The Tourism Service Trade Network: Statistics from China and ASEAN Countries

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

1、Abstract: where are the results? Author did not give a proper explanation of the results in the abstract. What is the contribution of the research? 

2、Keywords can be reduced and only the most important ones are mentioned.

3、Introduction: 20 – 43 This paragraph should be improved. It is better to have a brief and more effective/ structured introduction and mention the most important issues related to the research. In some parts of the introduction, additional descriptions are given that need not be mentioned.

4、When the reference is cited, it should usually be “ [1]”, not “Luo and Mao 2007”.

5、2.1.: Line 105~154. This paragraph is too long to read, you need to clarify and simplify the key points as much as possible.

      6、Line 257, if D is written in italic representation in the equation, it should identically be noted (in italic representation) everywhere. The same rules should be applied to each equation from the manuscript.

     7、In section 5.1.1, what is the basis of the indicator selection?

8、Conclusion and insights: What are the enlightenments and differences between this paper and previous research. You need to add this part in Conclusion.

9、Finally, grammatical errors need to be corrected in the manuscript. It seems that the format of the manuscript needs major correction according to the journal template.

Author Response

Dear Editor and Reviewer:

Thank you for your kind letter and kind suggestions. We appreciate the reviewer’s comments concerning our manuscript entitled " Tourism Service Trade Network: Statistics from China and ASEAN Countries"(Manuscript ID: sustainability-1816632). We seriously read the editor and reviewer’s comments. Then, we aim at reviewer’s suggestions to have our serious thinking and discussion. We try our best to properly modify the paper according to the suggestions. And we have explained in details on some questions. Please see the attachment , the major revisions are marked in red in the paper. Thank you very much.

Next, the point to point responds to the reviewer’s comments are listed as following:

Point 1: Abstract: where are the results? Author did not give a proper explanation of the results in the abstract. What is the contribution of the research?

Response 1: Thank you very much for your comments. According to your suggestion, we have revised the abstract and properly explained the results. The revised content is as follows. The changes in the paper are in the red font (Line 10-19, page 1).

Abstract: This study uses the social network analysis method to explore the structural changes of the China-ASEAN tourism services trade network and its influencing factors based on tourism services trade data of China and ASEAN countries in 2015 and 2018. The findings show that (i) the network density of the tourism services trade network increased by 30% in 2018 compared with 2015. (ii) China, Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia rank highly in terms of degree, betweenness, and closeness centrality. (iii) The distance between countries and differences in GDP per capita significantly affect the tourism services trade network. The recommendation is that tourism services trade be developed in a vigorous and systematic manner in the China-ASEAN region. This approach would enhance overall stability and cooperation in the tourism services trade network and create a win-win situation for trade in tourism services between China and ASEAN countries.

 

We haved added the contribution of the research.The content is as follows. The changes in the paper are in the red font (Line 118-127, page 3).

Based on the statistics of tourism service trade between China and Asean countries in 2015 and 2018, taking China - Asean tourism service trade network pattern as the research object, this article uses the SNA method to measure the overall characteristics of the network, and to understand the status of the China - Asean regional tourism service trade. It then make use of QAP method to empirically determine the influencing factors of tourism service trade network structure, so as to provide reference for strengthening the tourism service trade connection between China and Asean countries, and to optimize the network structure. It provides policy suggestions for the win-win development of tourism service trade between China and Asean countries..

 

Point 2: Keywords can be reduced and only the most important ones are mentioned.

Response 2: Thank you very much for your comments. According to your suggestion, we have revised the keywords. The keywords are China-ASEAN trade, tourism services and social network analysis. The changes in the paper are in the red font(Line 26, page 1).

Point 3: Introduction: 20 – 43 This paragraph should be improved. It is better to have a brief and more effective/ structured introduction and mention the most important issues related to the research. In some parts of the introduction, additional descriptions are given that need not be mentioned.

Response 3: Thank you very much for your comments. According to your suggestion, we have revised 20 – 43 this paragraph. We remove some content , give a brief and more effective introduction and mention the most important issues related to the research .The changes in the paper are in the red font (Line 37-39, page 1;Line 47-50, page 2;Line 118-127, page 3).

Point 4: When the reference is cited, it should usually be “ [1]”, not “Luo and Mao 2007”.

Response 4: Thank you very much for your comments. According to your suggestion, We have modified our citation and reference format . The changes in the paper are in the red font.

Point 5: 2.1.: Line 105~154. This paragraph is too long to read, you need to clarify and simplify the key points as much as possible.

Response 5: Thank you very much for your comments. According to your suggestion, We remove some content. The changes in the paper are in the red font(Line 149-161, page4).

Point 6: Line 257, if D is written in italic representation in the equation, it should identically be noted (in italic representation) everywhere. The same rules should be applied to each equation from the manuscript.

Response6 : Thank you very much for your comments. According to your suggestion, we have revised it. The same rules are applied to each equation from the manuscript. The changes in the paper are in the red font(Line 324, page 7).

Point 7: In section 5.1.1, what is the basis of the indicator selection?

Response 7: Thank you very much for your comments. Previous studies have mostly focused on the fluctuation of terms of trade to capture the changes in the amount of benefits gained by countries through trade caused by the evolution of the world trade network. Accordingly, the factors that affect the change of terms of trade may also have an impact on the evolution of the world trade network. In previous studies, the level of economic development, tariff rates, exchange rates and so on are considered to be important factors affecting the terms of trade. On this basis, this paper selects economic distance to analyze the impact of these variables on China ASEAN tourism service trade network. At the same time, considering that China and ASEAN countries come from the same trade organization, regional trade agreements, the same continent, countries have similar cultural backgrounds, and there are differences in political systems among countries. This paper assumes that the geographical correlation, cultural background, and political system among countries are important factors affecting the evolution of trade networks. So this paper selects variables such as geographical distance, institutional distance, and cultural differences, to analyze the impact of these variables on China ASEAN tourism service trade network.

Point 8: Conclusion and insights: What are the enlightenments and differences between this paper and previous research. You need to add this part in Conclusion.

Response 8: Thank you very much for your comments. According to your suggestion, we have revised the conclusion and insights. The revised content is as follows. The changes in the paper are in the red font (Line 674-697, page 16-17).

Tourism service trade is an important part of international service trade. How tourism service trade promotes economic development has always been an important topic for scholars at home and abroad. At present, most of the researches on tourism service trade is aimed at countries and regions with developed tourism economy. The comparative researches concerning China mainly focus on the comparison between China and the United States, Japan, Central Europe, and South Korea. There is relatively fewer researches on the analysis of China and Asean countries. Most of the existing literatures study the international tourism flow based on the tourism demand framework, mainly measuring and comparing the competitiveness of tourism destinations. Most of the research methods are gravity model, impulse response, cointegration analysis, Granger causality test and so on. Firstly, this paper adopts the more cutting-edge social network analysis method, takes the China-Asean tourism service trade network as the research object, measures the overall overview of the network, the network characteristics of China and Asean countries, and visualizes it, so as to further understand the current situation of China-Asean tourism service trade, and then uses the QAP (quadratic assignment procedure) method to examine the influencing factors that determine the tourism service trade network, and explore the characteristics and influencing factors of the pattern of interregional China-Asean tourism service trade network. This study analyzes the network patterns of the development of China-Asean tourism service trade, systematizes the theory of the development of China-Asean tourism service trade researches, comprehensively uses multidisciplinary theory to add up to the researches, and opens up new research perspectives, further promotes the development of tourism basic theoretical researches, and provides suggestions for the coordinated development of China-Asean Tourism service trade.

Point 9:Finally, grammatical errors need to be corrected in the manuscript. It seems that the format of the manuscript needs major correction according to the journal template.

Response 9: Thank you very much for your comments. We have revised all the grammatical errors and the manuscript format according to the journal template. The changes in the paper are in the red font.

 

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The study is interesting, but the article needs to be completely restructured. It is also necessary to complete some sections.

1. Introduction Section:

- Importance of the topic

- Research gap

- Research questions

- Emphasize aim of the study

- no own results in the Introduction.

2.  LITERATURE Review

- How do other scientists measure chosen phenomenon?

3. Discussion

- what are the similarities and differences with previous studies?

4. Conclusions

- Theoretical implications

- practical implications

 

Author Response

Dear Editor and Reviewer:

Thank you for your kind letter and kind suggestions. We appreciate the reviewer’s comments concerning our manuscript entitled " Tourism Service Trade Network: Statistics from China and ASEAN Countries"(Manuscript ID: sustainability-1816632). We seriously read the editor and reviewer’s comments. Then, we aim at reviewer’s suggestions to have our serious thinking and discussion. We try our best to properly modify the paper according to the suggestions. And we have explained in details on some questions. Please see the attachment , the major revisions are marked in red in the paper. Thank you very much.

Next, the point to point responds to the reviewer’s comments are listed as following:

Point 1: Introduction Section:

- Importance of the topic

- Research gap

- Research questions

- Emphasize aim of the study

- no own results in the Introduction.

Response 1: Thank you very much for your comments. According to your suggestion, we have revised the Introduction Section. The revised content is as follows. The changes in the paper are in the red font (Line 54-63, page 2；Line 118-127, page 3).

Through measurement and analysis of China - Asean tourism service trade network, this article finds that, because of the implementation of dividend policies related to the Asean free trade area in recent years, China and Asean countries have gradually established close relationship on tourism service trade, but there is still a large room to improve in terms of cohesiveness of the overall tourism service trade. In the whole network, there are both countries in core positions and those in marginal inferior positions, and the structure of "core-edge" is obvious. The status distance and the levels of economic development among the countries are the main factors that affect the trade network of China-Asean tourism services. Countries with closer geographical location and higher per capita GDP have closer tourism service trade connection.

Based on the statistics of tourism service trade between China and Asean countries in 2015 and 2018, taking China - Asean tourism service trade network pattern as the research object, this article uses the SNA method to measure the overall characteristics of the network, and to understand the status of the China - Asean regional tourism service trade. It then make use of QAP method to empirically determine the influencing factors of tourism service trade network structure, so as to provide reference for strengthening the tourism service trade connection between China and Asean countries, and to optimize the network structure. It provides policy suggestions for the win-win development of tourism service trade between China and Asean countries.

 

Point 2: LITERATURE Review

- How do other scientists measure chosen phenomenon?

Response 2: Thank you very much for your comments. The gravity model is a traditional tool for empirical research to measure bilateral trade flows. However, the gravity model must address independent assumptions between variables, as required by traditional econometric methods. The social network analysis method, as a non-parametric estimation method, does not require the independent variables to be independent to establish the model and is more robust in dealing with relational data. The advantage of using network analysis methods to study the characteristics of tourism services trade networks and their influencing factors is that the connections between the constructed network nodes are clearer and more intuitive, presenting the structural characteristics of tourism services trade networks clearly. The results are also more objective than simply analyzing attribute data. Second, network analysis methods are not only applicable to individual relationships at the micro-level but can also be applied to macro social relationships and organizational structure analysis. Social network analysis is one of the most convincing structural analysis methods and is, therefore, more applicable to examine the characteristics and influencing factors of network structures.

Point 3: Discussion

- what are the similarities and differences with previous studies?

Response 3: Thank you very much for your comments. The similarity with previous studies lies in the introduction of network analysis method for analyzing and interpreting the overall structure of individual relationship data, so as to reveal the evolution trend and influencing factors of the world trade network pattern. The difference is that this paper introduces the social network analysis method into the research on the pattern of China ASEAN tourism service trade network, and measures the overall pattern and influencing factors of the network. This study attempts to use a new calculation method to construct the bilateral tourism service trade data between China and ASEAN countries, so as to provide data sources for analysis.

Point 4: Conclusions

- Theoretical implications

- practical implications

Response 4: Thank you very much for your comments. According to your suggestion, we added the content of Theoretical implications and practical implications .The content is as follows. The changes in the paper are in the red font (Line 674-697, page 22-23).

Tourism service trade is an important part of international service trade. How tourism service trade promotes economic development has always been an important topic for scholars at home and abroad. At present, most of the researches on tourism service trade is aimed at countries and regions with developed tourism economy. The comparative researches concerning China mainly focus on the comparison between China and the United States, Japan, Central Europe, and South Korea. There is relatively fewer researches on the analysis of China and Asean countries. Most of the existing literatures study the international tourism flow based on the tourism demand framework, mainly measuring and comparing the competitiveness of tourism destinations. Most of the research methods are gravity model, impulse response, cointegration analysis, Granger causality test and so on. Firstly, this paper adopts the more cutting-edge social network analysis method, takes the China-Asean tourism service trade network as the research object, measures the overall overview of the network, the network characteristics of China and Asean countries, and visualizes it, so as to further understand the current situation of China-Asean tourism service trade, and then uses the QAP (quadratic assignment procedure) method to examine the influencing factors that determine the tourism service trade network, and explore the characteristics and influencing factors of the pattern of interregional China-Asean tourism service trade network. This study analyzes the network patterns of the development of China-Asean tourism service trade, systematizes the theory of the development of China-Asean tourism service trade researches, comprehensively uses multidisciplinary theory to add up to the researches, and opens up new research perspectives, further promotes the development of tourism basic theoretical researches, and provides suggestions for the coordinated development of China-Asean Tourism service trade.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear authors,

I very much enjoyed reading and reviewing your paper.

The manuscript entitled " Tourism Service Trade Network: Statistics from China and ASEAN Countries".

The paper presented deals with an exciting and important topic from the tourism point of view.

The research methodology and application of appropriate statistical techniques are all adequate for the analysis.

Overall the presentation is reasonably good, but it might still require some work.

- The Abstract is overall short. This section must be better organized and extended.

- In the section of  Introduction, it is worth explaining what the acronym ASEAN stands for (line 22).

- It is difficult to find the purpose of the paper and the aim of the research.

- There is no discussion section.  The Discussion section should reveal a literature review of studies published or accessed elsewhere. It is worth referring to the international context more extensively. Please, compare your research with similar research so you can be drawn an adequate conclusion.

- Moreover, the paper should have limitations and a future research section at the conclusion.

 

 

I will be very glad and thankful to see these adjustments.

Author Response

Dear Editor and Reviewer:

Thank you for your kind letter and kind suggestions. We appreciate the reviewer’s comments concerning our manuscript entitled " Tourism Service Trade Network: Statistics from China and ASEAN Countries"(Manuscript ID: sustainability-1816632). We seriously read the editor and reviewer’s comments. Then, we aim at reviewer’s suggestions to have our serious thinking and discussion. We try our best to properly modify the paper according to the suggestions. And we have explained in details on some questions. Please see the attachment , the major revisions are marked in red in the paper. Thank you very much.

Next, the point to point responds to the reviewer’s comments are listed as following:

Point 1:The Abstract is overall short. This section must be better organized and extended.

Response 1: Thank you very much for your comments. According to your suggestion, we have revised the abstract. The revised content is as follows. The changes in the paper are in the red font (Line 10-19, page 1).

Abstract: This study uses the social network analysis method to explore the structural changes of the China-ASEAN tourism services trade network and its influencing factors based on tourism services trade data of China and ASEAN countries in 2015 and 2018. The findings show that (i) the network density of the tourism services trade network increased by 30% in 2018 compared with 2015. (ii) China, Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia rank highly in terms of degree, betweenness, and closeness centrality. (iii) The distance between countries and differences in GDP per capita significantly affect the tourism services trade network. The recommendation is that tourism services trade be developed in a vigorous and systematic manner in the China-ASEAN region. This approach would enhance overall stability and cooperation in the tourism services trade network and create a win-win situation for trade in tourism services between China and ASEAN countries.

Point 2: In the section of Introduction, it is worth explaining what the acronym ASEAN stands for (line 22).

Response 2: Thank you very much for your comments. According to your suggestion, we have explained “ASEAN” .The revised content is as follows. The changes in the paper are in the red font (Line 32-33, page 1).

ASEAN(Association of Southeast Asian Nations)

 

Point 3: It is difficult to find the purpose of the paper and the aim of the research.

Response 3: Thank you very much for your comments. According to your suggestion, we added the purpose of the paper and the aim of the research. The content is as follows. The changes in the paper are in the red font (Line 118-127, page 3).

Based on the statistics of tourism service trade between China and Asean countries in 2015 and 2018, taking China - Asean tourism service trade network pattern as the research object, this article uses the SNA method to measure the overall characteristics of the network, and to understand the status of the China - Asean regional tourism service trade. It then make use of QAP method to empirically determine the influencing factors of tourism service trade network structure, so as to provide reference for strengthening the tourism service trade connection between China and Asean countries, and to optimize the network structure. It provides policy suggestions for the win-win development of tourism service trade between China and Asean countries.

 

Point 4: There is no discussion section.  The Discussion section should reveal a literature review of studies published or accessed elsewhere. It is worth referring to the international context more extensively. Please, compare your research with similar research so you can be drawn an adequate conclusion.

Response 4: Thank you very much for your comments. According to your suggestion, we added the content of discussion. The content is as follows. The changes in the paper are in the red font (Line 259-295, page 6-7).

At present, tourist flow is one of the important issues in tourism geography. The research contents include characteristics of spatial and temporal distribution and influencing factors, spatial and temporal evolution laws, relevant predictions, driving mechanisms and network structures. Tourist flow refers to the number and flow patterns of tourists from source countries to destinations. The spatial movement of tourists in source countries can promote the formation of tourism flow network with certain structural characteristics between countries and regions, and affect the development of tourist sources and destinations. Tourist flow, information flow, capital flow and flow of other tourist factors interact with each other, and the spatial relationship constitutes the tourism economy flow network, which affects the coordinated development of tourism economy flow. The researches of scholars from home and abroad mainly focuses on the characteristics of network structure among tourist destinations, and then on analysis of the temporal, spatial and demographic characteristics of tourist flows. Scholars apply social network analysis method to tourism flow research, studying tourism destinations of different administrative levels such as national, provincial and municipal levels, and different types of tourism flows such as package tour and self-help tour. The construction mode and evaluation index system of tourism flow network are being improved year by year. China and Asean countries are main sources of tourists and tourist destinations to each other. It is of great practical significance to study the distribution and flow law of tourist flow between China and Asean countries for promoting the economic growth of tourism in China-Asean region. At present, as network analysis methods, like complex network theory and social network theory, have become popular analysis methods in international trade research, these methods are more frequently used to analyze the trade relations between varied countries. Scholars carry out empirical analysis on the structural characteristics of international trade network based on the import and export data between countries. At present, the existing relevant researches pay more attention to the trade patterns , but pay less attention to the factors affecting the trade network patterns. The degrees of openness of a country and the overall pattern of its trade network are both important factors affecting the benefits of foreign trade. At present, the researches of national trade network mainly focus on commodity trade, lacking the analysis of service trade network. China-Asean region is one of the most dynamic region in the world economy, yet there are few researches on the trade network of it. Applying social network analysis methods to tourism, studying tourism service trade with integrity of network structure and the relationship between the network nodes as the objects, will contribute to the overall grasping of the features of the regional tourism service trade network patterns, providing theoretical researches and empirical analysis of coordinated development for countries around the region.

 

Point 5: the paper should have limitations and a future research section at the conclusion.

Response 5: Thank you very much for your comments. According to your suggestion, we added the limitations and a future research section at the conclusion. The content is as follows. The changes in the paper are in the red font (Line 759-778, page 22).

Based on the analysis of the current status of tourism service trade between China and Asean countries, this paper uses social network analysis method to measure the network pattern of tourism service trade between China and Asean countries, and studies its influencing factors. However, due to the complex situation of the countries in the Asean Free Trade Area, tourism service trade involves various industries and many enterprises. Therefore, some issues related to tourism service trade have not been studied in this paper, which also provides ideas for further researches in the future. This paper uses the social network analysis method to construct the China-Asean tourism service trade network, and tries to apply the network analysis method to the study of tourism service trade, but there are still some areas to be improved. First of all, the data of some WTO countries are missing or lagging behind, which makes it impossible to timely analyze the development status of tourism service trade. Secondly, due to the problem of statistical caliber, the statistical index caliber varies greatly between different databases. Due to the difference of statistical caliber and the data integrity problem, the data used differs from the data owned by each country to some extent, which sets obstacles for further analysis of the tourism service trade network. Moreover, researches based on network structure characteristics cannot fully explain the phenomenon of network evolution, and cannot establish a mathematical model of network evolution, so it is difficult to deduce the path of network formation and predict the future trends. Future researches in this area need to be strengthened.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Thank authors for yours effort.

Author Response

Dear Editor and Reviewer:

Thank you for your kind letter and kind suggestions. We appreciate the reviewer’s comments concerning our manuscript entitled " Tourism Service Trade Network: Statistics from China and ASEAN Countries"(Manuscript ID: sustainability-1816632). We seriously read the editor and reviewer’s comments. Thank you very much.

Reviewer 2 Report

The article must be laconic in a strictly adhered structure. the introduction cannot contain conclusions from the article.

My comments are the same as previously:

1. Introduction Section:

- Importance of the topic

- Research gap

- Research questions

- Emphasize aim/purpose of the study!

2...3...

4. Conclusions

- Theoretical implications

- practical implications. How managers can use the findings of the study?

Please check the structure of other articles, ask about help more experienced collegues to improve your article

Author Response

Dear Editor and Reviewer:

Thank you for your kind letter and kind suggestions. We appreciate the reviewer’s comments concerning our manuscript entitled " Tourism Service Trade Network: Statistics from China and ASEAN Countries"(Manuscript ID: sustainability-1816632). We seriously read the editor and reviewer’s comments. Then, we aim at reviewer’s suggestions to have our serious thinking and discussion. We try our best to properly modify the paper according to the suggestions. And we have explained in details on some questions. Please see the attachment , the major revisions are marked in red in the paper. Thank you very much.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear Authors,

Thank you for inviting me to read this manuscript.

The authors have made most amendments based on review comments,  but it might still require some work.

 

1. It is still difficult to find the purpose of the paper and the aim of the research. 

This paper purpose .....

or

The aims of this paper .....

2. The paper still lacks a discussion section. The Discussion section should reveal a literature review of studies published or accessed elsewhere. 

"The discussion section is one of the final parts of a research

paper, in which an author describes, analyzes, and interprets their

findings. They explain the significance of those results and tie

everything back to the research question(s)."

The prepared text of the discussion (line 259-295) is not a discussion section. There are no references to literature. This text is in section 3.2. Research Methods.

3. The References list is very short and includes only 29 items. 

 

I will be very glad and thankful to see these adjustments.

Author Response

Dear Editor and Reviewer:

Thank you for your kind letter and kind suggestions. We appreciate the reviewer’s comments concerning our manuscript entitled " Tourism Service Trade Network: Statistics from China and ASEAN Countries"(Manuscript ID: sustainability-1816632). We seriously read the editor and reviewer’s comments. Then, we aim at reviewer’s suggestions to have our serious thinking and discussion. We try our best to properly modify the paper according to the suggestions. And we have explained in details on some questions. Please see the attachment , the major revisions are marked in red in the paper. Thank you very much.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 3

Reviewer 2 Report

Please refer to each of the goals in your conclusions. Describe the disadvantages of the tools used. Please also reduce the paragraphs, each point should start with a new paragraph. It is better to list the conclusions briefly.

Author Response

Dear Editor and Reviewer:

Thank you for your kind letter and kind suggestions. We appreciate the reviewer’s comments concerning our manuscript entitled " Tourism Service Trade Network: Statistics from China and ASEAN Countries"(Manuscript ID: sustainability-1816632). We seriously read the editor and reviewer’s comments. Then, we aim at reviewer’s suggestions to have our serious thinking and discussion. We try our best to properly modify the paper according to the suggestions. And we have explained in details on some questions. In the paper, the major revisions are marked in red. Please see the attachment.Thank you very much.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear Authors,

Thank you for the opportunity to read the paper entitled  " Tourism Service Trade Network: Statistics from China and ASEAN Countries".

The authors have made most amendments based on review comments.

The paper is now more coherent and organised.

 

I do not see any warrant objections to its publication in the Sustainability.

Author Response

Dear Editor and Reviewer:

Thank you for your kind letter and kind suggestions. We appreciate the reviewer’s comments concerning our manuscript entitled " Tourism Service Trade Network: Statistics from China and ASEAN Countries"(Manuscript ID: sustainability-1816632). We seriously read the editor and reviewer’s comments. Thank you very much.