Tourism plays a vital role in the global economy and job market, and extensive research has been conducted on its economic benefits. Bibliometric tools provide a powerful way to analyse trends and research emphases in academic literature and gain deeper insights into this relationship. Focusing on articles from 2008 to 2023 sourced from the Web of Science database, this paper aims to delineate the trajectory of research on tourism development and economic growth and explore institutional, country and author contributions. This bibliometric analysis of 738 documents focused on tourism development and economic growth reveals an exponential publication growth since 2018. Additionally, keyword and co-occurrence analyses reveal emerging themes such as environmental concerns and tourism as an industry. However, its exclusive reliance on bibliometric data may overlook other valuable insights and forms of research dissemination, suggesting the need for future research to explore more comprehensive evaluation methodologies.