Mapping the Sustainable Development in Health Tourism: A Systematic Literature Review

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to review the manuscript, entitled, “mapping the sustainable development in health tourism: A bibliometric analysis.”

After the COVID-19 pandemic, health tourism has been popular. The topic is very interesting and can provide synthesized information derived from previous research. However, results are not clearly discussed, and discussion does not provide sufficient information regarding the synthesized information. I would like to give some comments.

In abstract, the sentence is somewhat not clear.

“In this sense, it pretends to respond to the environmental, social, and economic challenges 13 the tourism sector faces.”

Abstract

The purpose, data, results, and important implications should be briefly noted. Please add the data information, results, and core implications in abstract.

Introduction

Introduction is well written.

Materials and method

Searching the articles and selection are very important step. Please note why the following keywords are used for searching articles on health tourism? 

“the keywords: "sustain* development” AND "tourism industry" AND "health tourism"” on page 3.

Figure 2.

I would like to suggest the words in figure 2.

“Number of citations” and “number of publications”. Two words look like “No citations” and “No publications.”

Table 4

The information should be presented in different way, Are the citations are in the alphabetical order?

The information is hard to read and the readers may not have much information from Table 4.

4. Main themes

The specific information how to obtain the main themes and information of each theme from based on five clusters. The authors may note the coding process and validation process.

Figure 7 and Table 5.

Each concept was not clearly explained in 5. Conceptual framework and future research agenda.

For example, what are challenges and opportunities? What are the impact of COVID-19 on health tourism?

Conclusions and limitations

Conclusions are not well written. Please add more important implications obtained through a bibliometric analysis.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The Introduction should include more concise and direct statement of the study's purpose and significance. Clearer formulation of the research question and well-defined objectives are crucial. The literature review should be extended to encompass critical aspects of health tourism, including its definition, industry dynamics, and key sustainability-related challenges. Establishing a link between health tourism and sustainability within the broader context of the tourism industry is essential.

Regrading the methodology there is a need for improvement and theoretical justification of criteria used for selecting articles from the Web of Science database. More details are needed for the parameters and methodology employed for the bibliometric analysis, ensuring transparency and replicability. The Research protocol should also consider the conceptual framework, but also emphasizing how it informs the research questions (which is missing) and analysis. The identified clusters logically follow and reflect the criteria for bibliometric analysis ans SLRs.

The results and discussion could benefit form greater attention to details and the implications of the findings, making connections to the existing literature and addressing any unexpected results. Health tourism has many specifics and relates to many other economic factors, quality of health services, infrastructure etc. which are not considered due to the applied criteria. 

There is no clearly outlined contributions of the study to the existing body of knowledge. It is needed to be emphasized how the identified thematic clusters contribute to a nuanced understanding of sustainable development in health tourism?

Good.

Author Response

"Please see the attachment".

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Thank you for your revision based on the comments. 

Table 4 is very lengthy  and should be revised.

Table 4 should present the synthesized information of 5 clusters, but not present the author, year, title, journal name because all information can be found in references. 

Because  this study is a systematic literature review, Table 4 needs to provide one page long information about why these five clusters are connected and what are the common characteristics of these research papers. 

Author Response

"Please see the attachment."

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The text has undergone significant improvement, yet there remains some uncertainty regarding the author's in-depth comprehension of the nuances in health tourism. This particular sector of tourism is subject to stringent regulations in certain countries and exhibits variations in terms of motivational factors, demand dynamics, and elasticity. While acknowledging the relevance of COVID and sustainability issues, there appears to be a gap in establishing a clear connection between health tourism and the searched key words. The focus is mainly on sustainability, sustainable values and COVID.The clusters and findings, respectively, lack detailed analysis and fail to delve into the intricacies of health tourism as a highly specialized form of tourism. The additional paragraph on page 2 does not adequately address health tourism, and the sources cited (10, 11, 12, 13) are not the most pertinent to the topic. While the authors have put significant effort into conducting a literature review, the findings appear to be superficial and general, primarily attributed to a deficiency in a robust theoretical foundation within the field of study.

Author Response

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf