Spatial sight analysis of Hangzhou Xiaoyingzhou based on tourists' landscape preference

Tourist preferences are important for the high-quality planning and design of recreation spaces. The famous scenic locale of West Lake in Hangzhou, China, is used as an example in this study. Based on multi-source data (e.g., online comments, and tourist photographs), we used content analysis, kernel density estimation, and image semantic segmentation technology to determine the spatial distribution of tourists' landscape preferences. We analyzed these spatial sight characteristics from the viewpoint, sight distance, and perspectives. The results show that tourists' landscape preferences are mainly concentrated on landscape architecture for recreation. The viewpoints of these preferences are concentrated in the north-south embankmentdfar beyond that of the east-west embankment. The preferences also show a spatial sequence in terms of sight distance, and the best visual effect is the open platform at the north and south islands of Xiaoyingzhou. From the perspective of vision, the degree of spatial openness in the tourists' landscape preferences is proportional to the distance of vision; the two factors have a convergent relationship. The discussion of the characteristics of tourists' landscape preference and space sight creation in Xiaoyingzhou provides a reference for the quality improvement of island recreation space. (c) 2023 Higher Education Press Limited Company. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

Tourist preferences for landscape in recreational spaces are examined in this study using West Lake in Hangzhou, China as an example. The spatial distribution of tourists' landscape preferences is determined using content analysis, kernel density estimation, and image semantic segmentation. The study reveals that tourists tend to prefer landscape architecture for recreation and that their preferences exhibit spatial sequences in terms of viewpoints and sight distances.