Acoustic environment management in the countryside: A case study of tourist sentiment for rural soundscapes in China

Abstract

For sustainable environment development in the countryside and rural tourism destinations, we must pay greater attention to acoustic environment management and rural soundscape planning. Field surveys were performed using rural soundscape questionnaires to evaluate soundscape expectations and soundscape sentiments for the psycho-acoustic characteristics of rural soundscapes in Zhuquan Village, a rural tourism destination in China. The main findings of the 452 survey questionnaires show that the natural sounds of geophonies and biophonies are the rural tourists’ soundscape preferences, and sounds of spring and streams, bird song, and sounds of waterwheels are the rural tourists’ soundscape expectations. In the planning and management of rural soundscapes, we should reduce unwanted sounds, and protect and develop rich natural sounds, native lifestyle and traditional cultural soundscapes, so as to create an acoustically authentic atmosphere in the ideal rural tourism destination originating from idyllic Shangri-La.

Keywords:

• rural soundscapes
• acoustic environment management
• soundscape planning
• soundscape expectation
• a rural tourism destination in China

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the four anonymous reviewers very much for their valuable comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 41571136 and 41971173] and Social Science Foundation of Ministry of Education of China [grant number 17YJC790209].