What attracts tourists to press the shutter in cultural heritage tourism? An analysis of visitor-employed photography and visual attributes: a case study on Japan’s Kairakuen Garden

ABSTRACT

Tourism behaviour in cultural heritage gardens presents opportunities and challenges for sustainable management. Understanding visitor perceptions and assessments of visual resources in cultural heritage gardens are of great interest to heritage site managers. Using a case study of the Kairakuen Garden in Japan, we collected images (N = 430) and geographic data of tourist photos in the heritage garden through visitor-employed photography technology to analyse what hotspots attract tourists to take photos. We also evaluated the visual attributes of photo hotspots using a questionnaire. The results reveal that the most common elements in tourist images were plant landscapes and human-made structures and that the 12 photo hotspots of the Kairakuen Garden were placed along the officially recommended tour routes, indicating that tourists identify the officially approved scenery. Furthermore, there are four main hotspot areas; they received significant different visual attributes assessments in ‘scenic beauty’, ‘complexity’, ‘mystery’, and ‘diversity’. Based on these findings, it is possible to understand tourists’ visual perceptions and preferences and to make recommendations for the management of the Kairakuen Garden and other cultural heritage gardens.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural heritage garden
• visitor-employed photography
• tourists’ visual preference
• visual attributes
• geo-information

Acknowledgements

We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions, which greatly improved the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Huixin Wang

Huixin Wang holds a master’s degree of landscape architecture from Chiba University and working as a technical assistant in the landscape planning laboratory Chiba University. Her research interests include sustainable development, geo-information, sustainable tourism, and urban green infrastructure, and she is a member of Japan Geoscience Union (JpGU).

Shixian Luo

Shixian Luo holds a PhD from Chiba University and working as a post-doctor researcher in the landscape planning laboratory Chiba University. His research interests include tourism, sustainable development, and urban green–blue space, and he is a member of the Japanese Institution of Landscape Architecture (JILA) and Japan Geoscience Union (JpGU).

Katsunori Furuya

Katsunori Furuya holds a PhD from Chiba University and is a Professor in the Graduate School of Horticulture at Chiba University. So far, he has published more than 100 papers in Landscape and Urban Planning, Forest Policy and Economics, Urban and Regional Planning Review, Journal of Tropical Forest Management, and Landscape Research. He has also edited two books and His research interests include Landscape planning, Landscaping History, Green Evaluation, Urban green space, Landscape theory, Environmental education, Nature experience, Eco-tourism, Nature conservation, National Park. He has also served Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture and Japan Geoscience Union.