Influence of soundscape on visiting time in zoos

Nengsong Zou 1

School of architecture, South China University of Technology No. 381, Wushan Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou,China

Hongwei Wang 2*

School of architecture, South China University of Technology No. 381, Wushan Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou,China

ABSTRACT The soundscape is very important for the environmental quality and animal welfare of zoos. This paper explores the relationship between the soundscape and visiting time, for the case of Guangzhou Zoo in China. In this research, we measured the sound indicators in the zoo along with the visiting time of visitors. This included the cases of with or without animal soundscape around the exhibition area, recorded by video equipment. It was found that there was a positive correlation between visiting time and the consistency of animal sound scene vision. The visiting time of tourists will increase significantly When there is animal sound scene in the exhibition area.The visiting time of tourists is significantly increased when the animal sound is consistent with the animals seen by tourists.Within a certain range, the visiting time is not affected by the sound pressure level.The results of this research are expected to guide the soundscape design, construction and management of zoos.

1. INTRODUCTION

The zoo is a special type of park green space to display animals and their living environment under the conditions of artificial feeding, stocking and maintenance. Its main purpose is animal protection, scientific research, visiting and playing, and popular science education [1, 2] . Tourists visit the zoo because of their interest in nature and animals, and the zoo also provides tourists with a leisure, entertainment and learning environment. As a part of the zoo environment, soundscape is one of the main focuses of tourists' sensory experience. Good soundscape can effectively improve the comfort and satisfaction of tourists [3, 4] , the viewing behavior of tourists in the zoo can well reflect their preferences and the attraction of viewing objects [5] . One way to assess the preferences of zoo exhibition areas is to secretly observe tourists and record their behavior. By observing the tour time they stay in front of the corresponding exhibition area to determine their preference for the animals they watch, the longer they stay, the more interested they are in the animals in the

1 418880558@qq.com

2 * wanghw@scut,edu.cn

21-24 AUGUST SCOTTISH EVENT CAMPUS e O? ? GLASGOW

exhibition area [4, 6, 7] . There are many applications to study the visiting time of tourists in the zoo, such as providing solutions to crowding issues, improving tourists' experiences, contributing to site and area planning and enhancing destina tion marketing [8] . Taking Guangzhou Zoo as a case, this paper mainly investigates the visiting time of tourists under different soundscape, and analyzes the relationship between soundscape and visiting time, in order to provide useful information for the design and management of the zoo.

2. METHODS

2.1. Survey site

Guangzhou Zoo is located in Yuexiu District, Guangzhou. It was built in 1955 and covers an area of 42 hectares. It has two entrances and exits: the south gate and the north gate. There are more than 300 species and more than 5000 animals in the park, including mammals, reptiles, birds and fish. With an annual reception of nearly 4 million tourists, it is one of the city zoos with the largest animal species in China [9, 10] . Two exhibition areas were selected for observation. They are Nomascus leucogenys and Panthera tigrisssp.tigris (Fig. 1). The two exhibition areas are separated by wire fence or glass room, which is convenient to record the observation time data.

Fig 1 .Axhibition Area （ Nomascus leucogenys and Panthera tigrisssp.tigris )

The survey was conducted from March 2022 to April 2022. Five days of non holidays were selected for research, including two days on weekends and three days on weekdays, in order to eliminate the impact of noise caused by the sudden increase of people on weekends on the study. There are three observation times in a day: 9:30-10:00, 11:30-12:00, and 15:30-16:00, observe the stay time of each section of visitors visiting the exhibition area.

2.2. Sound pressure level measurement

This study records the acoustic indexes of the site. The specific method is ： measure the sound pressure level at the observation point in each time period. Use AWA6228 sound level meter for measurement, For each measurement, the microphone of the sound level meter was positioned approximately 1m away from any reflective surfaces and 1.2m to 1.5m above the ground to reduce the effect of acoustic reflection. The sound level meter was set A-weight. Considering the possible change of sound pressure level in each exhibition area, three points are selected for measurement in each exhibition area, and each survey position is 6 meters apart to avoid any instantaneous error and each point collects data for 5 minutes [11] .

2.3. Behavior measurement

We use video recorder to record the behavior of tourists in the exhibition area, and use video playback to record the visiting time time. The video recording time in each period and location is 15

minutes. The definition of the initial scope of the viewing area starts with the clear viewing of animals in the main sightseeing route (The location of this experiment is within two meters outside the fence of the exhibition area, as shown in Figure 1). The observation time is recorded from entering the viewing area to leaving the exhibition area. Using a stopwatch to record the visiting time in the video, the reason why the experiment uses video playback instead of on-site recording the observation time is to avoid the time recording error caused by distraction during observation and recording. The video recording equipment is placed in a hidden position next to the exhibition area, so as not to affect the normal tour of tourists.

In the behavior measurement we recorded two situations at each observation point: one is the visiting time when there is or does not exist soundscape, the other is the visiting time when the sound source is consistent or inconsistent with the animals in the exhibition area. And we also classified the social characteristics of the investigated population.

2.3. Statistical analysis

Reasearch collected 356 valid experimental data, and the results were analysed with SPSS Software 25.0. Major statistical methods used include Spearman's rho correlation analysis and sample mean analysis [12] .

3. RESULTS

3.1. visiting time time under different conditions

In the two exhibition areas of Nomascus leucogenys and Panthera tigrisssp.tigris , the average visiting time time is 72.77s. The average visiting time time of men was 70.56s and that of women was 74.91s (Table 1). The visiting time time with animal soundscape is 80.01s, and that without animal soundscape is 62.95s (Table 2). The visiting time time is 82.84s when the animal soundscape is consistent with the animals in the exhibition area, and 61.76s when the animal soundscape is inconsistent with the animals in the exhibition area (Table 3).

Table 1.visiting time time of different sex

Visiting Time （ s ） * Sex

visitingtime （ s ）

sex Mean N Std. Deviation

Male 70.56 175 36.586

Female 74.91 181 44.612

Total 72.77 356 40.865

Table 2.visiting time time of soundscape exists or not

Visiting Time （ s ） * Soundscape

visitingtime （ s ）

soundscape Mean N Std. Deviation

Existence 62.95 151 41.543

Non-Existence 80.01 205 38.896

Total 72.77 356 40.865

Table 3.visiting time time of soundscape consistent with vision or no t

Visiting Time （ s ） * Consistence

visitingtime （ s ）

consistence Mean N Std. Devia t i on

Fit 61.76 170 39.562

Unfit 82.84 186 39.513

Total 72.77 356 40.865

3.2.Correlation of factors affecting viewing time

By analyzing the correlation between visiting time, sound pressure level, soundscape existence and consistency between sound and vision with the animals in the exhibition area, we found that:soundscape existence and consistency between sound and vision with the animals there is a significant positive correlation with the viewing time, and the correlation coefficients are 0.207 and 0.258. The experiment found that there was no significant effect on viewing time with sound pressure level in a certain range (48.5db-84.6db), as shown inTable 4.

Table 4.Correlation between visiting time time,sound pressure level,soun ds cape and s oun ds cape cons i s t ence

Correlations

Sound pressure

Visiting time

level cons i s t en ce s oun ds cape

visitingtime （ s ） Pearson Correlation 1 .117 * .258 ** .207 **

Sig. (2-tailed) .027 .000 .000

N 356 35 5 35 6 35 6

Sound pressure

Pearson Correlation .117 * 1 -.003 .072

level

Sig. (2-tailed) .027 .948 .178

N 355 35 5 35 5 35 5

consistence Pearson Correlation .258 ** -.003 1 .898 **

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .948 .000

N 356 35 5 35 6 35 6

soundscape Pearson Correlation .207 ** .072 .898 ** 1

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .178 .000

N 356 35 5 35 6 35 6

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

4. CONCLUSIONS

Taking Guangzhou Zoo as the research object, this study analyzes the relationship between animal soundscape and tourists' visiting time time through acoustic measurement and behavior observation. The study found that visiting time time was positively correlated with animal soundscape and animal soundscape- visual consistency, but the correlation coefficient was small (P < 0.3), it may also be affected by other factors. When there is animal soundscape in the exhibition area, the visiting time of tourists will increase significantly, with an increase of 27.1%. When the animal soundscape is consistent with the animals in the exhibition area, the visiting time of tourists is significantly higher than that without soundsound, with an increase of 34.1%. The visiting time of tourists is not affected by the sound pressure level, which is within a certain sound pressure level. The research shows that if the soundscape is added in the zoo, especially the soundscape consistent with the visual senses, it can significantly improve the visiting time of tourists in the zoo. This is of great significance to increase the zoo's sense of experience and contribute to the operation and management of the zoo.

However, there are also some deficiencies in the study. For example, due to the influence of covid-19, the number of visitors to the zoo decreased sharply during the epidemic. This may have some impact on the data obtained, this needs to be improved in the follow-up research.

5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This paper thanks the State Key Laboratory of subtropical building science of South China University of technology and Guangzhou Zoo for their relevant assistance in the research, as well as Professor Wang Hongwei for his constructive suggestions.

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