Public Perception of Tourism Cities before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic through the Lens of User-Generated Content

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

I find this study to be relevant and interesting. However, I strongly suggest to the author to rewrite the second section, as it does not provide any reflection to UGC and CI in the context of COVID-19 from theoretical perspective. Section 5.3 contains numerous data and it would be advisable to use tables in order to enable easier and more understandable analysis of the results. It would be advisable to analyse whether such or similar research was already conducted in different destinations. Finally, make sure that you answer the "so what" question. 

Author Response

Thanks for the detailed suggestions provided by the reviewer committee. The authors have made the indicated changes. 

• The author has revised the paper and provided reflections to UGC and CI in the context of COVID-19 from theoretical perspective. The modified text is shown below.

In terms of UGC research, researchers have used keyword analysis to explore the multidimensionality of political texts and public policies, or to understand extreme differences before and after the German political policy intervention (Zirn & Stuckenschmidt, 2014). Other new applications of UGC analytics include crisis identification in cities or decision-making evidence of relevant governments (Yao & Wang, 2020). Additional applications are in-depth analyses of the intervening factors in citizens’ welfare distribution (Debnath et al., 2020), and the use of UGC to control research topics in public administration for policies that meet public needs (Walker et al., 2019). Additionally, to promote the rise and recovery of the urban economy and tourism, disclosing key elements of UGC, including symbolic elements that contain user-generated content, the online travel image of the destination, and the online image of the smart tourist destination, further benefit the refinement and alignment of urban elements.

The rapid development of social media and the Internet has promoted the rapid growth of UGC (Roberts et al., 2016). This growth also affected a series of processes before, during, and after a trip. In the tourism industry, the UGC of cities serves two main purposes: first, to offer information, and second, to provide a platform for people to make recommendations about cities, share ideas, and express travel intentions (Yao & Wang, 2020). In recent years, the online image of destinations has been mainly based on Twitter, Facebook, other social media travel booking platforms (Tang & Yang, 2017), online travel agencies (OTA) (Wang et al., 2019), or information about attractions, hotels, or restaurants that represent the destination (Debnath et al., 2020). Reviews and information published via online platforms are the foundation of UGC (Luo et al., 2021). When people actively, enthusiastically, and voluntarily express opinions, their comments represent the influence of the wisdom of the crowd (Gour et al., 2021). UGC is defined as community messages generated by non-experts. It can be regarded as a key indicator of successful interactive content, which is the main reason UGC is receiving more attention in communities (Lucini et al., 2020).

• The author has added tables in Section 5.3.
• The author has revised the paper and added similar research was already conducted in different destinations. The modified text is shown below.

According to the literature about information analysis, cities are often characterized by their diverse aspects of culture, food, and entertainment (Moran et al., 2020). Whether the information is an adjustment message of UGC (Fesenmaier & Xiang, 2017) or about improving the real-life experience in urban dialogue(Melián-González et al., 2019), it can be translated into the diverse value of UGC marketing (Mody et al., 2017). Many Internet users rely on social media to communicate and express their concerns, opinions, beliefs, and genuine perceptions about new things. For example, during the pandemic, the number of tweets with hashtags such as #coronavirus, #COVID-19, or #COVID on Twitter increased exponentially. This phenomenon led to social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok to handle misinformation about COVID-19 with a high degree of caution. Ahigh volume of tweets containing panic and worrying information may cause public fear, which in turn affects trust in the government. If such issues persist without the implementation of necessary preventive measures, public distress and fear may increase. Therefore, it is particularly necessary to observe COVID-19-related social media messages to understand people’s feelings and opinions during the pandemic.

Under the influence of the pandemic, urban organizations have tried to create new ways of interaction with the public through social media platforms, changing the reactive approach of traditional communication tools. For example, images and text resources on Instagram or recordings and content production using IGTV were adopted to enhance the public’s active participation and sharing of their stories. In fact, as the pandemic wanes, it is not difficult to detect that managers, creators, or tourism industries have obtained a lot of interesting results through UGC research. This phenomenon indicates that making full use of UGC can effectively create sustainable value for cities.

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Author,

I thank you for allowing me to read your manuscript addressing the question of whether user-generated content (UGC) on social media elucidates the shift in people’s perceptions of popular tourism cities from before the pandemic to during the pandemic.

As far as I understood from the paper, your research aims to provide an interesting approach to how the interactivity of city-related UGC deals with the worldwide crisis in the tourism sector due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, some aspects of your research approach are not clear and therefore should be improved for a better understanding of the whole manuscript as follows.

First of all, I must note that, according to instructions for authors provided from the Sustainability journal, references must be numbered in order of appearance in the text (including citations in tables and legends) and listed individually at the end of the manuscript.  For further information please read instructions of the Editors on the webpage https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/instructions

I hope your efforts on the revision of the manuscript according to my following comments can make the paper more attractive to satisfy the high demands set by readers of the Sustainability journal.

#Abstract:

Line 6: The acronym “COVID-19” should be defined for the first time since this is the acronym for the full name “Coronavirus Disease of 2019”. The same applies to SARS (see line 16).

Line 18: Keywords should be listed in order of appearance from the abstract.

#Introduction:

This part is a bit short and does not help readers to understand the whole framework of the research approach. I urge you to expand it for a better explanation of the scope of your study, particularly those aspects of your approach that have particular relevance to the tourism sector in terms of sustainability.

#Literature Review:

Lines 151-152: When you say, “Existing studies on UGC largely focus on content functionality or emotional exchange”, this seems a bold conclusion and should be done very carefully. Therefore, I encourage you to explain more widely why this is in line with the scope of your research. Moreover, your assertion should be supported by more than one previous works, since you say talking about “Existing studies on…”

 

 

 

#Research Hypotheses:

Lines 166-167: When you say “Therefore, it is necessary to understand city perceptions in order to effectively promote cities.”, you should support this idea, as it seems a key statement of the research approach. To be honest, I don’t see the basis of your statement at this point.

 

#Research Methodology:

Lines 241-243: When you say, “According to the Top 100 City Destinations: 2019 Edition published by British market survey company Euromonitor International, the three most popular tourism cities were Hong Kong, Bangkok, and London”, I am just wondering why the choice of the three major tourism cities for your research has been solely based on the annual report issued by a private company, such as Euromonitor International Ltd which is based in London (UK). Indeed, I wonder why you have not compared the list of top destinations with other trusted sources, such as international organizations, either private or public entities, in the field of tourism (e.g. UNWTO, IATA, ICAO, etc.). For instance, according to information provided by UNWTO, the most visited countries in the world are France, Spain, and the USA.

Lines 208-211: When you say, “I struggled a lot understanding what you have stated here. It seems that the argument is not convincing here.”, I strongly would suggest that you explain this idea more clearly since this assertion seems a key issue in your research.

#Data Analyses and Results:

The analysis of data collected in the study has been amply developed in this subsection. Figures 1, 2, and 3 are particularly interesting for understanding the scope of the results obtained.

However, the extensive description concerning keywords directly stated in the text from “Changes in Pre-Pandemic and Peri-Pandemic City-Related Cues” becomes less attractive for readers than the summarization in tables. I therefore strongly encourage you to use a couple of tables for better visualization of these data.

#Conclusions:

It seems that the conclusions are mainly supported by earlier works instead of mostly based on your research findings. Without relinquishing the dissemination of ideas based on previous works, I would therefore suggest that the conclusions can be more supported by the findings for a better understanding of the whole manuscript.

I also cannot see any relationship between the findings of your study and the aims thereof in terms of sustainable tourism. In fact, not once is the term “sustainability” mentioned in the manuscript. Therefore, I encourage you to completely review the content of your manuscript that favors an approach towards sustainability in order to more closely meet the scope of the Sustainability journal.

Finally, in lines 505-506, this seems a bold conclusion and should be done very carefully. When you say, “To achieve successful CI communication and attract public affirmation and recognition, city promoters should strive to convey a consistent and active CI ”, I encourage you to explain more widely why it can become a key success factor in tourism communication in any case.

Sincerely,

the Reviewer.  

Author Response

Thanks for the detailed suggestions provided by the reviewer committee. The authors have made the indicated changes.

• The author has revised the reference format.
• The author has modified the keywords and Abstract.
• The author has rewritten lines 151-152. The rewritten text is shown below.

The user-generated content (UGC) of urban knowledge represents a type of people-centered information exchange and a comprehensive presentation of people’s extensive experiences in a collaborative environment (Tussyadiah & Pesonen, 2018). Originating from a people-oriented interactive environment of social media, UGC promotes multi-dimensional information interaction while adding value to the characteristics of cities through the activation of information technology.

• The author has rewritten lines 166-167. The rewritten text is shown below.

Increasing people’s knowledge about humanizing cities can help enhance the perception of cities and improve travel intentions. Therefore, the exclusive value of the main impression of a city in network communities can be regarded as an indispensable element of a city.

• The author has rewritten lines 241-243. The rewritten text is shown below.

This study first investigated city rankings in surveys conducted by different institutions in 2019. Due to the expansion of the study scope to include the comparison of cities in Eurasia, cities in France, Spain, and the United States, as compiled and ranked by the United Nations World Tourism Organization, were not selected. Instead, Hong Kong, Bangkok, and London were included in the study as they were the top city destinations published by Euromonitor International, an organization with more regional coverage. It is hoped that this study provided a direct comparison regarding various information, needs, or ideas about Eurasia cities with diverse cultures or urban characteristics.

• The author has rewritten lines 208-211. The rewritten text is shown below.

Although UGC continues to provide essential clues about cities frequently, the pandemic disruption is bound to have an impact on the interactions of community posts.

• The author has added tables in Section 5.3.
• The author has rewritten the conclusion. The rewritten text is shown below.

According to the literature about information analysis, cities are often characterized by their diverse aspects of culture, food, and entertainment (Moran et al., 2020). Whether the information is an adjustment message of UGC (Fesenmaier & Xiang, 2017) or about improving the real-life experience in urban dialogue(Melián-González et al., 2019), it can be translated into the diverse value of UGC marketing (Mody et al., 2017).

Many Internet users rely on social media to communicate and express their concerns, opinions, beliefs, and genuine perceptions about new things. For example, during the pandemic, the number of tweets with hashtags such as #coronavirus, #COVID-19, or #COVID on Twitter increased exponentially. This phenomenon led to social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok to handle misinformation about COVID-19 with a high degree of caution. Ahigh volume of tweets containing panic and worrying information may cause public fear, which in turn affects trust in the government. If such issues persist without the implementation of necessary preventive measures, public distress and fear may increase. Therefore, it is particularly necessary to observe COVID-19-related social media messages to understand people’s feelings and opinions during the pandemic.

Under the influence of the pandemic, urban organizations have tried to create new ways of interaction with the public through social media platforms, changing the reactive approach of traditional communication tools. For example, images and text resources on Instagram or recordings and content production using IGTV were adopted to enhance the public’s active participation and sharing of their stories. In fact, as the pandemic wanes, it is not difficult to detect that managers, creators, or tourism industries have obtained a lot of interesting results through UGC research. This phenomenon indicates that making full use of UGC can effectively create sustainable value for cities.

• The author has rewritten the relationship between the research results and sustainable tourism.
• The author has rewritten lines 505-506. The rewritten text is shown below.

Visual elements are an essential part of the clear projection of city image, which give meaning to symbolic signs and present the multifaceted characteristics of the city with the use of various informational symbols (Hunter, 2016). They aim to guide people in tourism decision-making, and they also positively impact the perception of the city.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Author,

Thank you for sharing with me the revised manuscript what you have deeply improved following my comments from the prior review.

Explanatory paragraphs have been added to the paper, as well as several changes and additions, thus making it possible for publication in Sustainability (ISSN: 2071-1050).

I particularly appreciate you taking the time to highlight the implications of how your study analyzing user-generated content on social media can constitute a potential basis for future analysis and methodological formalization of a topic that can also be certainly interesting for potential research in the tourist sector.

Due to all the above, I truly think that the manuscript can be now accepted for publication.

Sincerely,

The Reviewer