Tourist Attractions and Economic Growth in China: A Difference-in-Differences Analysis
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear author(s),
You can further structure the introduction to make it compelling since you are attemtping to make significant contributions to theory.
The structure of the introduction is fine but it not compelling and should convey to the audience why it is important for new contributions to sustainability.
The Important of tourism in sustainability and how your study contributes to this could be highlighted.
The research methodology is relatively unknown to the audience and does not appear sufficiently generalizeable since rural and urban areas in China may have different conditions in terms of tourism.
I recommend a revision to make the study more compelling.
Good luck!
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Overall, I find this manuscript to be thorough, empirically rigorous, and quite compelling. As I was reading the justification for the DiD design, I wondered whether the policy was truly exogenous. I believe the authors have suitably tested for robustness to overcome these concerns.
One lingering concern I have is the focus on GDP growth. I don't find GDP growth to be overall all the compelling of a proxy for development. GDP is so highly correlated with everything that it tells us little to nothing. I'm wondering if the authors have considered examining the other ways tourism might be stimulating development- either of human capital, or through environmental sustainability, or making local economies for resistant to external shocks, etc.
If the authors could replicate their analysis using a different dependent variable- employment, median income, education levels, etc I would be far more convinced by this study. I believe this is a minor revision that could punch up the contribution considerably.
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
Tourism plays an important role in the development of a certain state, as it creates new jobs, provides income to the state and local budgets, contributes to the inflow of investments into the country and increases the level of its culture. This article is devoted to the assessment of the impact of tourist attraction on the country's economic growth (case study of China).
The article provides a thorough analysis of previous studies, 2 hypotheses are formed regarding the impact of tourist attraction on economic growth in China, the research methodology is described (this article uses the method of the difference-in-differences analysis). The results of the research are displayed using such research methods as benchmark regression, Robustness check, Placebo test, Instrumental variable test, Heterogeneity analysis.
The work was performed at a high scientific and methodical level, but there are some questions for the authors.
· It should add the word “China” in the title of the paper. The new version can be like this: “Tourist attractions and economic growth: A difference-in-differences analysis”.
· What does the author mean by "tourist attraction"? How is this indicator evaluated?
· What are experimental group and control group? (fig. 1)
· What are the lines on the graph (Actual change and Trend forecast)? (fig. 2)
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 4 Report
This causality study has to see if tourist attractions have a causality effect on economic growth. However, the authors need to check whether economic growth has causality effect on tourist attractions.
The discussion has to be a separate section from the conclusion and has to come after the results.
And I suggest the authors to create a policy implications section.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Well done on the improvements on your paper. The introduction is much clearer and makes an impactful contribution. However, there is one last thing you have to make clear - the rural are in China and other countries are different in context and touriem and sustainability should be leveraged in both places and differently.
Author Response
Reviewer 1
Well done on the improvements on your paper. The introduction is much clearer and makes an impactful contribution. However, there is one last thing you have to make clear - the rural are in China and other countries are different in context and touriem and sustainability should be leveraged in both places and differently.
Responses:
Thank you again for reviewing our work. Yes, the Chinese countryside has its own specificities and the development of rural tourism is significantly different from urban tourism. Taking into account your suggestions, we conclude our article by distinguishing between rural and urban tourism as an important future research direction as follows (see lines 697-700):
“Finally, it is noteworthy that there exist significant differences between rural and urban tourism in China; therefore, it is important to distinguish between urban and rural tourism in exploring the impact of tourism.”
Reviewer 4 Report
The methodological part lacks studies that corroborate with what is being done.
The conclusion lacks better quality and well-structured information.
Author Response
Reviewer 4
The methodological part lacks studies that corroborate with what is being done.
Responses:
Following the comment, we have added relevant references to the methodology section.
The conclusion lacks better quality and well-structured information.
Responses:
Considering your suggestion, we have added the information as follows (see lines 645-647):
“We conclude this study by making policy recommendations and suggesting current research limitations and future directions.”
Also, we have re-structured the conclusions.
