Recently, many researchers agree that a thorough review of the trend and characteristics of studies in the tourism field is strongly needed. Specifically, increasing numbers of researchers insist that examining the research topics, methodologies, and statistical techniques of the previous studies in tourism field is essential to better comprehend the future research direction in the tourism field. Given this, the current study is designed to review 82 articles published in the Journal of Japanese Institute of Tourism Research (JITR) from 1987 to 2007. In particular, a content analysis of the subject areas, statistical techniques, and research methods in these articles will be utilized for the review in this study. The current study findings will help researchers better understand tourism research directions in the future.

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