The Pathway to Sustainability in a Mass Tourism Destination: The Case of Lanzarote

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This paper posits Lanzarote as an exemplary case study of a destination that has been successful in ensuring the sustainability of the island while coping with mass tourism. It documents the chronology of its most noteworthy milestones, drawing lessons from them and identifying

future sustainable measures. As such it could make a valuable contribution to the literature.

 

There are some areas that require a more thorough treatment. For instance, when discussing airline responsibility for carbon emissions, it would be good to refer to IATA/ICAO initiatives, specifically the Net-Zero Carbon Emissions by 2050 Resolution adopted by IATA in 2021 supplemented by ICAO’s Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). Although the authors list some of the criticisms raised against cruise tourism, they may no mention of the fact that it tends to generate very low financial contributions to GDP in stop-over destinations as it brings in only day visitors. This should be of particular concern to Lanzarote as cruise visitation more than doubled in less than a decade and is rapidly recovering after the pandemic.

The critiques of Barcelona should be more nuanced as the municipality was very progressive in its efforts to control overtourism but the region did not adopt similar measures leading to a significant uncontrollable influx of excursionists and cruise passengers (see Goodwin, : also speaks to limited control by municipality see Goodwin 2019). This reinforces your observation that “Governance, as mentioned, is another key aspect in sustainability applied to tourist destinations, involving different actors, both public and private, with relevant participation of the local community in the decision-making bodies of the policies to be implemented. Thus, governance is configured as a useful model of government to design and activate sustainability in tourist destinations.”

While the Anthropocene was proposed as a new geological era, the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) as well as the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) have voted the motion down, refusing to recognize it.

Lanzarote is described as a mass tourism destination, yet the tourism proposal highlighted by Calero (2005) states that it is not. This is confusing and requires better explanation. What does “declassified 250,000 tourist places” entail? It seems to refer to tourist beds. What happened to them? What makes 22 hotels “illegal”? What is "The founding moment of sustainable tourism" that can be included in a document? What does “these acknowledgements have led to the existence of  governance bodies” mean? Should this be “led to the creation of  governance bodies”?

 

The above illustrate the need for a good edit to ensure clarity and context for statements made. There are also a significant number of stylistic issues as noted in point form below:

·      Not clear how you reach a total number of  224,344 when adding domestic tourists – please review

·      Please use commas to make large numbers easier to read: eg. 3179076 = 3,179,076

·      You need a base year when making a statement such as “emissions from airlines have in-143 creased by 130% in recent decades”

·      “other international bodies such as the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) or within the EU, the European Commission (2013), Eurostat (2007), have also developed systems” change to “other international bodies such as the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), the European Commission (2013), and Eurostat (2007) have also developed systems”

·      World Tourism Organization’s acronym is UNWTO, not WTO which refers to the World Trade Organization

·      Please provide page numbers for direct quotes.

·      The text identifying the individual islands is too small to be legible

·      What does “natural” mean in “Transforming unproductive sandy areas natural landscape tourist attractions into gardens of great visual strength.”

·      Do not use initials as part of citations, e.g. “Roca, J. (2003)” or “(Perdomo, M.A. 2003)”

·      Add a column for domestic tourists to Table 1 and update where possible

·      Please fix alignment problems in Table 2

·      Change “Signing of the Non Normative International Agreement (NRA) signed” to “Non Normative International Agreement (NRA) signed”

·      Adhesion to the [Glasgow] Accords can only be determined over time. Perhaps you mean “ratification of the Glasgow Accords”

·      Note (1) under Table 2 needs beginning quotation mark

·      “positioning Lanzarote AS a focus of study”

·      Table 3 Objectives should all start with “To” for consistency

·      Awkward wording “A standout example … is … - an outstanding exercise in governance.” “Concepts … have gained interest” – at best concepts can attract attention

·      l. 676: Change “infleunces” to “influences”

·      Footnote 1: Change “this figure has rised until 596 / 1000” to “this figure has risen to 596/1000” – why not simply replace the reference with this updated information?

·      “In addition, periods of profound political instability, where the territorial model of the island has been a point of contention” is an incomplete sentence.

·      Reword “Despite these challenges, while Lanzarote has made remarkable progress, …” to “While Lanzarote has made remarkable progress despite these challenges, …”

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Please see the detailed comments as part of my report.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The results presented in the article are overly generalized and fail to provide meaningful insights into the pathway to sustainability in mass tourism destinations such as Lanzarote. The lack of specificity diminishes the significance of the findings and limits their applicability to real-world contexts. Detailed and context-specific results are essential for informing sustainable tourism practices and policy development, which are lacking in this article.

Author Response

Thank you for your comment. We understand that a case study methodology does not allow for generalization of results. However, the insights drawn from this specific case can provide valuable lessons and insights that may be useful for other mass-tourism destinations pursuing sustainability. Although the results are not overly specific due to space limitations, they offer an in-depth understanding of Lanzarote's evolution and highlight key milestones in its transition to sustainability.

This article delves into the unique evolution of Lanzarote as a benchmark for sustainable tourism, examining how the island's cultural values and political influences have shaped its sustainable tourism model over the last 50 years. By analyzing Lanzarote's sustainable practices and challenges, the article highlights the island's paradoxical status as both a mass tourism hub and a sustainable destination. The visionary approach of artist César Manrique, which seamlessly integrates art and nature, serves as a blueprint for sustainable tourism and addresses the challenges to be faced in the coming years.

In the new version, we have expanded on these aspects and believe that the lessons learned are valuable in real-world contexts. We hope this new version addresses, at least partially, your concerns. The findings underscore Lanzarote's role as an international benchmark in sustainable tourism, offering applicable insights not only for the studied destination but also for other tourism destinations in terms of sustainable tourism practices and policy development.

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This paper requires a comprehensive section outlining the research methodology. This revision is crucial for the paper's acceptance for publication.

Author Response

Thank you. It was certainly needed. We have expanded the methodology explanation, providing more details on the methodology applied. See new section 3: methodology.

Reviewer 4 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The article, titled The Road to Sustainability in a Mass Tourism Destination The Case of Lanzarote, addresses a very important research problem , i.e. the development of sustainable tourism on the islands.

After reading the article, he suggests making the following corrections: 

The abstract should be adapted to the guidelines of the journal . There is a lack of a clear statement of the purpose of the research and information about the results of the study. 

Introduction

There are only 2 items of literature in this chapter, meanwhile, the authors should review the international literature and answer the question: why they took up this topic. Why he is relevant to the development of tourism in Lanzarote. 

Methodology chapter is missing

The authors should describe the research procedure scheme in more detail.

The research results are interesting and well described.

technical errors

[383] - begins with a lowercase letter  

bad notation of literature-there are names instead of number [1]

Greetings 

Reviewer

 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx