Forest Wellness Tourism Development Strategies Using SWOT, QSPM, and AHP: A Case Study of Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest in China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Introduction:

Please revise the introduction and elaborate on research gaps.

Also, it is not very clear what the authors are examining in this study.

Literature review

As the authors stated that the main study variable of service innovation is developed from the value co-creation theory, they need to introduce the theory in a sub-section.

Method

Please provide survey question items and provide reference(s).

Discuss more about the study process including sample selection, data collection process

Discuss the representativeness of your study sample.

The authors need to thoroughly review the manuscripts and improve clarity. For example, it is not clear how wellness tourism (activity) is different from spas, thermal/mineral springs. The authors stated that "what motivates them to switch from thermal water, mineral water, and seawater to wellness tourism is unclear". Can't they considered as wellness tourism resources? 

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

You need to properly understand wellness tourism.  You need to communicate your ideas better and more coherently.  You need to cite sources better.  Here is some specific feedback.

53 - 60 (What do Artificial intelligence and virtual reality have to do with your paper. I don't understand the connection) During the COVID-19 pandemic, concern has arisen that traditional sightseeing could be changed, and governments and international tourism organizations encourage  Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality to enrich tourists` virtual experience [4]. It has pushed tourists to adopt digital technology alternatives, replacing on-site tourism. Influenced by this measure, during the pandemic, virtual tourism increased in the tourism industry [5]. However, tourists` perception of well-being during travel has been lost, such  as physical exercise, emotional communication, emotional release, etc., which is promising to break through barriers and enable further recovery and promotion of wellness tourism  

64 (Thermal spring is part of wellness tourism.  It seems you don't understand the concept of wellness tourism.  You need in the introduction to briefly define wellness tourism.)

wellness tourists from Asia-Pacific countries, especially from China, still 
heavily rely on thermal/mineral Springs. What motivates them to switch from thermal 65
water, mineral water, and seawater to wellness tourism is unclear.

68 (Why are you bringing up technology, your abstract is about WELLNESS TOURISM) Although tourists use digital technology or VR to enrich tourism activities, whether these services will become the norm is unknown.

120-123 ( I never heard of this organization, maybe you should describe it and cite it properly) The "National Health and Wellness Tourism Demonstration Base Standard"  defines wellness tourism as enabling people to achieve natural and harmonious excellence  in body, mind, and spirit through various means such as beauty and physical fitness, nutritious diet, spiritual cultivation, and caring for the environment-the sum of various tourism activities in the state 

128-131 (sounds like a word salad and you didn't do any research into any of these topics at all) Tourist attitudes remain a hot research topic in international wellness tourism [14]. Existing studies have identified that multi-actor engagement in service innovation, digital technology, knowledge management, perceived value, policy support, etc., primarily influences the service innovation performance of wellness tourism destinations [1]. 

132)  forest wellness is a significant branch of wellness tourism development. (according to WHO?)

207-215 (Maybe a <Figure> is a better way to communicate this) 3.1. The Research Site 206 Chongqing City aims to build a national forest wellness resort (base) and proposes 207 to strive to build 100 forest wellness bases by 2025, serving 50 million people annually 208 [36]. Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest National Forest Park is in the Jishan 209 Mountains in Yongchuan District, Chongqing City. Its geographical location is 106°2′02″ 210 ～106°03′54″ east longitude, 29°22′26″～29°31′54″ north latitude, and 55 kilometers from 211 Chongqing city, 50 kilometers from Dazu Rock Carvings in the west, 272 kilometers from 212 Chengdu city, and 72 kilometers from Luzhou city in the south, with a total area of 9979 213 hectares. It has over 1,000 hectares of tea gardens in clusters and 3,333.33 hectares of bam- 214 boo. Because tea and bamboo grow symbiotically and are connected like an ocean, it is 215 named

221-225 (How many people did you talk to??? you need to explain more here)

Data The data for this study come from field surveys and related statistical data. From April to November 2023, the authors inspected tourist destinations such as Chongqing Tea Mountain and the Bamboo Forest National Forest Park scenic area. This study conducted questionnaires with park staff on the development status, potential, and prospects of local tourist attractions

Construct a judgment matrix ( you need to cite this, if you want to use it. it looks like you made this up)

 (same with this method) QSPM analysis method

(you have to describe how you got all these variables for SWOT.  The variables sound well thought out but you don't explain how you arrived at them.)

your discussion and conclusion didn't say much other than some general things that you could have written without conducting this research.

forest wellness is a significant branch of wellness tourism develop- 132 ment. (according to ??)

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The article is an interesting study. The study aims to show that the involvement of multiple actors (which actors?) significantly enhances sustainability. The findings presented in the article, in the Authors' view, fill a knowledge gap in service innovation and provide valuable insights into the management of forest (or wellness?) tourism destinations and sustainable policy strategies to enhance multi-stakeholder engagement in forest areas. Does this study indicate stakeholder engagement? What is this 'sustainable policy strategy'? This and other threads raised in the text are not clearly defined by the Authors. ‘Juggling’ of threads is rampant in this text, which is a weakness of the text. For this reason, the text needs to be corrected and improved.

The title of the article needs to be modified to reflect its purpose.

A very elaborate ‘Introduction’ which addresses threads not taken up in the research section. This is not needed, it is better to focus on making scientific claims; what is already known and what is not, and what are the research gaps in the issue taken up. The text is a scientific article and there are no research questions and/or hypotheses. This needs to be supplemented.

The aim of the research is not clear - to identify the drivers of multi-stakeholder engagement in service innovation embedded in the context of sustainable wellness tourism destination development. I find it difficult to understand that one of the main objectives of this study is to use mixed research methods. Additionally, the Authors wrote that ‘this study designed the following implementation countermeasures to promote better innovative development of service quality in Chongqing Tea Mountain and Bamboo Forest National Forest Park’ (p. 17). This is all too convoluted, and in the end the results of the interesting research focus on completely different aspects.

The Authors refer to wellness tourism and at the same time to forest tourism. While the essence of wellness tourism is strongly emphasised, it is forest tourism that I am not sure has been properly embedded. Sylvan tourism (silvature/sylvature) has its own specific character that alludes to wellness, but not necessarily at all. The Authors use the terms ‘forest wellness,’ ‘forest wellness resort’ which need clarification. Bamboo forests are great areas for the development of wellness tourism destinations.

The ‘Literature Review’ on the other hand refers to wellness tourism, service innovation, sustainability. In general, I do not understand the embedding of section 2.3. I understand that the Authors highlight their contribution to wellness tourism research. This aspect should be discussed in section 3.3.

I find some of the wording questionable, which may mean that the reader may get lost. It would be worth considering modifying the text to guide the reader along the leading thread and clarify the role, the importance of the identified factors for the development of wellness tourism in forest areas.

The text emphasises the mixing of research methods and does not adequately describe the research (n=356) - section 3.2. What does ‘involving 356 effective respondents’ mean?

The other sections, including ‘Results,’ do not raise any doubts in my mind. Quite frankly - this is the strong point of this article.

However, after the presentation of ‘Results’ comes the ‘Discussion’ section. Here, again, the Authors introduce threads that are not only new, but unrelated to the purpose of the article, e.g. the content of section 5.1.1.

Reading section 5.2, I think that due to the multi-faceted nature of the whole text, it will be helpful to simply elaborate on the research model, which should appear in section 3. I think it will make it easier for the Authors to make a scientific argument.

I recommend that the limitations of the completed research be indicated and directions for further research be provided. The practical implications presented are not derived from the research. Furthermore, what specifically are the recommendations to be made from the Authors’ proposed approach. How does this relate to other wellness tourism destinations where forests (e.g. bamboo forests) may be a component?

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The abstract needs to be rewritten. I don't like the quotes in the abstract.  I think you can hire a professional English editor to help yo with this.

In the conclusion the article lacks theoretical implications and you don't talk about the limitations of the study and or research method.

33-73  The introduction should be rewritten as it is the most important part of the paper that draws the reader into reading the entire paper.   It seems choppy.  Maybe you need to hire a professional English editor to make it sound better.

130-131 you need to make the clear distinction between wellness and medical tourism if you want this paper to be considered a legitimate paper of wellness tourism research.  You can easily find this distinction using google.

567-582 Should be one paragraph

584 I am reading a sentence with incorrect English. It seems like the first sentence of this paragraph should be a title.

591-592  This sentence should have plural,  'strengths' 'opportunities' ect

627 Opportunity  why is it capitalized

You have a lot of English grammar errors in this paper Maybe you need to hire a professional editor. 

The English needs several edits. I suggest to hire an English editor 

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

I would like to thank the Authors for their renewed efforts to improve the manuscript. I have no further comments.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf