Exploring the Coordinated Evolution Mechanism of Regional Sustainable Development and Tourism in China’s “Beautiful China” Initiative
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
My recommendation would be to describe the article with incorporating some statistical analysis, graphs and maps. State precisely the objectives of the study; and state justifiable reasons as to why has it been chosen and improve its methodological steps (may be by some chart). The entire manuscript needs some minor corrections.
1. The style of writings throughout the manuscript is satisfactory only a few sections need minor grammatical corrections.
2. Try to incorporate some GIS based maps using the data table 6, 7, 8 with comparative analysis.
3. Some statistical analysis of the data may improve the quality of the work.
4. Incorporate some current reference with proper citation.
5. Authors should mention the software use to prepare the maps.
6. One or two sentences must be added about the physical background of the study area since it plays a major role in influencing the tourism scenario of that place.
7. The authors should incorporate some lines about the challenges they have faced.
8. Insert some relevant mapping using RS-GIS softwares and also mentioned them in the methodology section.
9. What is the rationale of the study? What is the research gap? What are the objectives? What are the methodological steps? All these needs to clearly state in the manuscript in the concerned section.
10. The entire concluding remark needs incorporate with some policy suggestions.
11. Read the following suggested articles:
· http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geosus.2022.07.002; http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94544-2_13;
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The article deals with the issue of tourism development as part of the country's sustainable development using the example of China. The presented research is quantitatively focused while comparing two synthetic indicators, namely Beautiful China "beauty degree" and Tourism Evaluation Index. The article is at a good formal level, has an adequate literature search, a well-designed methodology, clearly presented results, and comprehensibly formulated conclusions. For the reviewer, as a researcher from the European Union, it was an interesting insight into a somewhat different model of socio-economic development practiced in China.
There aren't many errors in the article, but I found a few and have some recommendations:
- On line 238, the formula defining Wj is moved up.
- I would divide Figure 1 into three figures. In their current form, the cartograms are too small, and the legend is difficult to read. It would be better if the maps occupied the entire page width and were always compared two under each other.
- For Figure 2, I would slightly reduce the font of the data labels so that they do not touch each other.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
About the submission with the title "Spatiotemporal Evolution of Regional Sustainable Development and Tourism Coordination: Case Study of China" I have the following comments:
I suggest to become the abstract more clear and objective with the following points: main motivations, gaps that justify this research, objectives, methodologies considered, novelties and main insights.
In my opinion, the indicators presented in table 1 are not justified by the scientific literature. To obtain the index (subsection 3.3) I would suggest something more robust, such as factor analysis, for example. Table 2 also needs scientific support. The "coupling coordination model" appears in a very confuse way and its importance was not properly justified and in my opinion it is not the most adjusted approach for the study.
The results are compromised by the problems identified before for the methodology and research design.
The idea for the paper is interesting, however it was not properly designed, presented and scientifically justified.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
Dear Editor, Dear Authors,
The research topic "Spatiotemporal Evolution of Regional Sustainable Development and Tourism Coordination: a Case Study of China" undertaken is very relevant to sustainable development. Thorough research in this area can contribute to improving the condition of the sustainable tourism sector.
Summary:
The abstract should be revised according to the journal's guidelines, as information about the research methods and the purpose of the paper is missing.
After reading the paper, I have comments and suggestions to improve the paper as follows:
In the "Introduction
This chapter is well written. The authors introduce the reader to the research topic, draw attention to the existence of undertaking the research topic. The research topic is also presented using examples from other countries, such as Mexico.
However, the presentation of the main purpose of the work was missing at the end of this chapter.
I suggest introducing specific research questions.
2 Literature review
This chapter is well written. However, I suggest introducing foreign literature. The dominant literature is from China.
3. materials and methods
3.1 Study area and data source
A map showing the study area is missing. I suggest introducing it in the article. Please answer , why was the choice of these particular localities made?
3.2 Construction of the Regional Sustainability and Tourism Assessment System
I suggest describing in more detail the selection of indicators for "Beautiful China "beauty degree" and Tourism Evaluation Index System" . What was the guiding principle? What priorities were taken into account?
[229-238; 2600-270] - technical errors-statistical formulas are illegible, I suggest correcting according to the guidelines of the journal
Table 2. criteria for classifying levels of integrated development of two systems. and Table 3. coupling evaluation standards
-. technical errors in the notation, please unify the hinges () or [].
3.3.2 Geographic zoning
This section should be moved to 3.1. Research area and data source
The Research Methods section is presented correctly.
I suggest adding the geographical location of the rural areas under study, i.e. a map of China with the location of the study area.
In order to better understand the different stages of the study, I also suggest adding a research flow chart.
In the Results
The results are presented and described in a good way and are very interesting. The results of the work are enriched with tables and graphs.
Figure 2 Comparison of the average value of the degree of coordination between the Beautiful China subsystem and the tourism industry in 2013 and 2017
- I suggest improving it, it is illegible, the figures overlap
I suggest making a division into a discussion and conclusion section
In the Discussion section, the authors should discuss and explain the conclusions and results of the paper more. This would contribute to the high improvement of this paper. The authors should compare their project and results with the results of similar ongoing research on this topic from other parts of Europe and around the world.
The Conclusion does not show exactly how this research can contribute to sustainable development in tourism.
This chapter has yet to answer the question: what tangible benefits has this study brought to the development of tourism in the city and make recommendations.
In conclusion, I recommend this paper for publication in the Journal "Sustainability" with minor changes.
Kind regards,
Reviewiu
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 3 Report
In my opinion the paper does not use adjusted methodologies and the options made are not scientifically support. These weaknesses may compromise the robustness of the results and conclusions.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
