Smart, Sustainable and Governed: A Thematic Review of Tourism Management Research on India, 2022–2026

Tourism is a strategic sector in India's development agenda, and scholarship on its management has expanded quickly since the pandemic. This paper reviews 52 publications from 2022 to 2026 and organizes them into five themes: (1) smart tourism, artificial intelligence (AI) and digitalization; (2) sustainability and overtourism; (3) governance, policy and law; (4) niche and special-interest tourism (adventure, medical, spiritual); and (5) economic performance and hospitality management. The review finds a marked rise in technology-oriented and Viksit Bharat 2047-linked work since 2025, alongside a persistent reliance on conceptual, descriptive and single-region designs. Three gaps stand out: little empirical validation of AI and smart-tourism frameworks, weak integration between sustainability goals and governance mechanisms, and limited attention to workforce readiness and community outcomes. A research agenda is proposed.