Combining Social Media and Mobile Positioning Data in the Analysis of Tourist Flows: A Case Study from Szeged, Hungary
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear authors,
I think your paper is good, but there are some little things that should review:
- Conclusions: This section is too short and must be extended.
- The first paragrah in teh conclusion section is a copy-paste of your 16th reference. I think conclusions must be much more a personal elaboration than a summary or compilation so it invite you to review this point.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
thank you for your useful comments. The section on Discussion and conclusion was considerably extended. The first paragraph was also rephrased.
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper addresses a topic of interest.
Its objective is not clear, that is, it is not clearly indicated if a) it is intended to develop a novel methodology, as it appears in the conclusions, or as it appears in the summary, the objective is b), “to find out the role of events in the international tourism of Szeged ”.
Therefore the main objective of the work seems somewhat confusing. It would be necessary to clarify it and for the title to reflect that objective.
If the objective is to develop a novel methodology for measuring the impact of events, and the contribution is that, the justification and the gap in the literature in this regard should be reinforced in the introduction, and that this methodology contributes over other existing ones. that allow to measure the same. The article should focus towards this goal
Perhaps the objective was to analyze the role of events in international tourism in a case raised from the city of Szeged. In terms of results, some of them seem quite obvious or expected, since it is argued that on the dates of events there are peaks in international tourism, understanding tourism in a broad sense, since, for example, foreign students from other areas of Hungary are considered "tourists". The detailed study of what happened around a specific event such as Dragon Boat, leads to results of visitor movements through the city and various areas, a question that is also measurable through other methods. It is not understood what the article contributes in this regard. Visitors should be referenced in the title.
The effort made in gathering information and treating it is valuable, although its validity should be justified in the article with references to previous scientific works.
To highlight the usefulness of the research, it should be reinforced which is the same and for what the results could be used concretely.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you for your useful comments. We addressed all the points you raised.
The objective of the research is clearly stated, see Line No. 64. It is also emphasized in Line 351 in the Discussion and conclusion part. We turned the focus towards the analysis of tourism flows instead of events. We changed the title of the paper accordingly.
Methodologically foreign students were not considered as 'tourists' which is now explained in detail in the section on methodology.
Previous academic work in the field is referenced and contrasted.
We tried to do our best to highlight the usefulness of the approach for various fields besides academic research, including urban planning, tourism planning, tourism marketing, place-making etc.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Dear Authors,
The problem in the manuscript is interesting. However, as it stands, the research supports the already known statements. It is known that events attract tourists.
It would be more interesting to create a pattern of foreign tourists using social media. It can also rank the popularity of events or places. Table 2 lists the main peaks, however, only 4 relate to events. In connection with the title of the work, you should present all the most important events and then show the frequency. Dates unrelated to events should be omitted.
The manuscript lacks the use of advanced statistical methods, currently, it is only a graphical and tabular presentation.
Unfortunately, the discussion is very weak.
There are also no clear implications. The authors write that the research is useful for tourism planning, but gives no examples of how to apply it.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you for your useful comments. The focus of the research was turned towards the spatio-temporal analysis of tourist flows instead of events. This is also reflected in the title now.
We have substantially extended the methodological section with detailed information on the pre-processing of mobile positioning data. See Section 3.2.2.
We tried to do our best to highlight the usefulness of the approach for various fields besides academic research including urban planning, tourism planning, place-making, etc. We extended the discussion part, giving examples for the possible use of the proposed methodology.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
After the first review, discrepancies are again observed in terms of the objectives set throughout the document.
The introduction does not include the gap covered by this methodology over others already consolidated.
Some of the changes made seem ad hoc for the review, since there is no indication that they were errors detected by the authors in the first version. No modifications are observed in the necessary results if information in English was previously analyzed and now it is indicated that the information of messages written in languages other than Hungarian has been truly reviewed, which makes one doubt whether the information that has been handled It is the one indicated in this second or first version. The same happens with foreign students.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
following your comments, we made very substantial revisions to the manuscript. We sharpened the focus and put more emphasis on the set objectives. As it is explained in the methodology only those users were considered where the difference between the first and last events did not exceed 25 days. Therefore, data of foreign students (who normally spend a whole term in a foreign country were disregarded. We also clarified that 'non-Hungarian' tweets were only considered during the research. As the main keyword 'Szeged' is the same in all foreign languages the distinction between Hungarian and non-Hungarian tweets was important, but we did not differentiate further as the penetration of Twitter varies by country. The gap in existing research material has been intensely discussed in the introduction, in the literature review section, and most excessively in the Discussion, conclusion section. We emphasize the novelty of the methodology and its usefulness in sustainable tourism studies. We also highlight the implications of research findings for different stakeholders. We hope we could settle all the points you raised in your review.
Reviewer 3 Report
Dear Authors,
Referring to your first answer: Thank you for your useful comments. The focus of the research was turned towards the spatio-temporal analysis of tourist flows instead of events. This is also reflected in the title now. I do not agree with this statement. Events have been removed from the title, but they still occupy a major role in the introduction, research, and conclusions. Now the whole manuscript should be adapted to the new title.
In my opinion, the Discussion section should be more extensive. There has been a slight change here.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
following your useful comments, we made substantial revisions to the previous version of the manuscript, especially the final (Discussion, conclusion) section. We sharpened the focus of the investigation and put more emphasis on the set objectives. The gap in existing literature has been intensely discussed in the introduction, in the literature review, and most excessively in the Discussion, conclusion section. We emphasize the novelty of the methodology and the relevance of knowledge provided by its use in sustainable tourism planning. We also highlight the implications of research findings for different stakeholders, including planners, and tourism management organizations. We hope we could settle all the points you raised in your review.
