Spatio-Temporal Evolution and Influencing Factors of the Resilience of Tourism Environmental Systems in the Yangtze River Economic Belt of China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Congratulations on your work! The article is extremely interesting and provides an excellent methodological approach in order to analyse the spatio-temporal evolution and influencing factors of the resili1ience of tourism environmental systems using TESR.

                Minor corrections needed:

-      1. The authors should provide a clear insight on how the TESR formula was deployed, especially regarding the weight factor (Wi). They mentioned: “The entropy weight method can be used to determine the weight of the index, and the specific steps can refer to reference [47]”, but it is not clear in their case study how the Wi was determined.

-         2. The same should be done for YREB: wij is the weight matrix for spatial proximity.

-          3. The authors should explain how were set the explanatory variable and the random perturbation term in the GTWR model

-          4 The authors should correct the financial data (based on Yuan) with the inflation(consumer prices %) evolution from 2007 to 2019 to make it comparable between different years. If it is not necessary they should explain it.

-          5 The authors should offer a brief opinions on why most of the cities when using the GeoDa software in the Local spatial autocorrelation: Figure3 - LISA cluster map of the TESR in the YREB from 2007 to 2019  had an “not-significant” attribute.

-          6 Minor grammar and spelling changes needed.

Minor grammar and spelling changes needed.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Reviewer 2 Report

We appreciate that this is an interesting research subject.

Some issues to be fixed by the authors:

- a more extended literature review would be appropriate;

- explain  the elements of the evaluation index system for the TESR and, how  this index system was built, what sources were used (Table 1);

- add the research questions and the research hypothesis, also including their substantiation;

- justify why  2007, 2013 and 2019 are used as the time points; taking into consideration the selected three-time points in the Case Site Overview section  should be added data also for 2007 and 2013;

- the source of all the figures and the tables  must be mentioned, even in the case that is the authors' elaboration;

- the title of Figure 2 is not appropriate - there is no evolution from 2007 to 2019, but the situation in 2007, 2013, and 2019; also check the title of Figure 3...

- highlight better the limits and the usefulness of this research, taking into consideration that it is a case study limited to  the Yangtze River  Economic Belt of China;

- extend the Conclusions.

Author Response

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Reviewer 3 Report

The article provides a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the concept of tourism resilience and its critical role in sustainable tourism growth. It presents a novel evaluation system for the tourism environment system resilience (TESR) and applies it to a case study of 126 prefecture-level cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. It identifies several key findings, including the relatively low level of overall resilience and growth rate of the TESR in the study area, the positive spatial correlation and type agglomeration impact in the urban TESR, and the frequent transfer of the TESR with spatial dependence and spillover effects. It also explores the factors that promote the formation of the pattern of the TESR in the study area.

Overall, the paper provides a comprehensive overview of the topic and highlights several important points. It emphasizes the vulnerability of the tourism industry to various challenges, such as climate change, natural disasters, economic crises, and epidemics. This acknowledgment of vulnerability is crucial in understanding the need to enhance the resistance and resilience of the urban tourism environment system.

The description of research methods and data sources used in studying tourism resilience provides transparency and credibility to the findings. The inclusion of various analytical techniques, such as the multi-objective linear weighting model, spatial autocorrelation analysis, spatial Markov chain, and geographical and temporal weighted regression model, demonstrates the rigor of the research.

The focus on the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) as a case site provides a specific context for the study and allows for a deeper analysis of resilience in that region. The findings related to TESR in the YREB, including the spatial distribution patterns and evolution of resilience levels, provide valuable insights into the specific dynamics and characteristics of the tourism environment system in that area.

While the article provides valuable insights into the spatial-temporal evolution and influencing mechanism of the TESR in the case study area, there are some aspects that could be improved.

The article would benefit from a more concise and straightforward writing style, as technical language and complex sentences may hinder understanding for a general audience.

More discussion on the practical implications of the findings, particularly for policy-making and sustainable tourism growth, would enhance the article's value.

The paper lacks a detailed discussion of specific strategies for enhancing tourism resilience, and including practical examples or recommendations would be advantageous.

The limitations and potential biases of the research methods and data sources should be more thoroughly evaluated and discussed.

Further exploration and deeper analysis are needed to understand the complex relationships and impact mechanisms within the tourism environment system.

Practical strategies for enhancing tourism resilience, such as diversification of offerings and infrastructure investment, should be explored and provided in the paper.

A more thorough discussion of research limitations and their implications on validity and generalizability would strengthen the analysis.

A deeper analysis of the impact mechanism of TESR, considering causal relationships and interactions between factors, would provide valuable insights into the resilience of the tourism environment system.

The article would benefit from a more concise and straightforward writing style, as technical language and complex sentences may hinder understanding for a general audience.

Author Response

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Reviewer 4 Report

Overview: This manuscript used quantitative methods such as SMC and GTWR to explore the spatiotemporal evolution and influencing mechanism of the TESR in the YREB. The TESR in the YREB continues to improve, but the growth rate is small, and it is susceptible to external disturbances. There is a significant positive spatial correlation and spatial agglomeration effect in the TESR. From the perspective of spatiotemporal evolution, the transfer of the TESR is relatively frequent and has an obvious spatial spillover effect. High-resilience cities can drive the improvement of the neighboring cities’ TESR through a positive spillover effect. City economic, social, industrial, and policy factors are collectively promoting the pattern evolution of the TESR.

Some detailed comments are as follows:

Specific comments:

-   Introduction: A comprehensive literature review is a prerequisite, and the authors should summarize the research gaps and tell the readers why the authors conduct this study; Why does the author choose to use techniques like spatial autocorrelation and spatial Markov chain to look at the spatiotemporal properties and the evolution of the TESR?

-    The manuscript evaluates the resilience index of the tourism environment system (TESR) for 126 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB): clarifying why this area is selected? Are there similar studies for this area? Can the results of this study be replicated to areas with similar characteristics?

-  Line 214-229: Figure 1 does not clearly show the content of the above comment, it needs to be edited.

-    Line 233-259: Line 255 is divided into 4 levels: high, relatively high, relatively low, and low. Line 238-239: The Legend map section now displays the color month with ranges of values -> do not understand which color corresponds to which level. The map also does not show the names of cities in the study area, so the entire comment section below Line 240-273 is difficult to understand.

Figure 3 Line 297 - 298, Figure 4 Line 422 - 423, Figure 5 Line 437-438 similar comments, no city names. [Cannot display 126 City names, must have a symbol and symbol legend corresponding to each city].

Moderate editing of English language required.

Author Response

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Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

We appreciate that the authors addressed the recommendations. 

Author Response

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Reviewer 3 Report

The authors have made an attempt to address my suggestions and improve the paper. I find the current version satisfactory.

Author Response

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Reviewer 4 Report

The reviewer agrees with the revised manuscript and the author's response form. 

Author Response

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