RESEARCH

The Garden Visitor Experience

Through a systematic database search, this study analyzes findings from tourism, psychology, and education, reinterpreting them using Gibson’s concept of “affordance” to understand how horticultural designs and media technologies influence visitor engagement and meaning-making.
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Summary

This paper provides a comprehensive survey of empirical research on garden visitor experiences, noting that studies in garden tourism, psychology, and education often overlook the aesthetic experience of gardens as cultural artifacts. The research involved a systematic database search using keywords related to “garden” and “visitor experience” across multiple databases and academic journals. It analyzes findings from tourism and leisure studies, psychological studies, and environmental education research, reinterpreting them using Gibson’s concept of “affordance.”

The study focuses on how horticultural designs influence visitor movement, perception of plant displays, and meaning-making through bodily engagement. It also explores how media technologies like mobile guides shape visitor interaction with the garden. The result is a transdisciplinary model integrating bodily perception and conceptual understanding, identifying the deliberate design of interpretative media as crucial for visitor engagement, and emphasizing that gardens are both physical sites and symbolic representations that allow visitors to engage with cultural interpretations of the living world.

Link

Moser, S. (2023). The garden visitor experience: Multisensory meaning making in designed landscapes. Museum Management and Curatorship, 38(6), 679-695.

 

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