Data mining can extract useful information from large databases. This paper presents the evolution of the intellectual structure in tourism destination literature as determined by means of bibliometric and social network analysis of 17 552 citations of 414 articles published in Social Sciences Citation Index and Sciences Citation Index journals from 1955 to 2011. This study found that tourism destination research is organized into four different concentrations of interest: destination image,

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... rist experience and stakeholder involvement, structural equation modeling, and customer relationship management. Future tourism destination research will probably continue to focus on these topics. This study presents a new way for researchers to profile development patterns objectively and provides a key reading method for searching useful research directions.