Purpose The purpose of this work is to survey the body of research revolving around big data (BD) and analytics in hospitality and tourism, by detecting macro topical areas, research streams and gaps and to develop an agenda for future research. Design/methodology/approach This research is based on a systematic literature review of academic papers indexed in the Scopus and Web of Science databases published up to 31 December 2020. The outputs were analyzed using bibliometric techniques, network analysis and topic modeling. Findings The number of scientific outputs in research with hospitality and tourism settings has been expanding over the period 2015-2020, with a substantial stability of the areas examined. The vast majority are published in academic journals where the main reference area is neither hospitality nor tourism. The body of research is rather fragmented and studies on relevant aspects, such as BD analytics capabilities, are virtually missing. Most of the outputs are empirical. Moreover, many of the articles collected relatively small quantities of records and, regardless of the time period considered, only a handful of articles mix a number of different techniques. Originality/value This work sheds new light on the emergence of a body of research at the intersection of hospitality and tourism management and data science. It enriches and complements extant literature reviews on BD and analytics, combining these two interconnected topics.