The Variation of UTCI with the Background of Climate Change and Its Implications for Tourism in a Complicated Climate Region in Western China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The abstract is more descriptive please reform it to read your topic and paper working process, and components.

Many values and facts in the introduction need sources, for example you wrote “Meanwhile, international 48 visitor spending amounted to US$1.8 trillion in 2019 (6.8% of total exports). As tourism 49 has strong comprehensiveness and sensitivity, the changes in the external environment 50 such as economy, politics and natural disasters often have a direct impact on it, “

In line 101-1020, you use climatic comfort, thermal comfort

Line 162- the author wrote” assessed the bioclimate in Russia …. what you mean, this term is used in architecture???

You can create a separate section with Literature Review.  

In study case many facts need a sources

Table 1 is not clear

 

Section 5 contains a lot of information; thus, you must incorporate some explainable figures and diagrams to aid readers. 

Author Response

Dear reviewer, Thank you very much for your hard work (the manuscript is a bit long). Thank you very much for your pertinent comments particularly the constructive suggestions. Now let me answer your questions point-to-point. (1) Q: The abstract is more descriptive please reform it to read your topic and paper working process, and components. A: This is a very constructive suggestion. We originally wrote a long abstract. Later, due to the limitation of the number of words when uploading, we had to delete a lot. Influenced by our writing habits, we did retain a lot of descriptive contents to express our results. According to your suggestion, we have made substantial modifications and nearly rewrite the abstract. (2) Q: Many values and facts in the introduction need sources, for example you wrote “Meanwhile, international visitor spending amounted to US$1.8 trillion in 2019 (6.8% of total exports). As tourism has strong comprehensiveness and sensitivity, the changes in the external environment such as economy, politics and natural disasters often have a direct impact on it, “ A: We have supplemented some literatures and inserted in the manuscript. We originally got the data on China's tourism economy from a website, and didn't quote it. Later, we found the published book (Ref.3) including the required data. (3) Q: In line 101-1020, you use climatic comfort, thermal comfort A: For the thermal comfort is part of the climate comfort, the two terms are used in this manuscript. In order to maintain the unity of the article, we followed your suggestion and used climate comfort instead in nearly all the cases. (4) Q: Line 162- the author wrote” assessed the bioclimate in Russia …what you mean, this term is used in architecture??? A: It is our mistake that the statement do not match the literature. We have deleted relevant statements and literature. (5) Q: You can create a separate section with Literature Review. A: As the literature review is part of the Introduction, it is unnecessary to create a separate section. We have greatly shortened this part to make it more appropriate. (6) Q: In study case many facts need a sources A: The sources of the figures and facts mentioned in the study area are complicated. Most of them are not officially published. Some of the data such as the meteorological data are from our calculations. We also have greatly shortened this part. (7) Q: Table 1 is not clear A: Table 1, which is derived from the literature [56], is very important in this manuscript. But, we found the Table 2 is not clear and nearly useless. We deleted the Table 2 instead. (8) Q: Section 5 contains a lot of information; thus, you must incorporate some explainable figures and diagrams to aid readers. A: Yes, yes. Section 5 contains a lot of information. Because Section 5.1 and 5.2 have overlapping contents, we combined the two parts into one part and greatly reduced the length. The suggestion that incorporating some explainable figures and diagrams to aid readers is great and constructive. To be honest, the authors are also confused by so many scenic spots, scenic areas and planned areas for tourism development. We made a new figure (Figure 9) with these important spots and areas. Thus, it is much easier to be read or understood. Considering the sensitivity of the border line and some regions (such as Kashmir) at the time of publication, we have not mentioned the cross-border tourism in the figure. Thanks again. With my best regards, Prof. Dr. Jinkui Wu

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors,

I find this manuscript interesting as being focused on a complex analysis on the temporal and spatial pattern of the tourism climate comfort and its evolution rules in Kashgar region (China). The importance of the study is reflected, on the one hand, by the choice of an interesting area characterized by rich natural resources and a unique cultural environment. On the other hand, the relevance of the study results from the analysis of the climate comfort by applying a relevant methodology based on mixed methods.

Key words: you should avoid using key words which are also in the title: (climate change, tourism). One suggestion woud be to mention, for example, specific forms of tourism in the Kashgar area instead of tourism.

Study area

In this section you describe different natural and cultural elements as tourist attractions. You can include one or two photos, especially for representing the characteristics of Kashgar Old Town (earthen buildings, labyrinthine streets of Islamic influence).

Discussion

Section 5 should be renamed discussion and to be structured using the subsections related to the implication of results for tourism.

You are referring to several tourism festivals organized in Kashgar area (Lines 691-693). Please mention at least three most important tourism festivals.

You should present sinthetically the significance of the results highligthing their importance and the originality of the study.

Furthermore, you should mention the limitation of the study and future research at the end of discussion section.  It would be interesting to find out which issue(s) will be addressed in future research.

Minor comments

For the sentence it is neccesary to add a citation: "The COVID-19 swept the world in 2020 and new virus variants continued to emerge in 2021, causing global tourism to fall into a comprehensive and deep recession. Following a loss of almost US$4.9 trillion in 2020 (-50.4% decline compared to 2019), travel and tourism's contribution to GDP dropped to 3.7%. Increased by US$1 trillion (+21.7% rise compared to 2020), the ratio reached 3.8% in 2021" (Lines 51-56 ).

For the data included in the paragraph between Lines 60-69 it is neccesary to add citation indicating data source: "The situation in China was basically similar. In 2019, the number of domestic tourists was 6.006 billion, an increase of 8.4% over the same period of the previous year. The total travel tourism revenue for the year reached US$ 0. 95 trillion (+11% rise compared to 2018). The comprehensive contribution of tourism to GDP was US$ 1.57 trillion, accounting for 11.05% of the total GDP. Tourism employed 79.87 (directly 28.25) million people, accounting for 10.31% of the total employed population in the country. Mainly affected by the COVID-19, the number of domestic tourists was 2.879 billion (52.1% decline compared to 2019) and the domestic tourism revenue was US$ 0.31 trillion  (61.1% decline compared to 2019). In 2021, the domestic tourists increased by 62.6% (compared to 2020) but still below expectations".

For the data included in the paragraph between Lines 249-252 it is neccesary to add citation indicating data source: "Tourism occupies a special place in regional economy in Kashgar. In 2019, the Kashgar area had a population of 4.62 million, with a GDP of US$14.67 billion and a per capita GDP of US$ 3175. The amount of tourists was 15.17 million and the tourism reached US$2.1 billion (14.5% of the total prefecture GDP) in 2019".

Author Response

Dear reviewer, Thank you very much for your hard work (the manuscript is a bit long). Thank you very much for your pertinent comments particularly the constructive suggestions. Now let me answer your questions point-to-point. (1) Q: I find this manuscript interesting as being focused on a complex analysis on the temporal and spatial pattern of the tourism climate comfort and its evolution rules in Kashgar region (China). The importance of the study is reflected, on the one hand, by the choice of an interesting area characterized by rich natural resources and a unique cultural environment. On the other hand, the relevance of the study results from the analysis of the climate comfort by applying a relevant methodology based on mixed methods. A: Thank you very much for your comprehensive comments on the article. Kashgar, rich in natural resources (especially climate resources) and human resources, is indeed a very interesting place to study the relationship between climate change and tourism. The human resources of Kashgar have its particularity, but its natural tourism resources are a microcosm of northwest China. Therefore, I hope our research is helpful for the tourism development of western China. (2) Q: Key words: you should avoid using key words which are also in the title: (climate change, tourism). One suggestion would be to mention, for example, specific forms of tourism in the Kashgar area instead of tourism. A: This is a very good suggestion. We replaced some key words according to your suggestion. (3) Q: Study area. In this section you describe different natural and cultural elements as tourist attractions. You can include one or two photos, especially for representing the characteristics of Kashgar Old Town (earthen buildings, labyrinthine streets of Islamic influence). A: Photos can really increase the attraction of articles. Considering the accuracy requirements of photos for the publication and the length of the article, we gave up using photos. Furthermore, there are very beautiful similar photos on the webpages for readers who are interested in the Kashgar’s ethnic cultural resources. (4) Q: Section 5 should be renamed discussion and to be structured using the subsections related to the implication of results for tourism. A: We renamed the section title as Discussion and changed the titles of subsections Q: You are referring to several tourism festivals organized in Kashgar area (Lines 691-693). Please mention at least three most important tourism festivals. A: Because Section 5.1 and 5.2 have overlapping contents, we combined the two parts into one part and greatly reduced the length. As these measures were too specific, we deleted them. Q: You should present sinthetically the significance of the results highligthing their importance and the originality of the study. Furthermore, you should mention the limitation of the study and future research at the end of discussion section. It would be interesting to find out which issue(s) will be addressed in future research. A: This is a very constructive suggestion. We followed your suggestion and added an extra paragraph in the Conclusion section. Minor comments (5) Q: For the sentence it is neccesary to add a citation: "The COVID-19 swept the world in 2020 and new virus variants continued to emerge in 2021, causing global tourism to fall into a comprehensive and deep recession. Following a loss of almost US$4.9 trillion in 2020 (-50.4% decline compared to 2019), travel and tourism's contribution to GDP dropped to 3.7%. Increased by US$1 trillion (+21.7% rise compared to 2020), the ratio reached 3.8% in 2021" (Lines 51-56 ). A: We added the Ref. [1]. (6) Q: For the data included in the paragraph between Lines 60-69 it is neccesary to add citation indicating data source: "The situation in China was basically similar. In 2019, the number of domestic tourists was 6.006 billion, an increase of 8.4% over the same period of the previous year. The total travel tourism revenue for the year reached US$ 0. 95 trillion (+11% rise compared to 2018). The comprehensive contribution of tourism to GDP was US$ 1.57 trillion, accounting for 11.05% of the total GDP. Tourism employed 79.87 (directly 28.25) million people, accounting for 10.31% of the total employed population in the country. Mainly affected by the COVID-19, the number of domestic tourists was 2.879 billion (52.1% decline compared to 2019) and the domestic tourism revenue was US$ 0.31 trillion (61.1% decline compared to 2019). In 2021, the domestic tourists increased by 62.6% (compared to 2020) but still below expectations". A: We have supplemented Ref. [3] and inserted in the manuscript. We originally got the data on China's tourism economy from a website, and didn't quote it. Later, we found the published book (Ref. [3]) including the required data. (7) Q: For the data included in the paragraph between Lines 249-252 it is neccesary to add citation indicating data source: "Tourism occupies a special place in regional economy in Kashgar. In 2019, the Kashgar area had a population of 4.62 million, with a GDP of US$14.67 billion and a per capita GDP of US$ 3175. The amount of tourists was 15.17 million and the tourism reached US$2.1 billion (14.5% of the total prefecture GDP) in 2019".You can create a separate section with Literature Review. A: The data were from the annual summary report of the Kashgar’s Tourism Bureau. For the report was not an official publication, we didn’t cite it. Thanks again. With my best regards, Prof. Dr. Jinkui Wu

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript can be accepted.