Green Nature or Green Fantasies: Representations of Ecotourism in Vietnam

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear authors, thank you for giving me the opportunity to read your manuscript.

The article presents an interesting topic. The overview is clear and well presented. I found that, in the current context, the topic addressed in the paper is certainly important. 

·        I think that a chapter related to "Literature Review" would succeed in linking the general information with the specific ones analyzed.

·        The conclusions of the study should address the limitations and opportunities of the study for future research much more clearly so as to provide some guidance on what should follow from their research and findings.

Author Response

 February 25, 2023

Dear Respected Reviewer,

I would like to thank you for the detailed and insightful comments on the manuscript. I have addressed your suggestions in the revision (in track changes), as shown in my responses below.

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely Yours,

Author

Responses to the reviewer’s comments

1. I think that a chapter related to "Literature Review" would succeed in linking the general information with the specific ones analyzed

Response:

I appreciate your comments. I have relocated the ecotourism literature review from the "Materials and Methods" section to a new section: 3. Ecotourism. I also revised the literature review (pages 3-4)

2. The conclusions of the study should address the limitations and opportunities of the study for future research much more clearly so as to provide some guidance on what should follow from their research and findings

Response:

I have updated the conclusions to reflect the new information and discuss the study's constraints and potentials for future research (Pages 16-17).

Thanh you very much!

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors and editor,

This study is a paper dealing green nature or green fantasies: representations of ecotourism in Vietnam. Although significant outputs are derived from the research results, there are limitations in the following studies, which require faithful supplementation.

1.The introduction section should be better developed. The introduction section should briefly explain what is the issue, why is it an issue, how in the past/current this issue is being dealt with and finally, the structure of the paper.

2.What are the contributions of the study? It seems not clearly defined in the introduction

3. How this research gap relates to current issue?

4. What is the uniqueness of this study as compared with past empirical studies?

5. In your method description, please be more specific about how you collected the data.

6. The English should be improved

Author Response

 February 25, 2023

Respected Reviewer,

I would like to thank you for the detailed and insightful comments on the manuscript. I have addressed your suggestions in the revision (in track changes), as shown in my responses below.

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely Yours,

Author

Responses to the reviewer’s comments

1. The introduction section should be better developed. The introduction section should briefly explain what is the issue, why is it an issue, how in the past/current this issue is being dealt with and finally, the structure of the paper.

Response:

I greatly appreciate your feedback. I have revised the introduction based on your suggestions regarding what is the issue, why is it an issue, how in the past/current this issue is being dealt with (pages 2-3). The structure of the paper is presented in the second paragraph of page 3.

2. What are the contributions of the study? It seems not clearly defined in the introduction

Response:

I have clarified the contributions of the study in the introduction (page 3):

The objective of this article is to shed light on how ecotourism in Vietnam has been depicted in the public sphere and how various actors advocating ecotourism have portrayed their interests in an effort to shape the public perceptions of ecotourism. The main research question is: Are the contents of internet advertising and news media coverage regarding ecotourism consistent with the concept of ecotourism and sustainable development? The answers for the study’s research question pertain not only to the growth of the ecotourism industry, but also to the sustainable development of Vietnam and other developing countries where trade-offs exist between economic and environmental goals. Furthermore, not only are they significant at the national level, but they are even more so in the context of global sustainable development, where there are divergent opinions and approaches for bringing together the concept's three main tenets.

3. How this research gap relates to current issue?

Response:

The research gap of the paper is presented in page 2:

Representations of the tourism industry are of interest as a barometer of trends in public discourse on its key concepts [17], to which both the perceived supply and demand side in tourism are susceptible. Despite this, most studies on ecotourism have primarily focused on ecotourism practices at the sites rather than how it is portrayed to the public [18]. Those portrayals, however, become more influential given that partnerships between the internet industry and tourism companies have increased in promoting ecotourism, particularly in developing nations [19]

This research gap precludes an understanding of the current trade-offs between ecotourism in practice and its theoretical form, and thus between the three pillars of sustainable development.

4. What is the uniqueness of this study as compared with past empirical studies?

Response:

Most studies on ecotourism have primarily focused on ecotourism practices at the sites rather than how it is portrayed to the public. Using thematic analysis, the paper examines how public perceptions of ecotourism is represented on ecotourism websites, where suppliers market their ecotours and on online newspapers where the status and practices of ecotourism of a Vietnam are reported. These data sources are pertinent in light of the increasing number of Internet users and online ecotourism advertising. The research findings shed light into how actors may abuse and misinterpret the concept in ecotourism practices

5. In your method description, please be more specific about how you collected the data.

Response:

 I added more specifics about how the data was collected in page 5.

The author looked at all of the NPs in Vietnam and their respective websites. The ecotourism areas and resorts were chosen to represent the country's three main regions (the East, the Central Region, and the Southern Region). The selection of these areas also paid attention to their respective landscapes to represent Vietnam’s different sights, whether that be a hilly location, a seaside place, or a lowland one. In each website, the author considered how the destinations' values were portrayed in the introduction and which activities were featured in the tours' itineraries. The author has made an effort, via these accounts, to trace the participation of local people in tourism, its value and activities, and the prominence given to environmental education and conservation. In addition to the textual information, the existence and type of images inside the adverts and articles were also taken into account during the data collection process. The characteristics of ecotourism representation in Vietnam in relation to the five variables of the analytical framework were determined using thematic analysis, which consists of coding, finding themes and patterns (Table 1).

6. The English should be improved

Response:

To improve the English of the paper, I had a native English speaker check the manuscript's spelling and grammar.

Thanh you very much!

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

The article is extremely interesting and 'timely', drawing attention to the discrepancies between the idea of ecotourism and the actual tourist offer, which is not necessarily environmentally friendly. The issue of protecting naturally valuable areas from the negative effects of the tourism industry is extremely important. However, the findings of the research indicate that often tourism products advertised as sustainable or ecological have nothing to do with ecology.
As the article discusses the results using only examples of websites and ecotourism or ecotourism-like offers, I think it would be worthwhile to include a table showing how many of the criteria adopted by the authors were met by all entities advertising tourism products with the prefix "eco" (including division into national parks, and ecotourism areas and resorts)

Author Response

Dear Respected Reviewer,

I would like to thank you for the detailed and insightful comments on the manuscript. I have addressed your suggestions in the revision (in track changes), as shown in my responses below.

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely Yours,

Author

Responses to the reviewer’s comments

1. As the article discusses the results using only examples of websites and ecotourism or ecotourism-like offers, I think it would be worthwhile to include a table showing how many of the criteria adopted by the authors were met by all entities advertising tourism products with the prefix "eco" (including division into national parks, and ecotourism areas and resorts)

Response:

I appreciate your comment. Table 5 (pages 14) provides a summary and comparison of the three types of ecotourism representation based on the criteria of the study’s analytical framework. I also included the following remark (page 14):

The green nature in NPs is the most committed of the three patterns to the characteristics of ecotourism, having fulfilled 8/11 criteria, while the green fantasies partially fulfilled 6/12 criteria and the checking-in locations only partially fulfilled 2/12 criteria.

Thanh you very much!

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 4 Report

I enjoyed this paper. The author is a significant critical voice in relation to sustainability and ecotourism in Vietnam. The tone maintained is considered yet persuasive in relation to the overall findings of the paper.

The paper is based on analysis of secondary sources, and the mode of analysis is consistent and effective in the intended research process.

I can identify further research extension opportunities, generally reating to the gathering and analysis of primary data, although these would form complementary extension studies.

Overall, quality work.

Author Response

 February 25, 2023

Dear Respected Reviewer,

I would like to thank you for the detailed and insightful comments on the manuscript. I have addressed your suggestions in the revision (in track changes), as shown in my responses below.

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely Yours,

Author

Responses to the reviewer’s comments

1. I enjoyed this paper. The author is a significant critical voice in relation to sustainability and ecotourism in Vietnam. The tone maintained is considered yet persuasive in relation to the overall findings of the paper. The paper is based on analysis of secondary sources, and the mode of analysis is consistent and effective in the intended research process. I can identify further research extension opportunities, generally reating to the gathering and analysis of primary data, although these would form complementary extension studies.

Response:

I’d appreciate your comments. In light of your feedback, I further expand the conclusions with suggestions for future research (page 17).

Thanh you very much!

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors have revised the manuscript and propose its publication in the form.