IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i23p10219-d1526843.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Role of Single Landscape Elements in Enhancing Landscape Aesthetics and the Sustainable Tourism Experience: A Case Study of Leisure Furniture

Author

Listed:
  • Haisheng Liang

    (College of Home and Industrial Design, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China)

  • Zhihui Wu

    (College of Home and Industrial Design, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China
    Co-Innovation Center of Efficient Processing and Utilization of Forest Resources, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China)

Abstract

This study focuses on Xuanwu Lake Park and Purple Mountain National Forest Park in Nanjing to explore the impact of leisure furniture as a single landscape element on the visual landscape evaluation and sustainable tourism experience. In previous studies, researchers paid more attention to the overall beauty of landscape and its impact on tourists’ experiences, and there was a lack of studies on the role of a single landscape element (such as leisure furniture) in enhancing landscape beauty and tourists’ experiences. This study addresses gaps in the literature by isolating leisure furniture from other landscape elements in order to assess its unique contribution to aesthetic appeal and the various dimensions of a sustainable tourism experience, including sensory, emotional, cognitive, and operational aspects. Using Schmitt’s five-dimensional Strategic Experiential Model as the framework and combining the dual methods of visual assessments and visitor surveys, an assessment team consisting of 40 members was formed to evaluate the visual landscape of leisure furniture in two major scenic spots, and 492 valid questionnaires were collected and analyzed to study the impact of leisure furniture on tourists’ experiences. The findings reveal that leisure furniture significantly enhances visitors’ aesthetic evaluations and sensory experiences at Xuanwu Lake National Forest Park. However, suboptimally designed leisure furniture at Purple Mountain National Forest Park negatively affects both the visual appeal and sensory experience of visitors. Nevertheless, in both locations, leisure furniture positively impacts emotional and operational experiences, highlighting its role in promoting relaxation and interaction among visitors. This study provides practical insights for landscape designers and urban planners regarding the importance of carefully designing and positioning leisure furniture to optimize aesthetic and experiential outcomes. It also provides certain enlightenment and insights for future exploration of the impacts of other landscape elements (such as vegetation, water, lighting, etc.) on visual landscape evaluations and visitors’ experiences.

Suggested Citation

  • Haisheng Liang & Zhihui Wu, 2024. "The Role of Single Landscape Elements in Enhancing Landscape Aesthetics and the Sustainable Tourism Experience: A Case Study of Leisure Furniture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-20, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:23:p:10219-:d:1526843
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/23/10219/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/23/10219/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Junjie Gao & Dandan Xu & Younghwan Pan, 2024. "Configurational Paths to Arouse Tourists’ Positive Experiences in Smart Tourism Destinations: A fsQCA Approach," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(2), pages 21582440241, May.
    2. Bárbara Sofía Pasaco-González & Ana María Campón-Cerro & Ana Moreno-Lobato & Elena Sánchez-Vargas, 2023. "The Role of Demographics and Previous Experience in Tourists’ Experiential Perceptions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-17, February.
    3. Langemeyer, Johannes & Calcagni, Fulvia & Baró, Francesc, 2018. "Mapping the intangible: Using geolocated social media data to examine landscape aesthetics," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 542-552.
    4. Asli D.A. Tasci & Ady Milman, 2019. "Exploring experiential consumption dimensions in the theme park context," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(7), pages 853-876, April.
    5. Ding He & Wenting Chen & Jie Zhang, 2024. "Integrating Heritage and Environment: Characterization of Cultural Landscape in Beijing Great Wall Heritage Area," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-32, April.
    6. Jian Ming Luo & Chi Fung Lam & Hongyu Wang, 2021. "Exploring the Relationship Between Hedonism, Tourist Experience, and Revisit Intention in Entertainment Destination," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(4), pages 21582440211, October.
    7. Enrico Michelutti & Andrea Guaran, 2022. "Landscape education in planning experiences: The case of the regional landscape plan of Friuli Venezia Giulia (Italy)," Landscape Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(2), pages 195-210, February.
    8. Esra Köksaldı & Zihni Turkan, 2023. "Urban Furniture in Sustainable Historical Urban Texture Landscapes: Historical Squares in the Walled City of Nicosia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-24, June.
    9. Hangyu Gao & Shamsul Abu Bakar & Suhardi Maulan & Mohd Johari Mohd Yusof & Riyadh Mundher & Benxue Chen, 2024. "How Highway Landscape Visual Qualities Are Being Studied: A Systematic Literature Review," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-19, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Emilia Janeczko & Jan Banaś & Małgorzata Woźnicka & Krzysztof Janeczko & Stanisław Zięba & Katarzyna Utnik-Banaś & Aleksandra Banaś, 2025. "What Kind of Recreational Infrastructure Encourages Forest Visits the Most? A Case Study of Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-24, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kaiser, Nina N. & Ghermandi, Andrea & Feld, Christian K. & Hershkovitz, Yaron & Palt, Martin & Stoll, Stefan, 2021. "Societal benefits of river restoration – Implications from social media analysis," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    2. Palazzo, Maria & Vollero, Agostino & Vitale, Pierluigi & Siano, Alfonso, 2021. "Urban and rural destinations on Instagram: Exploring the influencers’ role in #sustainabletourism," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    3. Wei Quan & Jichul Jang & Aleksandar Radic & Antonio Ariza-Montes & Heesup Han, 2023. "Safe Destination Choice Among Tourism-Product Consumers in the New Era of Tourism," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, October.
    4. Selda İnançoğlu & Havva Arslangazi Uzunahmet & Özge Özden, 2023. "The Effect of Green Spaces on User Satisfaction in Historical City of Nicosia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-18, August.
    5. Márquez, Laura Andreina Matos & Rezende, Eva Caroline Nunes & Machado, Karine Borges & Nascimento, Emilly Layne Martins do & Castro, Joana D'arc Bardella & Nabout, João Carlos, 2023. "Trends in valuation approaches for cultural ecosystem services: A systematic literature review," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    6. Zapata-Caldas, Emmanuel & Calcagni, Fulvia & Baró, Francesc & Langemeyer, Johannes, 2022. "Using crowdsourced imagery to assess cultural ecosystem services in data-scarce urban contexts: The case of the metropolitan area of Cali, Colombia," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    7. Guan, Shuqi & Chao, Chih-Wei (Fred) & Tian, Feng, 2024. "Experience intensification to purchase intentions of derivative works in service-intensive industries: An empirical study," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    8. Comalada, F. & Llorente, O. & Acuña, V. & Saló, J. & Garcia, X., 2025. "Using georeferenced text from social media to map the cultural ecosystem services of freshwater ecosystems," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    9. Zhang Zhang & Qiqi Sun, 2024. "Integrated Design Methods for Sustainable Public Seating in Urban Communities—A Shanghai Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-24, October.
    10. Havinga, Ilan & Bogaart, Patrick W. & Hein, Lars & Tuia, Devis, 2020. "Defining and spatially modelling cultural ecosystem services using crowdsourced data," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    11. Oleksandr Karasov & Stien Heremans & Mart Külvik & Artem Domnich & Igor Chervanyov, 2020. "On How Crowdsourced Data and Landscape Organisation Metrics Can Facilitate the Mapping of Cultural Ecosystem Services: An Estonian Case Study," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-17, May.
    12. Lingfang Shao & Pengfei Ma & Zijin Zhou, 2024. "Research on the Impact of Landscape Planning on Visual and Spatial Perception in Historical District Tourism: A Case Study of Laomendong," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-25, July.
    13. Alexander Dunkel & Maximilian C Hartmann & Eva Hauthal & Dirk Burghardt & Ross S Purves, 2023. "From sunrise to sunset: Exploring landscape preference through global reactions to ephemeral events captured in georeferenced social media," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(2), pages 1-22, February.
    14. Belén Martín & Rosa Arce & Isabel Otero & Manuel Loro, 2018. "Visual Landscape Quality as Viewed from Motorways in Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-13, July.
    15. William Cannon Hunter, 2025. "Dolmen UNESCO Sites Are Tourism Attractions in Korea: Semiotics of Sustainability for Cultural Heritage," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-23, September.
    16. Liangjian Yang & Kaijun Cao, 2022. "Cultural Ecosystem Services Research Progress and Future Prospects: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-18, September.
    17. Gugulica, Madalina & Burghardt, Dirk, 2023. "Mapping indicators of cultural ecosystem services use in urban green spaces based on text classification of geosocial media data," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    18. Xin Cheng & Sylvie Van Damme & Pieter Uyttenhove, 2022. "Assessing the Impact of Park Renovations on Cultural Ecosystem Services," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-18, April.
    19. Xingyuan Li & Wenqing Pang & Lizhi Han & Yufan Yan & Xianjie Pan & Diechuan Yang, 2025. "Relationship Between Landscape Character and Public Preferences in Urban Landscapes: A Case Study from the East–West Mountain Region in Wuhan, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-26, June.
    20. Kong, Inhye & Sarmiento, Fausto O., 2022. "Utilizing a crowdsourced phrasal lexicon to identify cultural ecosystem services in El Cajas National Park, Ecuador," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:23:p:10219-:d:1526843. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.