Understanding tourist experiences of sounds at nature-based destinations: from a relational perspective

This study incorporates a relational approach to investigating the dynamics and complexity of how tourists interact with diverse sounds as they are mobile while visiting nature-based destinations. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study combined in-situ photos and videos, real-time portable sound sensing, GPS tracking, wristband wearing, and in-depth interviews among 34 participants during their one-day trip to Mount Huangshan, China. The study argues that tourists’ experience of sounds in nature are dynamic and contextual. Sound influences tourist experiences not as intrinsic properties but through ongoing interrelationships among individual tourists, sounds, and their surroundings. Natural sounds of silence are experienced only when human voices and visual stimuli are absent and when certain natural sounds are assembled in particular situations. This study contributes theoretically and methodologically to the literature by understanding the mobile and relational process of how various sounds influence tourist experiences at nature-based destinations. The mechanisms of why tourists experience sounds differently can be explained by the contingency, temporality, and heterogeneity of the interrelationships among tourists, sounds, and the contexts. This study also provides practical implications for nature-based destination planners and managers through re-connecting tourists with diverse natural sounds in various contexts to enhance tourist experience.