Will Climate Change Affect the Attractiveness of Beaches? Beach Users’ Perceptions in Catalonia (NW Mediterranean)
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear authors,
The manuscript entitled "Will climate-change affect the attractiveness of Mediterranean beaches? Beach users’ perceptions in Catalonia" is well crafted by the authors.
The paper is interesting to read and the topic is very relevant given the current account of the ongoing climate change.
The introduction and Theoretical background are well structured.
The research methodology and application of appropriate statistical techniques are all adequate for the analysis conducted.
But, I suggest authors to creating a Conclusions and Implications section.
I believe that if you make the above-mentioned change, could contribute to a significant improvement of the article.
In general, the paper fills a gap in the literature.
Author Response
Reviewer #11.1 Dear authors, the manuscript entitled "Will climate change affect the attractiveness of Mediterranean beaches? Beach users’ perceptions in Catalonia" is well crafted by the authors. The paper is interesting to read, and the topic is very relevant given the current account of the ongoing climate change. The introduction and theoretical background are well structured. The research methodology and application of appropriate statistical techniques are all adequate for the analysis conducted.
We wish to thank the reviewer for the thorough comments made in the previous version of our work.
1.2 I suggest authors to creating a Conclusions and Implications section. I believe that if you make the above-mentioned change, could contribute to a significant improvement of the article. In general, the paper fills a gap in the literature.
The manuscript has improved significantly after considering and addressing your suggestion. We corrected the article accordingly so that its final part (formerly called “Implications and future research”) was redistributed and enhanced into a new final section titled “Concluding remarks and implications”. We hope you will find our alterations acceptable.
Reviewer 2 Report
This is an interesting paper on a topic theme of ecological water-based tourism that is of high contemporary interest,.
The paper is generally well-referenced and clearly presented. The visual figures and photographs are useful and clearly labelled. The data benefits from of large sample side.
There are two main areas were I would draw attention:
Whilst the sample provides a cross-section of different types of beachs, more detail could have been captured on the demongraphic characteristics of the sample. You mention gender and education level. I would have liked to see analysis on further factors e.g. domestic vs local vs interational beach users, where solo traveller or couple of family, class of hotel accommodatiion, national/ethnic origin.
The language is generally clear, howeve in several specific areas suffers from poor grammar/word usage. For example, in the first two lines. In these relatively few but notable sections, further editing is needed to improve clarity.
Some minor technical errors in referencing e.g. missing web links need correction.
Author Response
Reviewer #22.1 This is an interesting paper on a topic theme of ecological water-based tourism that is of high contemporary interest. The paper is generally well-referenced and clearly presented. The visual figures and photographs are useful and clearly labelled. The data benefits from of large sample side. There are two main areas where I would draw attention:
We wish to thank the reviewer for the thorough comments made in the previous version of our work. We believe that the manuscript has improved significantly after considering and addressing your suggestions.
2.2 Whilst the sample provides a cross-section of different types of beaches, more detail could have been captured on the demographic characteristics of the sample. You mention gender and education level. I would have liked to see analysis on further factors e.g. domestic vs local vs international beach users, where solo traveller or couple of family, class of hotel accommodation, national/ethnic origin.
Referring to better exploring sociodemographic characteristics, we would like to express that we also would like to advance further in this area. As such, we ran statistical tests to check differences amongst diverse groupings, but only statistical differences were found. This way, in the results section, we only reported outcomes that could be associated with significant differences. To clarify this, we added an observation in the methodology section (L214-215). Also, we checked the text again to highlight potentially missing information.
2.3 The language is generally clear, however in several specific areas suffers from poor grammar/word usage. For example, in the first two lines. In these relatively few but notable sections, further editing is needed to improve clarity.
The revised version of the manuscript was edited by a native English-speaking professional editor.
2.4 Some minor technical errors in referencing, e.g. missing web links, need correction.
Regarding web links in the reference section, we checked all of them and adjusted those missing.
Reviewer 3 Report
The delimitation of the object of study is very well established from a typological selection of Catalan beaches, profiles of users and tourists, as well as aspects to be analyzed in relation to environmental elements. All this to establish the results around sociodemographic profiles, consumption habits and perceptions regarding the effects of climate change.
The subject is of great interest and usefulness in the adoption of tourist strategies, especially sun and sand, immersed in the current processes influenced by the climatic situation.
The methodology and its systematization is suitable and the number of surveys numerous enough to offer valid data.
The only items to review are erroneous links that appear throughout the text, such as on page 3, lines 102 and 126, or on page 4, lines 129, 137, 154, and 158.
Author Response
Reviewer #33.1 The delimitation of the object of study is very well established from a typological selection of Catalan beaches, profiles of users and tourists, as well as aspects to be analyzed in relation to environmental elements. All this to establish the results around sociodemographic profiles, consumption habits and perceptions regarding the effects of climate change. The subject is of great interest and usefulness in the adoption of tourist strategies, especially sun and sand, immersed in the current processes influenced by the climatic situation. The methodology and its systematization is suitable and the number of surveys numerous enough to offer valid data.
We wish to thank the reviewer for the comments made in the previous version of this article.
3.2 The only items to review are erroneous links that appear throughout the text, such as on page 3, lines 102 and 126, or on page 4, lines 129, 137, 154, and 158.
We adjusted the article according to your suggestion. Thus, the erroneous links mentioned were corrected.
Reviewer 4 Report
Will climate-change affect the attractiveness of Mediterranean beaches? Beach users’ perceptions in Catalonia
The title of the paper is very interesting and very timely. However, an acceptable conceptual framework was not established for the study. That is to say, the authors must discuss the concept destination effectiveness. Then, the possible impact of CC on destination attractiveness should be critically examined.
Once the conceptual framework is established and research gap is highlighted. Then, the concept should be discussed with special references to the Catalonia.
Methodology
The manuscript utilized a quantitative approach though conducting a questionnaire. However, there is no info about how the questionnaire is developed.
My further skepticism on methodology is based on the following issues:
- Have you barrowed the questionnaire from a somewhere? If no, how did you develop it?
- Did you conduct any pilot tests? There is no evidence of the pilot test. Without a pilot, it is impossible to ensure the validity of the questions and questionnaires.
- The validity of the data collection instruments is doubtful. How did the author ensure the validity of the questionnaire? There is not enough information about the validity of the questionnaire.
My additional comments are as follow:
29-30 Line: What does it mean for climate to be key, could this cause travel to be postponed altogether or not? Is it of such critical importance? Also, can the effect of the climate on the 4 elements expressed here be detailed?
36 Line: While agreeing with the information, what are the other types of tourism affected and would it be useful to mention their impact levels in this section?
44 Line: Data about Spain is given, but is it correct to make this determination without presenting data for other Mediterranean countries? A few resources on the subject can be added.
49 Line: Hotel occupancy rate statistics are also stated above; I think that the climate is important for tourism, the attraction factor, 3S, economic gain are very short and the connection between them is not sufficiently revealed.
This may be due to the desire to keep the literature section short and concise.
188 Line: Can we be sure that tourists respond by ignoring the climatic characteristics of the countries they come from? Is it possible to add data to reveal this distinction?
293 Line: As indicated in Table 2, 37% of Beach users are international participants. The fact that they oppose the reduction of space on a beach they may not see again indicates that you need an additional explanation.
If there is an intention about the crowd, this should be explained by giving the relevant sources and presenting the data. So, for example, what is the crowd perception for different sized spaces? What percentage is acceptable or not.
Author Response
Please see attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
