Impact of tourism on sustainable development in BRI countries: The moderating role of institutional quality

Huma Iftikhar; Chen Pinglu; Saif Ullah; Atta Ullah

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0263745

Peer Review History

Original SubmissionAugust 28, 2021
22 Sep 2021 Decision Letter - Jun Yang, Editor PONE-D-21-26959Impact of Tourism on Sustainable Development in BRI Countries: The Moderating Role of Institutional QualityPLOS ONE Dear Dr. Pinglu, Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process. Please submit your revised manuscript by Nov 06 2021 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file. Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript: A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'. A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'. An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'. If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter. If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols. We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript. Kind regards, Jun Yang Academic Editor PLOS ONE Journal Requirements: When submitting your revision, we need you to address these additional requirements. 1. Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming. The PLOS ONE style templates can be found at https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=wjVg/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_main_body.pdf and https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=ba62/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_title_authors_affiliations.pdf 2. We note that you have stated that you will provide repository information for your data at acceptance. Should your manuscript be accepted for publication, we will hold it until you provide the relevant accession numbers or DOIs necessary to access your data. If you wish to make changes to your Data Availability statement, please describe these changes in your cover letter and we will update your Data Availability statement to reflect the information you provide. 3. Please ensure that you refer to Figure 1 in your text as, if accepted, production will need this reference to link the reader to the figure. Additional Editor Comments: Reviewer 1 You can refer to the following articles to further improve the quality of your articles： Impact of climate-related changes to the timing of autumn foliage colouration on tourism in Japan. Tourism Management, 70,262–272. Impact of climate change on hiking: quantitative evidence through big data mining.Current Issues in Tourism. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2020.1858037. Effects of rural revitalization on rural tourism. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management (2021),https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2021.02.008. Study on the Impact of High-speed Railway Opening on China's Accessibility Pattern and Spatial Equality.Sustainability 2018,10,2943. doi:10.3390/su10082943. The influence of high-speed rail on ice–snow tourism in northeastern China. Tourism Management（2020）, doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2019.104070. Reviewer 2 This study investigated the influence of tourism on sustainable development in BRI Countries, institutional quality as a moderating variable. The research has certain practical significance. But there are still some aspects to be improved. (1) There are too many contents of literature review. Try to select the most relevant articles to comment on the research topic of this paper, and there is no need to pursue comprehensive. (2) As the key of this paper, the description of conceptual framework is insufficient. (3) To what extent does tourism affect sustainable development should be clarified in the abstract. Otherwise, the impact of tourism on sustainable development seems to be obvious, even without this study. (4) There is little description for Table 1, 2, 3, 4. Any table in the paper should be necessary, meaningful and clearly described. (5) Compared with previous studies, what is the innovation of this paper? Further clarification is required. [Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.] Reviewers' comments: Reviewer's Responses to Questions Comments to the Author 1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions? The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ******** 2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ****** 3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available? The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ****** 4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English? PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ****** 5. Review Comments to the Author Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters) Reviewer #1: You can refer to the following articles to further improve the quality of your articles Effects of rural revitalization on rural tourism. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management (2021),https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2021.02.008. Study on the Impact of High-speed Railway Opening on China's Accessibility Pattern and Spatial Equality.Sustainability 2018,10,2943. doi:10.3390/su10082943. The influence of high-speed rail on ice–snow tourism in northeastern China. Tourism Management（2020）, doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2019.104070. Reviewer #2: This study investigated the influence of tourism on sustainable development in BRI Countries, institutional quality as a moderating variable. The research has certain practical significance. But there are still some aspects to be improved. (1) There are too many contents of literature review. Try to select the most relevant articles to comment on the research topic of this paper, and there is no need to pursue comprehensive. (2) As the key of this paper, the description of conceptual framework is insufficient. (3) To what extent does tourism affect sustainable development should be clarified in the abstract. Otherwise, the impact of tourism on sustainable development seems to be obvious, even without this study. (4) There is little description for Table 1, 2, 3, 4. Any table in the paper should be necessary, meaningful and clearly described. (5) Compared with previous studies, what is the innovation of this paper? Further clarification is required. ****** 6. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files. If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public. Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review?** For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy. Reviewer #1: No Reviewer #2: No [NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.] While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263745.r001
Revision 1
3 Jan 2022 Author Response We are also extremely grateful for the valuable suggestions and constructive comments from the reviewers, which have been instrumental in strengthening the manuscript significantly. We have carefully addressed the reviewer each comment and do so sincerely hope that the manuscript meets the expectations. Please find improvements in file 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes' in Yellow Highlighted texts. Moreover, after comments revision, overall proofreading was done by authors. Thank you very much for your precious time. Reviewer: 1. Comment: You can refer to the following articles to further improve the quality of your articles： Impact of climate-related changes to the timing of autumn foliage colouration on tourism in Japan. Tourism Management, 70,262–272. Impact of climate change on hiking: quantitative evidence through big data mining. Current Issues in Tourism. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2020.1858037. Effects of rural revitalization on rural tourism. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management (2021),https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2021.02.008. Study on the Impact of High-speed Railway Opening on China's Accessibility Pattern and Spatial Equality. Sustainability 2018,10,2943. doi:10.3390/su10082943. The influence of high-speed rail on ice–snow tourism in northeastern China. Tourism Management（2020）, doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2019.104070. Response: We are thankful for the valuable suggestions. Recommended articles have been cited in the manuscript to improve the quality of article. Changes incorporated in “Introduction” section Page 5, lines 1 to 9. Previous researchers have investigated the factors that affect tourism, e.g. high-speed railway increases the approachability of ice-snow tourist destinations and contributing to the global tourism industry (Jin, Yang, Wang, & Liu, 2020; Yang, Guo, Li, & Huang, 2018). Rural revitalization promotes rural tourism activities and contributes to sustainable rural development in developing countries (Yang et al., 2021). While climate change is a critical factor that influences the tourism industry negatively. Humidity, sunshine duration and temperature affect hiking participation nonlinearly (Liu, Yang, Zhou, & Wang, 2020). Climate-related changes also impact tourism as it reduce the duration of leaf colouration in Japan, which causes a delay in autumn foliage colouration change (Liu, Cheng, Jiang, & Huang, 2019). Reviewer: 2. Comment Summary: This study investigated the influence of tourism on sustainable development in BRI Countries, institutional quality as a moderating variable. The research has certain practical significance. But there are still some aspects to be improved. Response: Thank you for the encouragement. We are incredibly thankful for the valuable suggestions and constructive comments to improve the manuscript. We have carefully tried to address each comment and do so sincerely hope that the manuscript meets your expectations. Comment 1: There are too many contents of literature review. Try to select the most relevant articles to comment on the research topic of this paper, and there is no need to pursue comprehensive. Response 1: The literature review part is improved as suggested. We have tried our best to select most relevant articles. Word count of literature review has been reduced from 2039 to 1799. Changes incorporated in “Literature Review” section. Page 5 to 10. Comment 2: As the key of this paper, the description of conceptual framework is insufficient. Response 2: Further description has been added on your kind suggestion. Changes incorporated in “Research Methodology” section. Page 12. Model Framework The conceptual framework of the study is demonstrated below; [Insert Figure 1. Conceptual Framework Model] Solow's neoclassical model was used to examine the influence of tourism on sustainable development (SD) concerning the BRI region's IQ. The total factor productivity, also known as Solow residual or technological factor, is an imperative parameter. From the studies of (Koirala & Pradhan, 2019; Pardi et al., 2015; Ullah, Pinglu, Ullah, & Hashmi, 2021b), economic growth and extended version of SD implemented Cobb–Douglas function, which has been represented as; 𝑌𝑡 = 𝐴𝑡 ⌈𝐾𝑡⌉α ⌈𝐿𝑡⌉β ⌈𝑅𝑡⌉γ (1) The extended version of the SD neoclassical model of Solow by adopted Cobb–Douglas function, which has been represented as; Sy/y=Φ+α (dy* y)− βn + γω + p +𝜑𝑡 (2) The dependent variable SD' proxy "ANS" can be supposed as a function of tourism (TUR) and institutional quality composite (IQ). Also, control factors are urbanization (UP), exchange rate (EXR), per capita Income (INC), Inflation (INF), and household consumption (HHC). Therefore, the model relationship can be expressed as follows; SD (ANSR) = ∫ (TUR, UP, EQ, EXR, INC, HC) (3) SD (ANSR) = ∫ (TUR, IQ, TIQ, UP, ER, INC, HC) (4) Comment 3: To what extent does tourism affect sustainable development should be clarified in the abstract? Otherwise, the impact of tourism on sustainable development seems to be obvious, even without this study. Response 3: Improved and incorporated the modification as suggested. The current research findings have valuable contributions to academics as it offers novel insights about the 0. 351% influence of tourism on sustainable development at significance level of 1%, and it proposes valued suggestions to policymakers concerning tourism development strategies. The outcomes of the two-step system GMM confirmed the statistically significant and positive dynamic nature of sustainable development and its relationship with tourism and other determinants at a significance level of 1% for BRI countries. Institutional quality enhanced the 4.693% sustainability path to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) agenda with regionally interconnected countries at significance level of 1%. Renewable energy per capita and per capita income played a significant and positive role, while the exchange rate, household consumption, and urbanization negatively influenced sustainable development. Comment 4: There is little description for Table 1, 2, 3, 4. Any table in the paper should be necessary, meaningful and clearly described. Response 4: Improved, further description has been added for Table 1,2,3,4. Changes incorporated in “Results and Discussion” section. Page 14 to 17. 4.1 Descriptive Summary Table 1 exhibits the descriptive statistics in terms of the standard deviation, mean, minimum and maximum values, and observation count for the selected dependent, independent and control variables. Table 1 shows that a sample of 64 countries has 1024 observations from 2003 to 2018. The descriptive statistics show that all values are within the range. Table 2 displays the variance inflation factor (VIF). We have calculated the VIF for independent variable tourism and control variables to confirm that there is no multicollinearity in our sample. If the value of VIF would be higher than five for any variable, then it indicates that a specific variable has multicollinearity issues (Mahmood, Han, Ali, Mubeen, & Shahzad, 2019). All VIF values in Table 2 are less than five, so our data is free from multicollinearity. Table 3 displays the correlation between the variables. The results of table 3 depict that tourism, institutional quality (IQ), urbanization, renewable energy per capita (EQ), have a statistically positive and significant relationship, at 14.1%, 20.8%, 16.6%, and 30.9%, respectively, with sustainable development at 1% significance level. Per capita income is also positively correlated with sustainable development at 5% significance level. However, the exchange rate is negatively correlated with sustainable development at 5% significance level. The independent variable tourism interaction terms and the moderator institutional quality, i.e., TourismIQ, depict a positive relationship (12.9%) with sustainable development. 4.2 Co-integration Test Co-integration of model panels was confirmed by the Westerlund test. The Westerlund test was performed to confirm the long-term association between the variables considered. The results of the Westerlund test have been depicted in Table 4, indicating a long-term co-integrating association between sustainable development and its determinants. This test specified that all panels were co-integrated. Comment 5: Compared with previous studies, what is the innovation of this paper? Further clarification is required. Response 5: As mentioned in introduction part (Page#5) that previous study (Ibanescu et al., 2018) on this topic was done for one country only. Authors mentioned that data was poor because it does not allow contrasts to other states. This study has been done for 64 countries of BRI region. As most of countries of BRI region have natural beauty and economies of these countries depends on tourism. No previous study was done for this region. Secondly, this study is the further extension of (Ullah, Pinglu, Ullah, & Hashmi, 2021a)’ work. Authors suggested the researchers to work on these variables in future. So, we measured the impact of tourism on sustainable development and considered institutional quality as a moderator. We have mentioned this study in our introduction part as a motivation for our paper. Changes incorporated in “Introduction” section. Page 5. (Ibanescu et al., 2018) investigated how tourism development has affected the sustainable development for Romania only. This study was based on Romanian statistics data at the LAU-2 level, and this sustainable development data was poor as per the author because it does not permit contrasts to other states. Similarly, the role of institutional quality is crucial for both tourism and sustainable development, so institutional quality was added as a moderator as suggested by (Ullah, Pinglu, Ullah, & Hashmi, 2021a). As compared to other countries, the BRI region has natural beauty so it is considered a preferred destination by worldwide tourists. Tourism is very important for the growth and revenues of BRI region as it comprises many low and middle-income nations. However, the influence of tourism on sustainable development was not explored for the BRI region, and institutional quality was not considered as a moderator between tourism and sustainable development in previous studies. Therefore, this research focuses on how tourism contributes to sustainable development with the moderating role of institutional quality by using country-level aggregated BRI countries' data from 2003 to 2018. This approach also facilitated the confirmation of whether urbanization, renewable energy per capita, exchange rate, per capita income, inflation, and household consumption would influence the sustainable development for the BRI region, which would be a vital contribution in the literature. Attachments Attachment Submitted filename: Tourism-Response to Reviewers (1).docx* https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263745.r002
26 Jan 2022 Decision Letter - Jun Yang, Editor Impact of Tourism on Sustainable Development in BRI Countries: The Moderating Role of Institutional Quality PONE-D-21-26959R1 Dear Dr. Ullah, We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements. Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication. An invoice for payment will follow shortly after the formal acceptance. To ensure an efficient process, please log into Editorial Manager at http://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/, click the 'Update My Information' link at the top of the page, and double check that your user information is up-to-date. If you have any billing related questions, please contact our Author Billing department directly at authorbilling@plos.org. If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org. Kind regards, Jun Yang Academic Editor PLOS ONE Additional Editor Comments (optional): Accept Reviewers' comments: Reviewer's Responses to Questions Comments to the Author 1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation. Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed ******** 2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions? The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ****** 3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? Reviewer #1: I Don't Know Reviewer #2: Yes ****** 4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available? The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified. Reviewer #1: No Reviewer #2: Yes ****** 5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English? PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ****** 6. Review Comments to the Author Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters) Reviewer #1: (No Response) Reviewer #2: The authors have addressed all the concerns, I have no more comments. I recommend the manuscript to be accepted for publication. ****** 7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files. If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public. Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review?** For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy. Reviewer #1: No Reviewer #2: No https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263745.r003
Formally Accepted
8 Apr 2022 Acceptance Letter - Jun Yang, Editor PONE-D-21-26959R1 Impact of tourism on sustainable development in BRI countries: the moderating role of institutional quality Dear Dr. Ullah: I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now with our production department. If your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information please contact onepress@plos.org. If we can help with anything else, please email us at plosone@plos.org. Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access. Kind regards, PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff on behalf of Dr. Jun Yang Academic Editor PLOS ONE https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263745.r004

Open letter on the publication of peer review reports

PLOS recognizes the benefits of transparency in the peer review process. Therefore, we enable the publication of all of the content of peer review and author responses alongside final, published articles. Reviewers remain anonymous, unless they choose to reveal their names.

We encourage other journals to join us in this initiative. We hope that our action inspires the community, including researchers, research funders, and research institutions, to recognize the benefits of published peer review reports for all parts of the research system.

Learn more at ASAPbio .