land Article Bibliometric Mapping of Research on Magic Towns of Mexico Martha B. Flores-Romero 1 , Miriam E. Pérez-Romero 1 , JoséÁlvarez-García 2, * and María de la Cruz del Río-Rama 3   Citation: Flores-Romero, M.B.; Pérez-Romero, M.E.; Álvarez-García, J.; del Río-Rama, M.d.l.C. Bibliometric Mapping of Research on Magic Towns of Mexico. Land 2021, 10, 852. https://doi.org/10.3390/land10080852 Academic Editor: Antonio Raschi Received: 19 July 2021 Accepted: 10 August 2021 Published: 15 August 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Faculty of Accounting and Management, Saint Nicholas and Hidalgo Michoacán State University (UMSNH), Morelia 58030,Mexico; betyf@umich.mx (M.B.F.-R.); miromero@umich.mx (M.E.P.-R.) 2 Financial Economy and Accounting Department, Faculty of Business, Finance and Tourism, University of Extremadura, 10071 Cáceres, Spain 3 Business Management and Marketing Department, Faculty of Business Sciences and Tourism, University of Vigo, 32004 Ourense, Spain; delrio@uvigo.es * Correspondence: pepealvarez@unex.es Abstract: The tourism program “Pueblos Mágicos” was created in 2001 by the Mexican Secretary of Tourism (Sectur), together with its brand, with the aim of promoting tourism by preserving secular and ancestral traditions, as well as revitalizing cities and towns that make great efforts to protect and safeguard their cultural wealth. In this context, the aim of this research work is to show the current state of scientific research carried out within the context of the Magic Towns of Mexico. The work methodology is based on the bibliometric analysis of the scientific production indexed in two main international databases: Web of Science and Scopus. The application of this technique will make it possible to obtain a scientific mapping of the production (growth, researchers in the subject, production impact through the number of citations, network analysis, etc.), with the aim of observing the evolution in the generation of knowledge regarding this tourism development tool that acts as a distinctive brand for tourism in Mexico. This mapping is useful for researchers as it provides information on the research carried out so far, allowing them to identify gaps to work on in their future research work. The systematic search process identified 52 articles. The results indicate that the research carried out in this context is incipient, with few researchers addressing the subject on a continuous basis and most of them being transient researchers with a single article. Most of the research was approached from the perspective of cultural heritage, cultural resources, inherited resources, cultural tourism, public policy, local development and sustainable tourism, and sustainable development. In light of the number of articles published, all of these can be considered to be incipient lines of research. Keywords: bibliometric analysis; science mapping; bibliometric network analysis; co-citation; magic towns of Mexico; cultural tourism 1. Introduction Tourism is a very important sector due to the economic benefit it generates [1]. One of the benefits of tourism is its ability to motivate the local development of communities [2], which is reflected in the management of environmental conservation, the preservation of cultural elements and the use of tourism resources to generate leisure and recreation activities that contribute to the development of well-being indicators [1]. This has led many countries to focus on tourism as an action through which different types of benefits can be obtained [3]. In Mexico, tourism has been viewed as one of the priority axes for national, regional and local development. Public policy and business initiatives are guided by discourses on the subject, resulting in the implementation of specific programs [4]. The promotion of culture and tourism based on diversity dates back to the beginning of the 21st cen- tury; specifically in 2001 when the Mexican Secretary of Tourism (SECTUR) designed the Land 2021, 10, 852. https://doi.org/10.3390/land10080852 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/land