Global Research Landscape of National Park Recreation: Hotspot Dynamics, Frontiers and Knowledge Structure

With the development of ecotourism, national park recreation research has evolved from a marginal branch of tourism studies into a vibrant interdisciplinary field. Although scholarly attention has grown, a systematic, holistic overview of its global development trajectory and knowledge structure remains lacking. To address this gap, this study presents a bibliometric analysis of national park recreation research published from 1994 to 2024, based on the Web of Science Core Collection. Using CiteSpace for scientometric visualization, we examine the field’s evolutionary phases, collaboration networks, thematic distributions, and emerging trends. Our results show that national park recreation research has progressed through three distinct stages: initial emergence, steady development, and rapid growth. Collaboration among individual researchers and institutions remains generally limited. Dominant research themes include spatial planning and zoning, ecological conservation, stakeholder engagement, cultural ecosystem services, and tourists’ pro-environmental behaviors. Building on these findings, we synthesize a comprehensive knowledge structure of this field and outline key future research priorities. This overview enables researchers to quickly grasp the field’s global research panorama and identify targeted thematic directions. We call for greater attention to understudied areas, including visitor social psychology, community participation, digital technology applications, and adaptive management in future studies.