Cultural intelligence (CQ) plays a critical role in the tourism and hospitality industry, where cross-cultural interaction is inevitable. Studies on CQ are increasingly prevalent in the tourism and hospitality industry, as in other fields, but no study provides a quantitative overview of relevant publications in this field. To address this gap, this study uses bibliometric analysis to identify the evolution of CQ-related research in the tourism and hospitality industry and to suggest avenues for future research in this area. We used a sample of 72 articles published in the Scopus and Web of Science databases for analysis. The analysis results show that the most frequently used keywords by researchers are performance, motivation, leadership, customer satisfaction, diversity, and communication. China, the United States (US), and South Korea were found to be the leading countries in this field. The Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Sustainability, and The Journal of Teaching in Travel & Tourism are the most productive journals. This article demonstrates that CQ is a current and critical issue in the tourism and hospitality industry and that future research on this topic is warranted. This article makes a significant contribution to the current literature on CQ in the tourism and hospitality industry through bibliometric analysis and identifies future research for scholars.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.31143861
Publish Year: 2026
