A review of forecasting studies for the hotel industry: Focusing on results, contributions and limitations

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to conduct a thorough review of the results, contributions, and limitations of forecasting studies in the hotel industry to uncover how those studies contribute to the body of knowledge and what limitations of those studies should be filled by future studies. Design/methodology/approach: To uncover the overall trends and evolution of hotel forecasting findings, this study used a systematic literature review approach to ensure the strictness and transparency of the review process. To select a paper to be reviewed, two main review processes including keyword searching and citation counts of each paper were conducted. To assure the rigor of our first two procedures, this study took further steps including cross-checking the results of those studies and calculating the average citation per year of the selected studies. The selected papers were analyzed based upon their forecasting areas, the contribution of each paper by using citation score, frequency of using methodology or techniques, demographic characteristics of authors, and major trends of the forecasting studies. Findings: This research has compiled a list of the most cited papers, as well as the average number of citations per year, the top list of the most used nations and subject areas which manifested the contribution to the body of literature in this study. Research limitations/implications: Future research should consider using other platforms such as Web of Science (WoS) or Scopus to emphasize more the impact and value of the literature study. The outcome of this study will help other researchers to have a better understanding of the used models in forecasting the industry as well as to decipher the most and the least studied research areas in the forecasting hotel industry. Originality/value: This study explored the overall development, contributions, and limitations of forecasting studies in the hospitality industry in an updated, thorough literature analysis. The themes and types of research that have already been studied can be seen by the researchers, as well as those that have not yet been explored.