of both international organisms and the Mexican government—has turned from a rural area into an important tourist destination in Western Mexico and a referent in the construction of a new national identity, linked to successful commodities within the context of globalization.
3	Ecotourism as a path to sustainable development in an isolated Magic Town: The case study of La Trampa, Mexico Coronado, Rosas, Cerón [41]	5	2.5	-	-	The authors conclude that ecotourism is a possible alternative to highly marginalized localities within Magic Town municipalities and would be able to expand the benefits engendered by the program. Ecotourism can therefore represent a new option for tourists visiting marginalized communities in Mexico.
4	Territorial dynamics of cultural tourism in Izamal, Yucatan, Mexico Alvarado-Sizzo [22]	3	0.75	-	-	Tourist attractions in Izamal are associated with its history and culture. Despite the great potential of territorial resources for tourism, Izamal is contesting with other close destinations such as Merida, Valladolid, Chichen Itza and Cancun. The nearness to these sites leaves Izamal as a secondary destination limited to 1-day visits. Regarding the global context, the town can be considered an international destination visited by travelers coming from the five continents.
5	Sustainable tourism and social entrepreneurship. The magic town of Tequila, Mexico Manuel Saiz-Alvarez [42]	-	-	3	1.50	There are high levels of poverty in Tequila, although they are lower than in non-Agave locations. Excessive tequila protection prevents the development of other distilled beverages within the region. The production and marketing of tequila contributes to the sustainability of gastronomic tourism and nature in the tequila region and Tequila is a crucial piece in the Tourism Policy of Mexico by 2040, which guarantees its continuity and prevents the strengthening of tequila substitute beverages.
6	Community Development through the Empowerment of Indigenous Women in Cuetzalan Del Progreso, Mexico Duran-Diaz, Armenta-Ramirez, Kurjenoja, Schumacher [43]	-	-	2	2.00	Despite an inclusive legal and institutional framework, weak policy implementation and certain federal programs tend to segregate Indigenous communities. Mechanisms such as cultural tourism and inclusive land management programs, capacity building initiatives, and female associations have proven useful for empowering women and have had positive socioeconomic impacts on the community. This research concluded that female Indigenous associations are a tool to empower rural women, grant them tenure security, strengthen their engagement in decision making, and consolidate them as key stakeholders in community development.
7	Tourism, pottery and women’s work in the Magical Town of Metepec, Mexico Vizcaino-Suárez, Serrano-Barquín, Cruz-Jiménez, Pastor-Alfonso [44]	-	-	2	0.67	Even though the majority of artisans in Metepec are male, women have adopted essential tasks in pottery production and participate actively in the sale of crafts for the tourism market. Women’s work is not always visible or socially recognized due to the prevailing gender dynamics and the differences in power within the family and community contexts. This research contributes to the body of knowledge on tourism and gender in Mexico and aims to make women’s contributions visible in local tourism contexts.
8	Policy networks, elites and governance. A conceptual framework for a case study in tourism De la Rosa, Cruz, Castillo [45]	-	-	2	0.50	This paper contributes to the theoretical discussion related to the assumptions of public policy networks, the elite’s theory and governance. Together they support an empirical approach to a case study: the Magical Towns Program in Mexico. This dissertation challenges the argument that governance dynamics may be generated even under certain conditions (nepotism, corruption, favoring private interests) among actors linked to tourism and this federal program, which relate a policy network.
9	Divided over Tourism: Zapotec Responses to Mexico’s ‘Magical Villages Program’ Gross [46]	1	0.11	2	0.22	This article discusses local reactions to the Magical Villages Program and the villagers’ diverse perceptions of the impact of tourism on local culture and identity. These perceptions tend to be polarized and fall into two clearly distinguishable camps. Some villagers associate tourism with material gains and increased employment opportunities. Others, however, perceive it as a threat to communal intimacy and local ways of life, and accuse it of increasing inequality in the village. Such polarization of approaches reflects, at least partly, the pre-existing divisions and hierarchies in the village. Similarly, to some of the major anthropological approaches to the impact of tourism on host communities, especially in Latin America, the local discourse on tourism and tourists in Capulálpam centers on the notions of development and destruction.

shows the ranking of the most-cited articles. The leading article in the ranking is “Seizing community participation in sustainable development: Pueblos Mágicos of Mexico” by Clausen and Gvimothy [39], which was indexed in both databases (WoS and Scopus). In four years it reached an average annual citation rate of 4.25. This article was published in the Journal of Cleaner Production, a journal with a Q1 quartile (1.89, year 2019) in the Scimago Journal and Q1 (7.246, year 2019) in WoS.

4.3. Authors

Table 4. Ranking of the most productive authors.

R	Name	Affiliation	Country	TP	FA	TC	TC/TP	Crane
1	Pulido Fernandez, Juan Ignacio	Univ Jaen, Jaen, Spain	Spain	4	0	2	0.50	Aspirants/Intermediate
-	Rodriguez Herrera, Ismael Manuel	Autonomous Univ Aguascalientes, Ctr Econ & Adm Sci, Dept Tourism, Aguascalientes, Mexico	Mexico	4	1	2	0.50
-	Shaadi Rodriguez, Rosa Maria Angelica	Autonomous Univ Aguascalientes, Ctr Econ & Adm Sci, Dept Tourism, Aguascalientes, Mexico	Mexico	4	3	2	0.50
2	Cruz Jimenez, Graciela	Univ Autonoma Estado Mexico, Fac Turismo & Gastron, Ctr Invest & Estudios Turist, Mexico City, DF, Mexico.	Mexico	3	0	4	1.33
3	Covarrubias Ramirez, Rafael	Univ Colima, Colima, Mexico	Mexico	2	2	0	0.00
-	De la Rosa Flores, Beatriz Adriana	Univ Autonoma Estado Mexico, Ctr Invest & Estudios Turist, Toluca, Mexico	Mexico	2	1	2	1.00
-	Alvarado-Sizzo, Ilia	Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México	Mexico	2	1	3	1.50

R, Ranking; TP, Total of publications; FA, First Author; TC, Total of citations; TC/TP, average of citations per publication. Source: Own elaboration.

shows the most productive authors, Pulido-Fernández, J.I.; Rodríguez-Herrera, I.M. and Shaadi Rodríguez, R.M.A. with four publications, followed by Cruz-Jiménez, G. with three publications, and by a group of three more authors with two publications: Covarrubias-Ramírez, R.; De la Rosa Flores, B.A. and Alvarado-Sizzo, I. Based on the classification proposed by Crane [47] and Lotka [48] using the productivity criterion, authors are classified as aspirants when they sign between two and four publications and as transient authors when they have only one publication. It is observed that the majority of the articles come from a small number of authors. Both WoS and Scopus were considered in order to obtain the total number of citations (TC).

Another noteworthy piece of information is the author’s transience index.

Table 5. Classification of authors using the Crane and Lotka System, WoS, Scopus.

	WoS			Scopus
NAA	NA	%	Names	NA	%	Names	Crane/Lotka
1	81	93%	Other authors	23	85%	Other authors	Transient authors
2	2	2%	De la Rosa Flores, Beatriz Adriana; Covarrubias Ramírez, Rafael	1	4%	Alvarado-Sizzo, Ilia	Aspirants/ Intermediate
3	1	1%	Cruz Jiménez, Graciela	3	11%	Shaadi Rodríguez, Rosa María Angélica; Rodríguez Herrera, Ismael Manuel; Pulido Fernández, Juan Ignacio
4	3	4%	Shaadi Rodríguez, Rosa María Angélica; Rodríguez Herrera, Ismael Manuel; Pulido Fernández, Juan Ignacio	-	-	-
	87	100%		27	100%

NAA, Number of articles by author; NA, Number of authors. Source: Own elaboration.

shows that most authors sign only one article in the case of WoS (93%) and in Scopus this rate is 85%. According to the criteria of Lotka [48] and Crane [46], 88 authors (92.63%) are classified as transient as they only sign one article. The number of signatures per article was identified, finding that of the 46 articles published in WoS, 7 are signed by four authors, 11 by three authors, 11 by two authors and 17 only by one author. On the other hand, of the 17 articles published in Scopus, one was signed by four authors, five by three authors, four by two authors, and seven by one author.

Other indicators about authorship to be analyzed are: the transience index (number of authors with a single article published/total number of authors ×100), collaboration index or co-authorship index (number of authorships/number of articles), degree of collaboration (number of articles with multiple authorship/total number of articles ×100) and productivity index (number of authorships/number of authors). In the case of WoS, the collaboration index is 2.17 and shows a collaboration degree between authors of 63.04%, and Scopus has a collaboration index of 2.00 and the degree of collaboration is 58.82%. These indicators show a high level of collaboration between researchers on the subject of Magic Towns. On the other hand, WoS has a transience index (93.10%), a collaboration index (2.17%) and a degree of collaboration (63.04%) higher than Scopus (85.19%, 2.00%, 58.82%). Furthermore, Scopus has a higher productivity index (1.26) than WoS (1.15). According to Figg et al. [49], the presence of greater collaboration in the writing of documents leads to an increase in the maturity of the discipline, while establishing the existence of a positive correlation between the number of authors and the number of citations per article.

4.4. Mapping of “Pueblos Mágicos de México” Research with VOS Viewer Software

Bibliographic data can be used to build a citation network between documents, journals, authors, organizations, and countries [50]. In this case, the authors’ citation networks were analyzed. The results are shown in Figure 8. It is observed that the authors whose articles are indexed in journals in the Scopus database do not have citations that link them. The authors with the highest number of citations on the subject are Shaadi Rodríguez, R.M.A.; Briones Juárez, A.; Núñez Camarena, G.M.; Mc. Enuldy, C.E. However, in the analysis carried out in the WoS database, links between the authors are observed. The authors with the highest number of citations are Madrid Flores, F.; Muñoz Areyzaga, E. and Razniak, P., each of whom show links with other authors.

Co-citation analysis was also carried out for authors, with co-citation considered to be a link between two elements that are cited by the same document [50]. For Scopus, a total of 766 authors were identified, of which 43 reached a minimum number of citations of three. Figure 9a shows the results grouped into six clusters whose central nodes are: Banos, CJ with 42 Total Link Strength (TLS) (Cluster 1—red); Coll-Hurtado, A. with 50 TLS (Cluster 2—green); Berger, D. with 53 TLS (Cluster 3—deep blue); López López, A. with 39 TLS (Cluster 4—yellow); De la Peña, G. with 21 TLS (Cluster 5—purple) and López, A. with 103 TLS (Cluster 6—yellow). It is also observed that the closer the authors are, the higher the citation frequency between them [51].

In the case of WoS, a total of 1360 authors were identified, of which 101 reached a minimum number of citations of 3. In Figure 9b, it is observed that the results are grouped into five clusters whose central nodes are: Bercial, RA with 49 TLS (Cluster 1—yellow); Armenta, G. with 41 TLS (Cluster 2—green); Alvarado, C. with 163 TLS (Cluster 3—deep blue); Baggio, R. with 82 TLS (Cluster 4—yellow); and San Sebastián del Oeste City Council with 40 TLS (Cluster 5—purple). It is important to mention that in this case there are several references from organizations, such as the Ministry of Tourism, OECD, UNWTO, UNESCO, INEGI and some municipal councils and organizations involved in tourism activities or, particularly, in the Magic Towns program.

Furthermore, a bibliographic coupling was made that demonstrates the links between authors who cite the same document, the results of which are shown in Figure 10. In Scopus, the formation of a cluster was not identified, but it was possible to observe the authors with the highest number of TLS, highlighting in this regard Herrera I.M.R with 352 TLS, followed by Pulido-Fernández, J.I. with 308 TLS. In the case of WoS, there is a bibliographic link between Cruz Jiménez, G.; Pulido Fernández, J. I.; Shaadi Rodríguez, R. M. and Rodríguez Herrera, I. M. (Cluster 1—red), in which Rodríguez Herrera. I. M. is the leader with 427 TLS and Cruz Jiménez G. has two citations.

4.5. Productivity by Country and Institution

The analysis of the authors’ affiliation by country is shown in

Table 6. Main countries according to the affiliation of their authors.

Country	WoS			Scopus
	Authors	Authorship	Centers/ University	Authors	Authorship	Centers/ University
Mexico	73	83	28	14	28	14
Spain	6	9	5	5	4	2
Slovakia	1	1	1	1	1	1
Denmark	2	2	1	1	2	1
France	0	0	0	1	1	1
Finland	1	1	1	1	1	1
Poland	2	2	1	0	0	0
Germany	1	1	1	0	0	0
Cuba	1	1	1	0	0	0
Ecuador	1	1	1	0	0	0
Bolivia	1	1	1	0	0	0
Portugal	1	1	1	0	0	0
Total	90	103	42	23	37	20

Source: Own elaboration.

. Both databases coincide, in that the authors’ country of affiliation is correlated with the greatest presence in the subject of Magic Towns, as expected, Mexico has 83 authorships, with 73 authors in WoS and 28 authorships of 14 authors in Scopus. This result may be due to the fact that the Magic Towns program is a program specific to this country and the research carried out in this regard is of most benefit to this country. Despite this, there are other countries that have also studied the subject, such as Spain, Slovakia, Denmark, France, Finland, Poland, Germany, Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia and Portugal.

In terms of the productivity of institutions,

Table 7. Main universities according to the affiliation of their authors. WoS, Scopus.

			WoS		Scopus
R	Institution	Country	A	As	A	As
1	Universidad de Guadalajara	México	12	12
2	Universidad Autonóma de Aguascalientes	México	4	10	3	7
	Universidad Autonóma del Estado de México	México	7	10
3	Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur	México	6	6
4	Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro	México	4	4
	Universidad Autónoma de Baja California	México	3	4
	Universidad de Guanajuato	México	4	4
	National Polytechnic Institute	México			4	4
	Universidad Autónoma de Chapingo	México	4	4
	Universidad de Jaen	España	1	4	1	3
5	Universidad de las Americas de Puebla	México	3	3
	Universidad de Colima	México	2	3
	Colegio de Postgraduados	México	3	3
	Universidad Autónoma de Occidente	México	3	3
6	Universidad de Sevilla	España	2	2
	Universidad Autonóma Metropolitana	México	2	2
	Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos	México	2	2
	Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México	México	2	2	4	5
	Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa	México	2	2
	Pedagogical University of Cracow	Polonia	2	2
	Aalborg University	Dinamarca	2	2	2	2
	Anáhuac University	México			2	2
	CONACYT	México	2	2

R, ranking; A, authors; As, Authorship. Source: Own elaboration.

shows the ranking of the most productive institutions according to WoS and Scopus. From the data found in WoS, the leading university in the ranking is the University of Guadalajara with 12 authors and 12 authorships, followed by the Autonomous University of Aguascalientes with four authors and 10 authorships, and the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico with seven authors and 10 authorships, according to the data obtained in WoS. The ranking of educational institutions found in Scopus is led by the Autonomous University of Aguascalientes with three authors and seven authorships, followed by the National Autonomous University of Mexico with four authors and five signatures, and the National Polytechnic Institute with four authors and four signatures.

4.6. Journals

In relation to the resources used for the scientific dissemination of articles, 36 journals were identified, of which 20% published only one article on the subject. The dispersion index is 1.42 articles/journal.

Table 8. Number of articles per journal according to WoS and Scopus databases.

	WoS				Scopus
Journal	f	hi%	Q	JCR	f	hi%	Q	SJR
Pasos-Revista de turismo y patrimonio cultural	9	19.57%	-	ESCI	-	-	-	-
Investigaciones Turísticas	3	6.52%	-	ESCI	2	11.76%	3	0.18
Periplo sustentable	3	6.52%	-	ESCI	-	-	-	-
Anuario turismo y sociedad	2	4.35%	-	ESCI	-	-	-	-
Atelie geográfico	2	4.35%	-	ESCI	-	-	-	-
Teoría y praxis	2	4.35%	-	ESCI	-	-	-	-
Investigaciones geográficas	-	-	-	-	2	5.88%	3	0.24

f, frequency; hi%, relative frequency; Q, quartile; ESCI, Emerging Source Citation Index. Source: Own elaboration.

shows the number of articles per journal indexed in WoS and Scopus. The journal PASOS, Journal of Tourism and Cultural Heritage, at the top of the WoS list with nine articles on Magic Towns, is a journal indexed in the Emerging Sources Citations Index. On the other hand, the journals “Investigaciones geográficas” and “Investigaciones turísticas” are at the top of the Scopus list with 2 published articles each. “Investigaciones geográficas” is a journal with Q3 and SJR of 0.24 (2019) and “Investigaciones turísticas” is a journal with Q3 and an SJR of 0.18 (2019), according to Scimago; “Investigaciones turísticas” also appears in the list of WoS journals (indexed in Emerging Sources Citations Index), in that case with 3 articles.

4.7. Research Areas

Table 9. Number of articles per research area according to WoS and Scopus databases.

	WoS				Scopus
Research Area	TP	%hi	TC	TC/TP	TP	%hi	TC	TC/TP
Social Sciences—Other topics	24	48.97%	26	1.1	15	50.00%	22	1.5
Geography	4	8.16%	1	0.3	-	-	-	-
Environmental Sciences & Ecology	3	6.12%	16	5.3	1	3.33%	17	17.0
Urban Studies	3	6.12%	0	0.0	-	-	-	-
Government & Law	2	4.08%	0	0.0	-	-	-	-
History	2	4.08%	0	0.0	-	-	-	-
Public Administration	2	4.08%	0	0.0	-	-	-	-
Agriculture	1	2.04%	1	1.0	-	-	-	-
Anthropology	1	2.04%	2	2.0	-	-	-	-
Architecture	1	2.04%	0	0.0	-	-	-	-
Art & Humanities—Other topics	1	2.04%	0	0.0	3	10.00%	9	3.0
Business & Economics	1	2.04%	3	3.0	6	20.00%	26	4.3
Demography	1	2.04%	0	0.0	-	-	-	-
Engineering	1	2.04%	14	14.0	2	6.67%	17	8.5
Religion	1	2.04%	0	0.0	-	-	-	-
Social Issues	1	2.04%	0	0.0	-	-	-	-
Earth and Planetary Sciences	-	-	-	-	2	6.67%	0	0.0
Energy	-	-	-	-	1	3.33%	17	17.0
Total	49		63		30		108

TP, total of publications; %hi, frequency relative; TC, total of citations; TC/TP, average of total citations per articles. Source: Own elaboration.

shows the WoS research areas in which the research papers on the topic “Magic Towns” have been classified. The predominant area is Social Sciences—Other Topics with 23 articles (47.92%), followed by Geography with four articles (8.33%). On the other hand, with respect to the number of citations received in published articles, Social Sciences—Other topics stands out with 26 citations. However, in the citation/article ratio, the Engineering area stands out with one article and 14 citations. Regarding Scopus, the predominant area is Social Sciences with 15 articles (50.00%), followed by Business, Management and Accounting with six articles (20.00%). On the other hand, with regard to the citations received by the published articles, Business, Management and Accounting stands out with 26 citations. However, in the citation/article ratio, the areas of Engineering and Environmental Sciences stand out with one article and 17 citations each.

4.8. Keywords

The study of keywords for the indexing of any type of research is of great relevance since these terms are used to identify documents more easily [52]. Therefore, we proceeded to analyze the keywords used to index each of the 46 articles in WoS and 17 articles in Scopus (

Table 10. Classification of articles of WoS and Scopus by keywords.

Ranking	Keywords	Frecuency WoS	Frecuency Scopus
1	Tourist destination		14
2	Cultural tourism	3	12
3	Tourism	16	9
4	Heritage tourism		8
5	Quintana Roo		7
6	Competitiveness	3	6
7	Cultural heritage	6	6
8	Life cycle	2	6
9	Sustainability		6
10	Development	3	3
11	Landscape		3
12	Governance	5
13	Communities	2
14	Destination	3
15	Identity	2
16	Migration	2
17	Image	2
18	Local development	2
19	Public policy	2
20	Heritage	4
21	Perception	3
22	Sustainable development	2
23	Tourism policy	2
24	Entrepreneurship	2
25	Other words with 0 or 1 repetitions	142	87

Source: Own elaboration from VosViewer.

). It is worth mentioning that a high frequency was found in the keywords “Pueblos Mágicos” and “México”, however, it was decided to omit these from the table as the program Pueblos Mágicos de México was precisely the objective of analysis.

A keyword co-occurrence analysis was also carried out on the basis of the bibliographic data. Given the number of documents analyzed, a minimum of two co-occurrences was selected. Figure 11 shows the visualization of the overlapping of keyword co-occurrence for Scopus, where three clusters of keywords can be observed. The first cluster is made up of the words “competitiveness”, “development”, “life cycle” and “sustainability”; the second cluster is made up of the words “cultural heritage”, “landscape”, “Quintana Roo” and “tourism”; the third cluster is made up of the words “cultural tourism”, “heritage tourism” and “tourist destination”. The same figure shows the predominant keywords in the last five years; for example, in 2019, “life cycle” and “sustainability” were predominant, and more recently “cultural heritage” was predominant. Figure 11 also shows the overlapping visualization of the co-occurrence of keywords for WoS, where five clusters of keywords are observed, the first one consisting of “competitiveness”, “cultural tourism”, “destination”, “image” and “life cycle”; the second cluster is made up of the words “communities”, “cultural heritage”, “entrepreneurship”, “migration” and “sustainable development”; the third cluster is made up of “development”, “heritage” and “identity”; the fourth cluster is made up of “local development”, “perception” and “tourism”; the fifth cluster is made up of “governance”, “public policy” and “tourism policy”. The same figure shows the predominant keywords over the last five years, where it can be seen that the most recently used keyword is “perception”.

4.9. Lines of Research

Table 11. Lines of research.

Cultural heritage, cultural resources, inherited resources, cultural tourism (13 articles) Hernández [23], Valenzuela [54], Morales & Pérez [55], García & Rivera [56], Pérez Solano & Del Carpio [57], Castillo et al. [58], Uhnak [59], García & Méndez [60], De la Rosa et al. [45], Alvarado-Sizzo [22], Rivero [61], Rosas [62], Sánchez et al. [63]

Pueblos Mágicos program as public policy (10 articles) De la Rosa et al. [64], Gross [46], Winiarczyk-Razniak & Razniak [65], Madrid [53], Cornejo-Ortega et al. [66], Cortes & Velez [67], Rodríguez et al. [68], Benavides Cortes [69], Vázquez [70], Paula & Carvalho [71]

Local development (7 articles) López [72], Nuñez & Ettinger [5], De León [73], Covarrubias & Rodríguez [74], Fernández [20], Gómez et al. [75], Flores [76]

Sustainable tourism, sustainable development, sustainable development (6 articles) Olmos-Martínez et al. [77], Clausen & Gyimothy [40], Rodriguez et al. [78], Muñoz [79], García et al. [80], Coronado et al. [41]

Entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship (2 articles) Saiz-Alvarez [42], García [81]

Gender perspective, women’s empowerment (2 articles) Durán-Díaz et al. [43], Vizcaino-Suárez et al. [44]

Life cycle analysis (2 articles) Shaadi et al. [3], Shaadi et al. [7]

Quality of service, tourist satisfaction (2 articles) Miranda et al. [82], López [72]

Competitiveness, tourism competitiveness (2 articles) Hernández et al. [83], Shaadi et al. [84]

Source: own elaboration.

shows the lines of research identified with at least two articles published in WoS and/or Scopus on the subject of Magic Towns. Reference is also made to the authors who have contributed to each line. It is worth mentioning that despite identifying that some articles contribute to more than one line, each article was related exclusively to one. In this regard, there is coincidence with some of the areas of knowledge identified by Madrid [53] in an analysis of the 15 years of the Magic Towns program, including: heritage, sustainability, cultural tourism and tourism policy. Additionally, this work has identified the following: local development, entrepreneurship, life cycle analysis, tourist satisfaction and competitiveness.

5. Conclusions

The bibliometric analysis presented in this research allowed us to identify, classify and analyze the scientific documents that address the investigations from different approaches and scientific areas related to the implementation, development and results obtained in the tourism program called “Pueblos Mágicos de México”; a tourism program and brand under whose umbrella picturesque and unique places in Mexico are grouped. Eight years after the launch of the Magic Towns program in 2001, the first research article was published in 2009, with a very slow growth of 52 articles in 11 years and a productivity index of 1.26 articles in Scopus and 1.15 in WoS. With regard to the impact of the research analyzed, following the criterion of the number of citations, it is observed that with an average of 2.3 citations in WoS and 0.8 in Scopus, research impact is very low. Taking these data into account, it can be confirmed that research is incipient and has not yet reached a degree of maturity.

In this research, J.I. Pulido Fernández of the University of Jaen, (Jaen, Spain) and I.M. Rodríguez Herrera and R.M.A. Shaadi Rodríguez, both from the Autonomous University of Aguascalientes, (Aguascalientes, Mexico), were identified as the most relevant and productive authors. It should be noted that in several papers these authors collaborated with each other and the collaboration rate between authors is high. Most of the researchers, specifically 93% and 85% in WoS and Scopus, who address research in this context are transient authors, with only one published article.

Other relevant results are:

(1)

The most productive educational institution is the University of Guadalajara, Mexico, with ten affiliations by ten different authors.

(2)

The journal that has received the most papers is PASOS indexed in the WoS Emerging Source Citation Index and the journals “Investigaciones Geográficas” and “Investigaciónes Turísticas”, which are both indexed in Scopus and particularly the latter also in Emerging Source Citation Index of WoS.

(3)

In both databases, the Social Sciences research area stood out as the area with the highest number of articles indexed in both WoS and Scopus.

(4)

Finally, in the keyword analysis, the word “tourism” appears most frequently in WoS, with 14 repetitions. In Scopus the term “cultural tourism” stands out, with four repetitions, although “tourism” also appears in the same position.

(5)

Furthermore, in the analysis of coverage and overlap between both databases, an overlap between both databases of 21.15% is observed (11 articles are indexed in both databases) and a degree of singularity of 76.09% in WoS, which indicates that this database provides a better coverage of the research in the context of Magic Towns of Mexico.

In the analysis of the lines of research followed by the authors, these indicate the approaches followed and allow us to identify the gaps where research is lacking. In this context, research was mostly approached from a focus on cultural heritage, cultural resources, inherited resources, cultural tourism (13 articles), magic towns program as public policy (10 articles), local development (seven articles), sustainable tourism, sustainable development, and sustainable development (six articles). All of these are incipient lines of research, considering the number of articles published. Taking into account the multidisciplinary nature of tourism, there are many areas of knowledge from which to approach research related to the Magic Towns of Mexico program, such as business and management, sociology, psychology, geography, history, and education. For example, in the area of knowledge of business and management, studies by Sáez et al., [85] and Koseoglu et al. [86], suggest that research should be conducted in the area of tourism from the disciplines of, for example, marketing (service quality, consumer research, addressing the dimensions or variables of the marketing-mix (7Ps), customer loyalty, consumer behavior: social and ethical perspective, destination image, brand image, etc.), general management and strategic (quality management, social and public management, organizational behavior, competitiveness and productivity, business strategy, HR, entrepreneurship, innovation, sustainability), and information technologies.

This research paper provides useful information for researchers. It identifies research gaps in this context, on the basis of which new research projects could be proposed. One limitation in this work is related to the choice of databases: the two main international multidisciplinary databases with quality indices (Journal Citation Report-WoS and Scimago Journal Rank-Scopus) were selected, and less relevant databases, such as Scielo and Latindex, were not considered. As such, not all possible works have been identified. A second limitation is derived from the search equation used.