Stakeholders’ Collaboration in the Development of an Authentic Gastronomic Offering in Rural Areas: Example of the Ravni Kotari Region in Croatia

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

I consider that the study carried out is adequate and pertinent for the gastronomic tourism research branch. For this reason it would be suitable for publication. However, I consider that the literature review section could be strengthened with recent research dealing with the gastronomic experience in travel. I recommend the following articles to the authors as examples:   - Gastronomic experiences of foreign tourists in developing countries. The case in the city of Oruro (Bolivia).   - Motivations of the Culinary Tourist in the City of Trapani, Italy.   -Segmentation of food market visitors in World Heritage Sites. Case study of the city of Cordoba (Spain).

Author Response

Thank you for your valuable insights and proposed literature, we read and incorporated suggested articles (among others) in literature review, which is visible in the new version of the manuscript.

Reviewer 2 Report

I think you have written a very interesting and honest paper, acknowledging some of the difficulties of incorporating local food and gastronomy into regional and local tourism development. It is often too easy to take a current 'trend' or topic being supported by external (e.g. EU) agencies and to try to force-fit this into tourism development for a region. You have avoided this well, although I think you might make a comment that gastronomy tourism (and all its subsets) represents only a small component of most areas' tourist appeal, and is primarily an "add on" additional attraction. That is, without major attractions, food tourism on its own is unlikely to be successful, partly for the reasons you document very clearly. So perhaps a warning that it is not a panacea but one cog in the wheel of tourism attraction that a region could develop. You might also note the success of places like New Zealand where food has become an essential component of many vineyards, and the successful ones tend to over high quality food on the premises, and if that can be combined with accommodation, then additional forms of tourism such as catering for weddings and other receptions increases the overall appeal and marketability.

The literature review seems rather limited, look perhaps at some works by CM Hall and Mackionis (re wine and related tourism), Zahed on incorporating food into local attractions in Iran, and general perhaps in the "slow tourism" literature. Despite the latter often being rather unrealistic in its claims, some examples are quite valid and relevant. 

Two corrections, line 371  "form" should be "from"

line 462 "law" should be "low"

Author Response

Thank you for your support and recognition of our efforts. We incorporated your suggestions regarding the position of gastronomy in overall tourism appeal of certain destination and also mentioned New Zealand as the example of good practice. We have also expanded our literature review with over dozen new references and also included work of CM Hall and Mitchell and chapter from the book on wine tourism edited by Hall, Sharples, Cambourne and Macionis. Additionally, mistakes you have seen have been corrected in the new version of the manuscript. Thank you once again on your insights!  

Reviewer 3 Report

1.  The results of the interview need to achieve the "agreement" from all the interviewees.  Not just simply quote a person's comment.   For example, how many interviewees had similar comments regarding the same question asked?

2. It is important to acknowledge the interviewee's qualifications in responding to the questions.  For example, their tenure in the field of work, and their expertise in understanding relevant issues. 

3. The results and findings of this study need to compare and contrast prior studies in order to inform the readers what are the new findings and what can be the generalizability of the results of this current study.

Author Response

Please see the document attached.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

The article is of great interest in the tourism sector, especially for the rural tourism where often due to depopulation or urban migration, the gastronomy, traditions and certain crafts tend to disappear.

 

However, some improvements should be made in the manuscript, which are mentioned bellow:

1.       The introduction section should be documented by a larger number of scientific titles in the field.

Examples:

a. José María López-Sanz, Azucena Penelas-Leguía, Pablo Gutiérrez-Rodríguez and Pedro Cuesta-Valiño, Rural Tourism and the Sustainable Development Goals. A Study of the Variables That Most Influence the Behavior of the Tourist, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.722973

b. José María López-Sanz, Azucena Penelas-Leguía, Pablo Gutiérrez-Rodríguez and Pedro Cuesta-Valiño, Sustainable Development and Rural Tourism in Depopulated Areas, https://doi.org/10.3390/land10090985

c. Moreno, L.; Ramón, A.; Such, M.J. The challenge of long-term tourism competitiveness in the age of innovation: Spain as a case of study. J. Reg. Res. Investig. Reg. 2018, 42, 13–34.

2.       The citations in the manuscript are not made in accordance to the Sustainability Journal template;

3.       The figures are not mentioned in accordance to the Journals style;

4.       Line 468 – I think you meant „low” and not „law”

5.       Pay attention to the way the bibliographic titles are edited (none of it correspond to the Sustainability journal template);

6.       The reference list should be extended.

Author Response

Thank you for all of your comments and suggestions, we added the proposed references in our Literature review/Introduction and  enriched our theoretical background significantly. The citations and figures are now in line with the journal's propositions and mistakes have been corrected. 

Reviewer 5 Report

This study tries to reveal the dynamics of the mechanisms of collaboration between different categories of stakeholders in the local development of authentic gastronomy. Although it is an interesting study, the contribution of the study to the literature is unclear and needs to be studied and developed. The evaluations for the study are given below.

The abstract section is too long and should be shortened. Brief information about the results obtained should be given.

 

In the introduction section, the role and importance of the collaboration of stakeholders in developing a sustainable authentic gastronomy destination and its relation to the purpose of the study should be explained in detail.

 

In the literature section, previous studies on attic gastronomic tourism and the contributions of stakeholders to tourism development should be given in a wide manner.

 

Under the title where the research area is introduced, examples of authentic dishes served in the region should be given and the characteristics of these dishes should be explained. What is the difference between the authentic gastronomy elements here and other destinations?

 

In the method section, it should be explained how many people in total were interviewed, when and how is the survey conducted? how  have you chosen the questions asked to the stakeholders and what these questions were. In addition demographic information of the participants should be given

 

The discussion and conclusion section did not sufficiently discuss the results obtained from the study. The contribution of the study to the literature is not clear, the theoretical and practical implications are not explained. The findings obtained were not compared and discussed with previous studies.

Author Response

Please see the document attached. 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 5 Report

The authors seem to have made the specified revisions at an acceptable level.