Tourism Enterprises Marketing Management and Upgrading Situation of Tourist Sites to Achieve Sustainable Regional Economic Development

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

I really appreciate the topic and how it has been developed by the authors. I suggested minor revisions to give the authors the time to carry on minor checking before the publication. Here I list some, but the paper will benefit from a complete review concerning spelling and sentence length.

Some minor observations:

- line 89 and 91 Jatav/Jatay 

- line 127 missing parenthesis

- line 157 please check punctuation (...development. for various reasons.)

- line 167 I'm not sure this is the correct way to insert a citation in the text, by using parenthesis as the subject. Please check here and elsewhere in the text (e.g. line 237)

Author Response

Response to comments of Reviewer 1.

Encouraging comment:

I really appreciate the topic and how it has been developed by the authors. I suggested minor revisions . . .

Grateful reply:

Thank you very much for encouraging us and we checked the entire article for spelling and sentence length

Some minor observations:

- line 89 and 91 Jatav/Jatay 

Response: Thank you. Jatav is correct and we modified it.

- line 127 missing parenthesis

Response: Thank you for your carefulness and we have added a parenthesis there.

- line 157 please check punctuation (...development. for various reasons.)

Response. Yes, you are right we had typos errors there and changed the sentences as you will read in the revised version of this paper.

- line 167 I'm not sure this is the correct way to insert a citation in the text, by using parenthesis as the subject. Please check here and elsewhere in the text (e.g. line 237)

Response: Thank you. We have changed both citations to eliminate the concerns.

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper describes an approach that, through specific indicators, makes it possible to identify weaknesses and threats related to tourism and to encourage the growth of the territories and their offer. This approach was applied to 10 tourist sites in Iran to calculate the damages in 38 indicators in the period of 1978−2019.

The topic addressed is certainly interesting and current. Some elements need to be improved. Here are my comments to improve the quality of the paper:

- The abstract of the paper should be better structured, also with concrete indications about the results obtained from the study

- References to scientific literature are very scarce. The literature review in sections 1 and 2 should be improved.

- Improve references to the concept of sustainability (environmental, economic and social). I suggest referring (and citing) this article: Marinello et al., 2020 Indicators for sustainable touristic destinations: a critical review

- All tables and figures should be cited in the text, following the numerical order. Ex. Table 1 and Table 2 are not clearly mentioned in the text, while Table 3 yes, but before Table 1 and Table 2

- The sentence “A set of indicators consisting of 38 indicators in 7 major 218 groups has been introduced upon ideas of scholars, workshop experiences, and local cognition in Table 3” should be better clarified and described. How were the indicators identified?

- The structure of the mathematical model is not clear, it should be better described

- The description of the results and their discussion is limited and superficial

Author Response

Response to comments of Reviewer 2.

Encouraging comment:

The topic addressed is certainly interesting and current. Some elements need to be improved.

Grateful reply:

Thank you very much for encouraging us and we have addressed your comments and suggestions point by point to improve the quality of the paper.

Here are my comments to improve the quality of the paper:

- The abstract of the paper should be better structured, also with concrete indications about the results obtained from the study

Response: We have rewritten the abstract and made 5 changes and added one paragraph to state the clear outcomes of this research paper. Please see the changes in the abstract in the revised version that are marked up in red colored.  

- References to scientific literature are very scarce. The literature review in sections 1 and 2 should be improved.

Response: Thank you indeed. We read the paper and found it helpful. Therefore, we added it to our literature review to foster the theoretical part as the third reviewer advised too.

- Improve references to the concept of sustainability (environmental, economic and social). I suggest referring (and citing) this article: Marinello et al., 2020 Indicators for sustainable touristic destinations: a critical review

Response: Thank you indeed. We read the paper and found it helpful. Therefore, we added it to our literature review to foster the theoretical part as the third reviewer advised too.

- All tables and figures should be cited in the text, following the numerical order. Ex. Table 1 and Table 2 are not clearly mentioned in the text, while Table 3 yes, but before Table 1 and Table 2

Response: Thanks a lot for your notice. We cited the tables and figures numerically and correctly in the text.

- The sentence “A set of indicators consisting of 38 indicators in 7 major 218 groups has been introduced upon ideas of scholars, workshop experiences, and local cognition in Table 3” should be better clarified and described. How were the indicators identified?

Response: Thank you. We clarified in the revised text well how the 38 indicators have been supplied in lines 309-311.

- The structure of the mathematical model is not clear, it should be better described

Response: Thank you for this point. We described it adequately in lines 326-333 of the revised text and described the structure of the mathematical model and its simulation.

- The description of the results and their discussion is limited and superficial

Response: Thanks a lot for this advice that encouraged us to add our most important finding through this research as follows.

The finding of this article is that tourism has evolved as a global industry influenced by various cultures and lifestyles, and more importantly, the marketing and development of the tourism industry are related to customary and civil factors, and not Sharia rules, as happened in Iran. causes its economic effects to be underestimated.

Reviewer 3 Report

1.      In the theoretical part, diversification of resources and other negative effects of tourism should also be mentioned.

1.      How the 38 indicators and 7 different factors in the study were determined

2. What is the abbreviation for the separated factors? For example (B?, H?,R?,S?,F?E?)

3.  Within the scope of the study, 264 tourists and 40 experts included in the sample were evaluated together. Wouldn't it be more appropriate to consider them separately?

4. The reason for the tourist decrease in 2021 should be evaluated by considering the pandemic conditions (Covid-19).

5.   The study should be explained in more detail based on a theoretical/theory background.

6.   The recommendations/suggestions part of the study should be developed. In particular, new suggestions should be presented to make the study original/novel.

7.    The absence of any statistical information for the specified years (1978-2019) is another missing aspect of the study.

8.  Although your paper is valuable in some respects, in order for it to be published in an SSCI index, the above-mentioned corrections must be made and re-evaluated.

Author Response

Response to comments and suggestions of Reviewer 3.

In the theoretical part, diversification of resources and other negative effects of tourism should also be mentioned.

Response: Yes, you are right. We mentioned various tourism resources, activities, and effects in the revised version to rigorous the theoretical studies in red color.

1- How the 38 indicators and 7 different factors in the study were determined.

Response: Thank you for your inquiry. We wrote about this subject at the end of section 4.1 as follows.

The indicators listed in Table 3 have been extracted from the opinions of theorists of the tourism marketing industry in the world, field studies, and the author’s knowledge of the obstacles to the development of tourism in Iran.

2- What is the abbreviation for the separated factors? For example (B?, H?,R?,S?,F?E?)

Response: We are thankful for this question because this shortage existed in the article. We have added the following factor after table 3.

In table 3, the sign column shows abbreviations of B=building, H=hospitality, F=freedom, D=destination, E=environment, Social, and R= reconstruction groups of indicators.

3-Within the scope of the study, 264 tourists and 40 experts included in the sample were evaluated together. Wouldn't it be more appropriate to consider them separately?

Response:

Because this article is the result of long-term research from 1978-2019, to avoid prolonging the discussion, the results of the process of selecting the sample community, by applying accuracy in the research method are quoted in this article.

4-The reason for the tourist decrease in 2021 should be evaluated by considering the pandemic conditions (Covid-19).

Response: Your opinion is correct and the COVID-19 Pandemic was an international disaster that hurt

all businesses. However, our data showed that tourism in Iran had been seriously damaged before the

spread of Coronavirus due to the policies of confrontation with the world, as we have edited the

following paragraph in this revised version of the article to clarify this point.

The finding of this article is that tourism has evolved as a global industry influenced by various

cultures and lifestyles, and more importantly, the marketing and development of the tourism industry

is related to customary and civil factors, and limiting it to Sharia rules, as happened in Iran. causes its

economic effects to be underestimated.

5-The study should be explained in more detail based on a theoretical/theory background.

Response: We are in common with you and the second reviewer and fostered the literature review in

the revised manuscript as has been written upper.

To foster the literature review we have developed the mentioned sections with additional citations and

references. Simultaneously we keep the discussions systematic, please see the changes in the revised

version of the manuscript in red color.

6-The recommendations/suggestions part of the study should be developed. In particular, new

suggestions should be presented to make the study original/novel.

Response: Thank you and we have added the following paragraph to develop the recommendation

part. “Based on the findings of this research, our recommendation for Iran's tourism industry is

returning to sustainable development policies based on knowledge and not Sharia, and oriented to

economic and environmental standards to improve the tourism business marketing and hospitality

services”.

7-The absence of any statistical information for the specified years (1978-2019) is another missing

aspect of the study.

Response: We have provided the number of tourists in the year 1978 in table 2 of the

revised version. The number of visitors in 2014 and 2019 were written earlier. We also provided more

qualitative data about Iran’s tourism in 1978.

8-Although your paper is valuable in some respects, in order for it to be published in an SSCI index,

the above-mentioned corrections must be made and re-evaluated.

Response: Thank you for your encouragement to value our research. Of course, we appreciated yours

and other reviewers' comments and suggestions and applied them one by one in the revised version.

Hope that the result of our efforts will convince you to publish this manuscript.

With best regards,

Authors:

Reviewer 4 Report

The article raises many problems regarding the factors of development of the tourist market, but also for this reason they are treated superficially, without a deeper analysis. The authors proposed in the article a mathematical model to simulate in 10 tourist sites in Iran and calculate the damages in 38 indicators in the period of 1978−2019. Not all phenomena can be subjected to mathematical analysis, hence I have objections to the legitimacy of using the proposed model and the variables included in it. This type of method is fraught with a large dose of subjectivism and generality. The conclusions that come from the research are rather obvious and do not contribute much to science. The key issue In this type of research is properly planned methodology and method of selection of the tested sample, i.e. respondents. The authors described this issue too generally. It does not describe who was invited to participate in the study and whether the people who took part in the study had the knowledge and experience to be able to compare the state of change in relation to 1978. Authors should complete the description of the criteria for the selection of the test sample.

I also have technical comments, i.e. each chapter of the article should have a structure typical of scientific articles, i.e. an introduction to the considerations contained in the chapter, then an expansion and summary. Do not end the chapter with a table or scheme. I suggest making a correction in this regard. In addition, all tables must have titles and numbers and a data source provided. The same applies to charts, and for this you need to decide whether the title is on the chart or below it. This needs to be improved.

The authors cite a publication from 2023, and yet it has not been published. This applies to the publication of: Jatav, S. (2023). Current Trends in Sustainable Tourism in the Indian Context. In Handbook of Research on Sustainable 472 Tourism and Hotel Operations in Global Hypercompetition (pp. 391-412). IGI Global

Authors should improve the way sources are assigned in the text. When quoting an author, the year should be given in parentheses after the name, e.g.:“(…) A study by Hariantoand colleaguesimplicated(..)”, It should be lake that: “(…) A study by Hariantoet. al (2020)implicated(...)”. This should also be improved in other places, such as :“Labanauskaitėand colleagueset. al (2020)explored 206 the Lithuanian tourism business and found that the planning of e-marketing and new 207 technologies should support this business(Labanauskaitė, Fiore & Stašys, 2020).

Author Response

Response to comments and suggestions of reviewer 4

-The article raises many problems regarding the factors of development of the tourist market, but

also for this reason they are treated superficially, without a deeper analysis.

Response: We thank you for your opinion. It is good to say that the general factors affecting the

development of the tourism industry has been extracted by considering our literature reviews'

results and workshop experiences globally and particular factors from the existing realities of

tourism in Iran. These factors have been systematically discussed and analyzed in the first and

second parts of the article. Now by adding more content in sections 1, 2.1, 2.2, and other parts of the article in the revised version, the desired factors have been analyzed more carefully. Please read the revisions in red throughout the text.

- Not all phenomena can be subjected to mathematical analysis, hence I have objections to the

legitimacy of using the proposed model and the variables included in it. This type of method is

fraught with a large dose of subjectivism and generality. The conclusions that come from the

research is rather obvious and do not contribute much to science.

Response: Dear professor, I really share your concern as a researcher. Of course, the realities of a

huge phenomenon such as the tourism industry, including a range of variables, cannot be observed completely. For this reason, we made a model of that reality to first visualize and then analyze that great phenomenon. Dear professor, you surely know that if we agree that the concept of function and variable is a characteristic of new mathematics, then you will accept that a mathematical model based on statistics works more accurately than other qualitative and descriptive methods.

Mathematical models have become popular as a logical language in the analysis of regional and

urban development issues. However, your opinion about emphasizing the accuracy of the survey and the implementation of the research model to prove the hypothesis and extract the results close to reality is a right idea. For this reason, in the revised version of this article, more explanations are given about the model, its implementation steps and the extraction of results (see section 4. Simulation there we described the process of the model). Please see the changes and additions in red in the text. I hope you will accept that this model provides an accurate practical method for calculating the damages caused by neglecting the scientific standards of the tourism industry. With the method used in this research, we obtained new findings, including the harmful effects of applying Sharia laws in Iran's tourism industry. The economic losses caused by this factor were carefully determined too. This is a new achievement that other similar countries can learn from both theoretically and practically. Please read the following paragraph in the end of part 5. Findings and discussions.

“The finding of this article is that tourism has evolved as a global industry influenced by various cultures and

lifestyles, and more importantly, the marketing and development of the tourism industry is related to

customary and civil factors, and limiting it to Sharia rules, as happened in Iran. has its economic damages”.

-The key issue in this type of research is properly planned methodology and method of selection of 5 the tested sample, i.e. respondents. The authors described this issue too generally. It does not

describe who was invited to participate in the study and whether the people who took part in the

study had the knowledge and experience to be able to compare the state of change in relation to

1978. Authors should complete the description of the criteria for the selection of the test sample

Response: Thank you for this advice. In the revised manuscript, we have described the statistical

community (respondents) to state that they had knowledge and information about our inquiries as

follows in red colored.

“A statistical population, which represents all social, gender, and ethnic groups in the ten sites communities, including experts and officials of cultural heritage, handicrafts, and tourism offices and tourists, who have visited those places, has been selected. The statistical population encompassed 568 people from three different groups: 264 people from the 10 communities were selected using the Bartlett table with proportional random assignment, 40 experts from the relevant state offices, and 264 tourists. All the respondents had the appropriate information and knowledge to answer our questionnaire. The experts and scientists of tourism in Iran are worried about the lack of development in tourism and theorize about this problem, the official managers of offices and tourism businesses are also well aware of the problems, and most importantly, it was the opinion of the tourists themselves, who experienced hospitality and services offered by tourism in Iran”.

- I also have technical comments, i.e. each chapter of the article should have a structure typical of

scientific articles, i.e. an introduction to the considerations contained in the chapter, then an

expansion and summary. Do not end the chapter with a table or scheme. I suggest making a

correction in this regard.

Response: You are right indeed and we appreciate your comment. Therefore, we have corrected

sections 2, 3, 4, and 5 according to your comment which you see in text red colored.

-In addition, all tables must have titles and numbers and a data source provided. The same applies to charts, and for this you need to decide whether the title is on the chart or below it. This needs to be improved.

Response: Thank you very much and sorry for we had ignored this important, In the revised version of this paper we have corrected all tables and figures.

-The authors cite a publication from 2023, and yet it has not been published. This applies to the

publication of: Jatav, S. (2023). Current Trends in Sustainable Tourism in the Indian Context. In

Handbook of Research on Sustainable 472 Tourism and Hotel Operations in Global

Hypercompetition (pp. 391-412). IGI Global

Response: We agree that this book has not been published officially yet, but we read the abstract,

foreword, preface, and previews of 23 chapters through internet exploration and used our findings from this book. However, we accept your comment and replace it with another similar reference concerning sustainable tourism planning and operations, as follows.

Asmelash, A. G., & Kumar, S. (2019). Assessing progress of tourism sustainability: Developing and validating sustainability indicators. Tourism Management, 71, 67–83.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2018.09

- Authors should improve the way sources are assigned in the text. When quoting an author, the year should be given in parentheses after the name, e.g.:“(...) A study by Hariantoand

colleaguesimplicated(..)”, It should be lake that: “(...) A study by Hariantoet. Al

(2020)implicated(...)”.

6

Response: Thank you much. We have modified it according to your comment. Please see the

changes in the revised version in red.

-This should also be improved in other places, such as: “Labanauskaitėand colleagueset. Al (2020) explored 206 the Lithuanian tourism business and found that the planning of e-marketing and new 207 technologies should support this business (Labanauskaitė, Fiore & Stašys, 2020).

Response: Thank you much. We have modified it according to your comment. Please see the

changes in the revised version in red.

Finally, we hope that the result of our efforts will convince you to publish this manuscript.

With best regards,

Authors: Gaoguang Li & Abdol Aziz Shahraki

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The quality of the work is improved with these reviews. The literature could be further integrated

Author Response

Response to comments of Reviewer 2.

-The quality of the work is improved with these reviews. The literature could be further integrated

Response: Thank you very much for your advice. We agree with you and have systematically integrated more references with relevant citations.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

This revised version of the study has been developed by the authors but I suggested minor revisions.  The literature review sections should be improved. The reference list is not enough. The number of references is only 30. And need to improve findings and discussion sections too. Good luck.

Author Response

Response to comments and suggestions of Reviewer 3.

-This revised version of the study has been developed by the authors but I suggested minor revisions.  The literature review sections should be improved. The reference list is not enough. The number of references is only 30.

Response: We have improved the reference list with further studies, citations, and references, particularly concerning the SWOT technique and findings of this research, as the revised version has 37 references.

And need to improve findings and discussion sections too. Good luck

Response: We appreciated your advice and improved the mentioned sections with citations concerning reliability of SWOT analysis and findings about the contradiction of Sharia rules with the knowledge-based development of the tourism business. Please see the second revised version of the manuscript.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

The authors still haven't included sources under tables and charts. In addition, the charts still have two titles, i.e. on the chart and below the chart. You must remove the title from the chart image and leave only below it.

Author Response

Response to comments and suggestions of reviewer 4

-The authors still haven't included sources under tables and charts.

Response: Many thanks. I have corrected it. Please see the revised version of the manuscript where the sources are existing.

-In addition, the charts still have two titles, i.e. on the chart and below the chart. You must remove the title from the chart image and leave only below it.

Response: Thanks a lot for your comment. We have changed the titles as you suggested.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf