Noise and well-being in urban residential environments: The potential role of perceived availability to nearby green areas

We summarize the foundational elements of a new area of research we call soundscape ecology. The study of sound in landscapes is based on an understanding of how sound, from various sources—biological, geophysical and anthropogenic—can be used to understand coupled natural-human dynamics across different spatial and temporal scales. Useful terms, such as soundscapes, biophony, geophony and anthrophony, are introduced and defined. The intellectual foundations of soundscape ecology are described—those of spatial ecology, bioacoustics, urban environmental acoustics and acoustic ecology. We argue that soundscape ecology differs from the humanities driven focus of acoustic ecology although soundscape ecology will likely need its rich vocabulary and conservation ethic. An integrative framework is presented that describes how climate, land transformations, biodiversity patterns, timing of life history events and human activities create the dynamic soundscape. We also summarize what is currently known about factors that control temporal soundscape dynamics and variability across spatial gradients. Several different phonic interactions (e.g., how anthrophony affects biophony) are also described. Soundscape ecology tools that will be needed are also discussed along with the several ways in which soundscapes need to be managed. This summary article helps frame the other more application-oriented papers that appear in this special issue.

What is soundscape ecology? An introduction and overview of an emerging new science

Acoustic comfort evaluation in urban open public spaces

Towards standardization in soundscape preference assessment

Semantic differential analysis of the soundscape in urban open public spaces

The general aim of this paper is to demonstrate the significance of intentional soundscape design in urban squares by investigating people's general perceptions of urban soundscape and sound preferences, and the effects of demographic factors. An intensive questionnaire survey was carried out in two urban squares in Sheffield. Sound identification and classification were both considered. The results show that natural sounds as a group were generally preferred to urban sounds; the preferences of soundscape elements influenced people's choice of using an urban square; and in terms of sound preference, the differences amongst age groups were rather significant, whereas between males and females only slight differences were found. Finally, some suggestions on soundscape design in urban squares are given.

Soundscape and Sound Preferences in Urban Squares: A Case Study in Sheffield

As heritage is the precious treasure of human society, heritage also carries the genes of culture. It is of vital importance to effectively develop heritage tourism resources and explore the mechanisms that influence tourists’ cultural identity. This study has integrated the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework with the attitude-behavior-context (ABC) theory to construct a hypothetical model of heritage tourism aesthetics, tourist involvement, mental experience, and cultural identity so as to figure out their relationships. The questionnaires were collected to investigate the impact paths and mechanisms between heritage aesthetics, tourist involvement, mental experience, and cultural identity. The structural equation model was used to examine the relationship between heritage tourism aesthetics, tourist involvement, mental experience, and cultural identity. The main findings include: (1) the positive impact of aesthetics driving mental experience and cultural identity is significant; (2) the impact of tourist involvement on mental experience and cultural identity is also significant; (3) the impact of aesthetics on cultural identity is not significant, but mental experience mediates the relationship between aesthetics and cultural identity in heritage tourism. This study provides a new research framework and perspective for the aesthetics, tourist involvement, mental experience, and cultural identity of tourists in heritage tourism. This study also provides practical implications for government culture sectors to propagandize culture and for heritage destination managers to better manage heritage sites.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.990030/pdf

How do aesthetics and tourist involvement influence cultural identity in heritage tourism? The mediating role of mental experience

The tourism industry is considered a smokeless industry or green economy. Under the circumstances of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, it is essential and urgent to explore whether the tourism industry and technological progress can promote ecological economy development. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in mainland China from 2007–2019, this paper, for the first time, incorporates the tourism industry, technological progress, and ecological economy development into the analytical framework by constructing a PVAR model. In addition, this paper calculates the indicator weights of each variable using the entropy weighting method. This paper utilizes GMM tests, impulse response analysis, Monte Carlo simulation, and variance decomposition to empirically investigate the dynamic impact mechanism of variables interacting with each other. The conclusions are as follows. First, the tourism industry always contributes positively to ecological economy development, while technological progress can facilitate ecological economy development in the long run rather than in the short term. Second, the tourism industry also positively contributes to technological progress. Third, ecological economy development has a “crowding out effect” on the tourism industry. Fourth, the tourism industry in developed eastern regions has a more powerful impact on ecological economy development than in underdeveloped middle and western regions. Based on the empirical results, we provide practical implications: first, the assessment system of the regional economy should include ecological development indicators; second, the tourism industry should accelerate the use of clean energy and the transformation of green technological innovation.

https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/1/783/pdf?version=1672902046

Ecological Civilization and High-Quality Development: Do Tourism Industry and Technological Progress Affect Ecological Economy Development?

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the tourism and hospitality industries worldwide. Tourism destination marketing has been an heated focus in tourism and hospitality academia, it is widely believed that it can promote the revival of industries in the post-pandemic era. But there is a lack of research on different graphic presentation forms in tourism advertisements. To bridge the gap in the related literature, this study aims at studying the impact of the image and text presentation forms of the scenic spot’s name in tourism advertisements on tourists’ visit intention to the tourist destination city by combining the theory of constructivism in cognitive psychology, SOR model, and affective-cognitive model to conduct a 2 × 2 between-group experiment. The study found that when the text part contains the scenic spot’s name, the tourism advertisement has a significant impact on tourists’ perceived advertising effectiveness, destination affective image, and visit intention. The results of eye tracking analysis also showed that fixation points are primarily distributed in the text part. Furthermore, this study explored the chain mediating mechanism of perceived advertising effectiveness and destination affective image and discovered that the impact of the text presentation form on the visit intention can be realized through the mediating effect of perceived advertising effectiveness and destination affective image. This study puts forward some suggestions for the tourism advertising and destination marketing of scenic spots with high-familiarity of destination cities with low-familiarity and improving the image of tourist destination cities.

/pdf/image-and-text-presentation-forms-in-destination-marketing-1o8npz26.pdf

Image and text presentation forms in destination marketing: An eye-tracking analysis and a laboratory experiment

This paper studies people’s perception of sound, based on an intensive questionnaire survey in fourteen urban open public spaces of five European countries. The questionnaire includes identification of recognized sounds, classification of sound preference, and indication of wanted and unwanted sounds. The results indicate three facets to people’s sound preferences. First, people generally prefer natural and culture‐related sounds rather than artificial sounds. Vehicle sounds and construction sounds are regarded as the most unpopular, whereas sounds from human activities are normally rated as neutral. Second, cultural background and long‐term environmental experience play an important role in people’s judgment of sound preference. People from a similar environment may show a similar tendency on their sound preferences, which can be defined as macro‐preference. Third, personal differences, such as age and gender, further influence people’s sound preference, which can be defined as micro‐preference. For example, with increasing age, a higher percentage of people are favorable to, or tolerate, sounds relating to nature, culture or human activities. Male and female exhibit only slight differences. [Work supported by the European Commission.]

Wei Yang

Papers

Soundscape and Sound Preferences in Urban Squares: A Case Study in Sheffield

How do aesthetics and tourist involvement influence cultural identity in heritage tourism? The mediating role of mental experience

Ecological Civilization and High-Quality Development: Do Tourism Industry and Technological Progress Affect Ecological Economy Development?

Image and text presentation forms in destination marketing: An eye-tracking analysis and a laboratory experiment

Sound preferences in urban open public spaces