Making Nautical Tourism Greener in the Mediterranean

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Theoretical background:

The literature review presents several concerns.

Regarding theoretical background, it can be observed how the authors have made an review of the academic literatura. This review considers mainly relevant studies about the state of the art on the sustainable tourism. In general, the bibliographic sources used by the authors are adequate in this research field.

However, there is a lack of cites supporting the ideas described in different paragraphs along the text. This can be observed, for instance, on line 78, page 2 “EU 2030 targets were defined under 2030 climate and energy framework adopted by the 79 European Council in October 2014. The targets for renewables and energy efficiency were revised 80 upwards in 2018, a currently amount to: • 40% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions (from 1990 levels) • 32% share for renewable energy • 32.5% improvement in energy efficiency’’; on line 154, page 4“The following answers were provided: • Adoption of technological tools for saving water (6.6%); • Adoption of technological tools for saving energy (10.0%); • Separated waste collection (73.3%);  • Use of renewable energy sources (13.3%);  • Green procurement (6.6%)’’; on line 188, page 4“Tourism has a world market 189 share of 10.3% of income and 8.2% of total employment.’’. On line 145, page 3 it is said  that “Numerous studies indicate increased energy consumption in tourism activities with a significant impact on the environment. ’’ – authors could indicate that studies.

Methodology:

The paper does not include the section on Methodology.

The information on the methodology used in this study was described by the authors in the section 4. Results and Discussion. Which is inappropriate for a scientific paper.

Moreover, on line 251, page 6 it is said that the survey of nautical tourism charter companies was conducted during 2018 [25]. In References, bibliographic source 25 corresponds to: Yacht-Rent.com. Accessed January 10. 2020. <a href="https://www.yacht-rent.com">Yacht Rent</a>. Here is an inadvertence.

Results and Discussion:

This section refers not only to results but to discussion. The discussion supposes to contrast what has been said by an author with previous studies and authors, something that hardly happens in this section.

Conclusions:

The authors may emphasize more on the theoretical implications.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for your very helpful comments. Please find attach in the word document our answers to the issues you raised.

Best regards

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors,

The submitted manuscript titled „Making Nautical Tourism greener in the Mediterranean” brings very valuable oucommes and therefore might interest a large audience of scientists and practicionners.

However, the manuscript contains several flawns, which in my opinion should be improved:

1. I think that proportions of text length among particular chapters are not appropriate. The chapters „Sustainable Tourism” and „Nautical Tourism and Renewable Energy Sources” should be more concise or they should be inclouded into „Introduction”.
2. There is lack of „Material and methods” chapter. I suggest to move lines 251-263 into this section. The methodology should be described in details e.g.

• if the questionaires were sent to similar numer of charter companies in Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, Italy and Turkey?;
• how the companies were chosen?;
• when the questionaires were sent?

3. In my opinion chapter „Results and Discussion” might be divided into two separate sections.
4. The results are poorly compared with literature of subject.
5. The chapter „Conclusions” might be shortened.
6. I suggest to add some literature positions. Perhaps, the below listed sources will be useful:

• Schmitt, T 2000. Quality tourism - a sustainable alternative to the development of tourism on Mallorca? GEOGRAPHISCHE ZEITSCHRIFT 88(1): 53-65.
• Carli et al. 2020. Energy scheduling of a smart microgrid with shared photovoltaic panels and storage: The case of the Ballen marina in Samso. Energies 198: 117188.
• Sunaryo et al. 2019. Solar Energy for a Traditional Coastal Fishing Platform. JOURNAL OF MARINE SCIENCE AND APPLICATION 18(3): 366-371.  

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for your very helpful comments. Please find attach in the word document our answers to the issues you raised.

Best regards

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Overall this manuscript needs a lot of work, basically it needs to be re-written. It is a shame because the topic is very interesting. I recommend to revisit it and reformulate the problem as well as deliver strong literature review on RES and why is this important approach to conceptualise sustainability of nautical tourism. As of now, it seems that the authors did not have strong concept for the paper, and it can be seen in its lack of focus in literature review.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for your very helpful comments. Please find attach in the word document our answers to the issues you raised.

Best regards

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Theoretical background:

Regarding theoretical background, it can be observed how the authors have made an review of the academic literatura. This review considers mainly relevant studies about the state of the art on the sustainable tourism. In general, the bibliographic sources used by the authors are adequate in this research field.

Methodology:

The authors must describe the research methods used, the purpose of the research, the objectives and hypotheses of the research.

Results:

From line 373, page 8 it is said that “Our survey of nautical tourism charter companies was conducted during 2018 [25]. The questionnaire was sent to 193 addresses of various charter companies in Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, Italy and Turkey. The questionnaire was completed by 51 respondents (41 in Croatia, 5 in Greece, 2 in Italy, 2 in Slovenia and 1 in Turkey), representing a high return of 26.4%. The first part of the questionnaire contains basic demographic characteristics: gender, age, country of employment, job description and level of education. The second part of the questionnaire  contains questions related to energy efficiency in nautical tourism companies, number of installed  increase energy efficiency, obstacles to achieving a higher level of energy efficiency as well as  proposals and suggestions related to this research. All survey questions were closed and mandatory except for the last question where respondents had the opportunity to list suggestions related to our research. ’’ This information is repeated, it is already included in the Methodology section.

Conclusions:

Discussions of the results are recommended to be included in the Results section.

The authors may emphasize more on the theoretical implications.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Please find enclosed in the attachment our answers to your suggestions.

Thank you very much for your help and time.

Best

Authors

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors,

The provided changes enabled improvement of manuscript „Making Nautical Tourism greener in the Mediterranean”. However, I have some further suggestions considering Your text.

1. In my opinion chapter „Introduction” is very long, particularly some parts are too extent f.ex. text in lines 168-180 might be shorter. I I am convinced that, also other parts might be more concise. Moreover, I suggest to divide whole chapter into subchapters e.g.: „Background of investigations”, „Current state of knowledge about sutainable tourism including nautical tourism”, „Aim of investigations” (lines 230-238).

2. Please, take into considreation the possibility of shortening text in lines 243-281 and (perhaps?) moving it to the section begining in line 168 („..In places without electricity, photovoltaic (PV) systems”). Moreover, I found that, the similar text with Table 1 is repeated in section begins in Line 338..

3. Please, when You start the sentence from citation state the name of Author of literature position:

e.g. in line 115 is „..[15] investigated factors determining..” and should be „Lam-Gonzalzes [15] investigated factors determining..”

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Please find enclosed in the attachment our answers to your suggestions.

Thank you very much for your help and time.

Best

Authors

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf