Evaluating the Effectiveness of Environmental Interpretation in National Parks Based on Visitors’ Spatiotemporal Behavior and Emotional Experience: A Case Study of Pudacuo National Park, China

Abstract

Problems such as global environmental pollution and climate change have made the public’s desire for nature and closeness to greenery increasingly strong amid rapid urbanization. Improving the ability of experiential environmental interpretation products and services is the basis for national parks to meet the public’s needs, and the evaluation of their effectiveness is a necessary basis for optimizing the quality of environmental interpretation services in response to the current problems of unsynchronized environmental interpretation facilities and service levels. Using Pudacuo National Park as a case study, 365 visitors’ spatio-temporal trajectories with GPS devices and questionnaire data were collected, and the interaction changes of visitors’ external spatiotemporal behaviors and internal emotional experiences were analyzed using cluster analysis, GPS geoprocessing model construction, and emotional mean calculation methods, and the results showed that (1) Pudacuo National Park visitors mainly comprise four types of visitor clusters, which are the sightseeing type, trekking + sightseeing type, cruise type, and hiking + cruise type, as well as four types of spatio-temporal behavior patterns; the differences of visitors’ spatiotemporal behavior patterns are reflected in spatial movement, time allocation, and stopping behavior, and correspond to different emotional experience intensity. (2) Emotional experience value is positively correlated with location stay time, and emotional experience intensity is higher, corresponding to spatio-temporal behavior patterns with longer trajectory distance, longer dwell time, and more stopping behaviors, indicating that environmental services promote longer visitor stopping time and generate high-quality recreation experiences. (3) Finally, we proposed the optimization of environmental interpretation mode according to the spatiotemporal emotional differences of different types of visitor clusters. This study provides a basis for improving the quality of visitor experience and optimizing the quality of environmental interpretation services and provides a useful reference for guiding the construction of high-quality and diverse ecological experiences in national parks.

1. Introduction

As a form of nature reserve, national parks provide opportunities for people to experience and enjoy the natural environment while protecting the earth’s biodiversity [1]. Since 2018 China has carried out the establishment of 10 national park pilots in Sanjiangyuan. The government work report of the two sessions in 2022 proposed that “Strengthening ecological environment zoning control coordinating the system of mountain, water, forest, field, lake, grass and sand management, protecting biodiversity, and promoting the construction of a nature reserve system with national parks as the main body” [2]. As the construction of national parks continues to advance, it is necessary to advocate the development of a sustainable tourism approach that enriches visitors’ ecological experiences while protecting natural resources from destruction. Environmental interpretation is considered a means of sustainable tourism involving a variety of non-personal activities such as printed materials, signs, kiosks, exhibitions, self-guided walks, pre-recorded guided narrations, and virtual tours, where guides, naturalists, docents, or others provide information about the natural and cultural significance of objects or areas [3]. Environmental interpretation is touted as an efficient form of interpretation that functionally enriches the visitor’s ecological experience [4]. It improves visitor satisfaction, increases visitors’ perceptions of national parks, encourages appropriate demeanor in appropriate places, influences visitors’ attitudes toward the environment, and changes visitor behavior, thus achieving the purpose of environmental protection in parks [5]. Therefore, environmental interpretation is an important, ideal and effective management tool for visitors to national parks as well as nature reserves [6].

Environmental interpretation plays a vital role in the direction of ecological conservation and sustainable development of ecotourism in national parks [7]. The evaluation of environmental interpretation can effectively allow park management agencies to understand whether the content, interpretation methods, and interpretation media currently used are appropriate, promote the improvement of environmental interpretation, and improve the quality of environmental interpretation [8]. Current research on the evaluation of environmental interpretation services mainly focuses on the information status of the audience receiving the interpretation services and the evaluation of the implementation status of the interpretation media through changes in the behavior and attitude of the interpretation audience, i.e., “information output” and “feedback evaluation”. There is a lack of research on the behavioral processes of visitors’ implementation and operation of environmental interpretation systems. Therefore, an in-depth study of visitors’ behavior using environmental interpretation systems is the basis of all research on environmental interpretation and a key issue that must be solved urgently, as well as a basis for assessing whether visitors use environmental interpretation services effectively. Based on this, this paper explored the spatio-temporal behavior and inner psychological experience of visitors in the process of environmental interpretation service from the perspective of visitors’ spatio-temporal behavior and inner psychological experience and evaluated the effectiveness of environmental interpretation service.

This study starts from the perspective of temporal geography, combines emotional geographic thinking, uses the combination of GPS track tracking and questionnaire analysis, expresses the spatio-temporal behavior and emotional value of visitors through GIS visualization, studies the emotional change process of visitors during the tour, the relationship between visitors’ emotional change and tour order, tour location, and stay time, and tries to analyze the characteristics of visitors’ spatiotemporal behavior outside the use of environmental interpretation services, what factors influence the change of emotional experience value during the behavior, and how these factors affect the spatiotemporal behavior of visitors. We investigated the characteristics of visitors’ spatio-temporal behavior, what factors influence the change of emotional experience value in the process of behavior, and the mechanism of these factors on visitors’ spatio-temporal behavior. In this way, the environmental interpretation service can be improved to meet the needs of the audience, and the spatio-temporal behavior of visitors can be combined with the optimal allocation of environmental interpretation resources so as to provide opportunities for park and protected area managers to protect the environmental and biological resources in the park and to provide high-quality visitor experiences.

2. Literature Review and Research Framework

2.1. Research Overview

2.1.1. Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Environmental Interpretation Services

Environmental interpretation is an information communication method linking the supply side and the demand side (the public) [9]. The supply side relies on the various service functions of the national park ecosystem and uses media facilities (signs, folders, display centers, etc.) and personnel services to enrich the public’s aesthetic, educational, recreational, and other multi-level recreational experiences to stimulate the public to develop new knowledge and enthusiasm for the environment and to achieve the basic functions of education, conservation, and management [10]. Moscardo and Pearce argued that interpretation is a major part of the tourist experience and that every interpreter should strive to enrich the visitor experience [11]. Using 1200 interviews, Moscardo investigated the impact of tourist attraction interpretation on the emotions experienced by visitors from a cognitive-psychological perspective [12]. These studies show that environmental interpretation is an important tool to fully utilize the ecological and recreational functions of national parks. On the other hand, environmental interpretation services can guide visitors’ recreational behavior in time and space, keep away from environmentally fragile areas, and protect the local ecological environment, which is an effective tool for park management [13]. Visitors’ behavioral changes after receiving interpretation services are measured to verify the effectiveness of environmental interpretation implementation, and two behavioral evaluation methods are usually used: Self-reported behavior and Observed behavior [14]. The self-report measure focuses on changes in visitors’ long-term environmental protection behavior, Dresner compared walk-in visitor behavior before and after the introduction of environmental interpretation in Tasmania’s Cradle Mountain National Park and found that after the introduction of the interpretation system visitors to the national park used fewer campfires, more people took litter out of the park, and the accident rate on the walking system decreased significantly [15]. Lee and Moscardo studied the effects of hospitality facility features on visitors’ pre- and post-tour environmental attitudes and actual behaviors at ecotourism sites, concluding that visitors are more likely to develop environmental conservation behaviors when more natural factors are incorporated into the design of hospitality facilities [16]. The behavioral observation method of measurement, which is applied to evaluate whether environmental interpretation can reduce visitors’ behaviors that affect the scenic environment, has less empirical research for this type. Medio et al., studied the changes in coral damage rates among visitors before and after participating in environmental education activities and observed that the frequency of coral contact decreased from 1.4 to 0.4 after participating in environmental education activities. Environmental interpretation had a significant effect on visitor behavior [17]. Based on the relevant research, it is proved that the study of the behavioral changes of visitors will help to test the implementation effect of interpretation services, so as to enhance the visitor’s recreation experience at multiple levels to realize the ecological recreation function of national parks and promote environmental protection and park management.

2.1.2. A Study of the Relationship between Temporal Behavior and Emotional Experience

Early behavioral geography focused on the study of external behavior (e.g., travel behavior) and environmental sensing (e.g., mental mapping), and Anderson and Smith formally introduced the concept of affective geography in 2001, advocating an emphasis on emotionally shaping socio-spatial research [18]. Davidso’s representative proposal of locating bodies and places in terms of emotions, the location where emotions are located, the emotional connection between people and their environment, and the figuration of emotional geography [19], in recent years, has incorporated emotions into the study of spatiotemporal behavior and quantified, processual and visualized psychological factors in time and space. Taking Hong Kong Ocean Park as an example, Xiaoting Huang proposed a quantitative index of the “TEP tourism emotional path” model, which combines spatiotemporal behavior and emotional perception to explore the spatiotemporal distribution patterns and emotional preferences of visitors to different thematic performing arts programs [20]. Nicole D. Payntar collected geo-tagged photos of archaeological sites in Cusco, Peru, on a media-sharing platform and used computer vision analysis algorithms to identify visitor travel patterns through archaeological heritage routes and to quantify visitor visual aesthetic preferences and experiences [21]. By collecting tweets sent by visitors in Disney theme park areas, Seunghyun Brian used the fusion of social media analysis and geospatial analysis to visualize visitors’ emotions in four quadrants consisting of high/low arousal and pleasant/unpleasant dimensions, as well as the corresponding specific spatial locations and proposed a tour route based on the arousal of pleasant emotions [22]. Noam Shoval used GPS and mobile cellular network locations to acquire high-resolution location data, and ESM real-time measurement techniques, including location-triggered and time-triggered measurements, and the simultaneous conductance of physiological measures of emotion (SCL) was combined with questionnaires to analyze the spatiotemporal emotional changes of 68 tourists in Jerusalem. It was found that the spatiotemporal subjective emotional and objective emotional (SCL) responses of tourists matched, and those areas along the route characterized by high SCL also triggered high emotional arousal in a subjective sense [23].

From summarizing the current research results, in recent years, we gradually focused on the changes and influencing factors of the emotional experience under the spatio-temporal behavior of tourists, taking the laws of tourists’ behavior as the starting point and main line, adding temporal elements requires more consideration of temporal constraints and the distribution of tourists’ time in different spaces. With the emergence of more sensors (exceptionally wearable devices), large-scale, continuous, and immediate emotional research becomes possible. Based on the theory of spatiotemporal geography, the study of human behavior should focus more on spatiotemporal continuity and the spatiotemporal variation of immediate affective experiences.

2.2. Research Objectives

As mentioned above, empirical studies on the interrelationship between visitors’ external temporal behavior and internal emotional experience are still relatively rare. Therefore, this study aimed at the interactive influence relationship between visitors’ external spatiotemporal behavior and internal emotional experience at the micro-spatial scale of Pudacuo National Park as a case site. Environmental interpretation services are a significant influence on visitors’ spatiotemporal behavior. National parks need to build a reasonable conservation knowledge system in the process of developing ecotourism, develop a scientific, environmental interpretation system for its conservation objects, and set up various types of road signs to guide visitors’ recreational behavior in time and space, stay away from environmentally fragile areas, and protect the local ecological environment [24]. Additionally, environmental interpretation can enrich the ecological experience of visitors and improve the entertainment of ecological experience activities [25]. By measuring the relationship between the external spatiotemporal behavior and the internal emotional experience of visitors under the intervention and guidance of the environmental interpretation service, we establish a framework for evaluating the environmental interpretation from a spatiotemporal perspective (Figure 1). It is useful to check the compatibility of the interpretation facilities or services with the distribution of interpretation sites and the value of visitors’ emotional experience to intensify the improvement of environmental interpretation services, elevate the quality of environmental interpretation, effectively improve the environmental interpretation services of national parks, and enrich visitors’ recreational experience. In view of this, this study took Pudacuo National Park as an example and collected data on visitors’ external spatiotemporal behavior and internal emotional experience to analyze the following five aspects.

(1) Which visitor clusters are generated by visitors’ choice of different environmental interpretation services;

(2) Exploring the spatiotemporal behavioral changes of different visitor clusters;

(3) Exploring the changes in the emotional experience of different visitor clusters;

(4) Evaluate the effectiveness of environmental interpretation services based on visitors’ external spatiotemporal behaviors and emotional experiences;

(5) How to promote the optimization of environmental interpretation services for management and planning purposes.

3. Study Area, Data, and Methodology

3.1. Case-Site Selection

Pudacuo National Park is located in Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, in the center of the “Three Rivers” World Natural Heritage Site in northwest Yunnan Province, consisting of the Bitahai Nature Reserve, an internationally protected wetland, and the Red Mountain Area of the “Three Rivers” World Natural Heritage Site, consisting of the Shudu Lake Scenic Area. The main object of conservation is the plateau lake and the surrounding ecosystem.

In 2018, Pudacuo implemented stricter environmental protection measures by closing the Bitahai and Miritang scenic areas and opening only the Shudu Lake area, which will be used as the study area in this paper (Figure 2). On the southern shore of the Shudu Lake, a wooden walkway was built along the lake to facilitate visitors’ visits, and signage and interpreters were added at the sites. However, there is a single form of environmental interpretation service that lack of content, and visitors do not have a strong sense of experience, mainly in terms of the following: (1) The content of the interpretation is simple and unprofessional, and confusing information is given to the tour group, with little mention of the impact of time; in the introduction detailing the length of the trail and walking time, the interpreter often hints to visitors, resulting in most visitors giving up the hiking route, which greatly reduces the recreational experience. (2) The excessive jargon confuses general visitors, as it is less participatory and experiential, and the abstract descriptions of plants do not encourage visitors to identify plants. (3) The interpretation facilities are mainly signage, the science museum is closed all year round, the interpretation activities are monotonous, and there are few boat route interpretation activities.

3.2. Data Collection

The road information of Pudacuo National Park was crawled from the OSM website and revised and supplemented with reference to Gaode Map and Baidu Map. The POI data of the interpretation points distributed in Shudu Lake of Pudacuo National Park were grabbed from the batch of Gaode Map API. This paper selects the GPS device as the spatio-temporal behavior data recording software and provides the tour length, start time, and end time information. The advantage of using GPS to obtain data is that it can accurately measure the stay time and point data coordinates of the visitor’s points of interest during the tour, which is suitable for spatio-temporal behavior data collection on a small spatial scale in a specific area. On the intrinsic psychological experience emotion worthiness measure, the five-point scale of the questionnaire was used to quantify the visitors’ emotional experience, which facilitates the understanding of the high and low changes in visitors’ emotional values.

The research team conducted a month-long study from 1 October–7 November 2020, with Pudacuo National Park visitors, and collected raw GPS data with a temporal accuracy of 3 s (positioning every 3 s) and a track length of about 36 km for the tour. After returning the equipment and filling in the questionnaire information to score the emotional experience of the passing interpretation sites, the survey obtained a total of 365 GPS tracks and the corresponding matching questionnaire sample size.

3.3. Research Method

This study uses K-Means spatiotemporal clustering analysis, GPS data geoprocessing model construction, and visitor affective experience value calculation methods.

To evaluate the effectiveness of environmental interpretation based on visitors’ spatio-temporal behavior and emotional experience, to promote the optimization of environmental interpretation services in Pudacuo National Park, the K-means clustering method in SPSS software was used to extract the spatial information of the acquired spatio-temporal data and the spatio-temporal elements of the activity path for cluster analysis, and to divide different types of visitor clusters for comparative analysis. The spatio-temporal data of various visitor clusters were batch-processed through a geoprocessing model to calculate the average length of stay within the attraction for hierarchical visual representation. In terms of intrinsic emotional experience, the arithmetic weighted average method was used to calculate the emotional experience scores of the interpretation locations in each district, analyze the interactive effects of the external spatio-temporal behavioral characteristics and intrinsic emotional experience of visitors of different tour route types, and evaluate the effect of environmental interpretation services.

3.3.1. K-Means Spatiotemporal Clustering Analysis

The temporal, spatial, path, and activity elements are the four important aspects of clustering analysis of spatio-temporal behavior patterns of visitors within the scenic area [26]. For the selection of clustering elements, this paper took the temporal behavioral characteristics of visitors (the moment of equipment issuance, the moment of equipment recovery, and the actual tour time) and the spatial behavioral elements (whether the 16 interpretation points are visited or not) as the initial basic elements of the sample spatio-temporal path clustering analysis. After pre-processing the original GPS traces to eliminate duplicate and invalid traces, a total of 365 valid GPS traces matching the questionnaire information were obtained, and each visitor’s actual behavior traces of visiting Pudacuo National Park were assigned a value (visited = 1, not visited = 0) for clustering analysis.

3.3.2. GPS Data Geoprocessing Model Construction

The ArcGIS ModelBuilder is an application used to create, edit, and manage models. A geoprocessing model is a workflow that ties together a series of geoprocessing tools, and it uses the output of one tool as input to another, building a visual programming language for the workflow. In this research, a geographical model based on GPS spatio-temporal data was constructed to process the huge data volume and calculation steps and perform batch analysis statistics (Figure 3); 365 sets of more than 800,000 GPS location point data collected were batch-processed by the model to calculate the average total time of stay of various visitor clusters passing through the range of interpretation locations.

3.3.3. Calculation of Visitors’ Emotional Experience Value

The visitor questionnaire quantified the emotional experience values in the form of a five-point Likert scale, and the visitor emotional experience values were calculated and analyzed using the weighted average method. According to the formula (k1 × a1 + k2 × a2 + k3 × a3 + … + kn × an)/(k1 + k2 + k3 +… + kn) where the coefficients (k1, k2, k3,… kn) is the weight of the locations share of the score, by the locations emotional value, the weighted average calculation to get the visitor through the interpretation of the locations emotional experience value.

4. Results

4.1. Participant Characteristics

The collected 365 valid questionnaire data were entered into SPSS 24.0 software for analysis and processing; it was found that the sample gender structure, age structure, education structure, and income structure of mainland tourists in Pudacuo National Park basically conformed to the law of normal distribution, as detailed in

Table 1. Sample of visitors to Pudacuo National Park.

Variables	Distribution	Frequency	Percent(%)	Variables	Distribution	Frequency	Percent(%)
Gender	Male Female	192	52.6	Monthly income	>3000	16	4.3
		173	47.3		3000–5000	58	15.8
Age	>18	9	2.4		5000–10,000	148	40.5
	19–30	243	66.5		10,000–15,000	64	17.5
	31–45	97	26.5		15,000–20,000	47	12.8
	45–60	12	3.2		20,000 above	32	8.7
	<60	4	1		Student	87	23.8
Educational background	Middle school	9	2.4	Occupation	Teachers and technicians	54	14.7
	High school	55	15		Government officials	52	14.2
	Bachelor	258	43.2		Company personnel	103	28.2
	Master’s degree and above	43	11.7		Other	69	18.9
Visit frequency	Only once More than once	358 7	98 1.9

. Gender distribution, the number of men was significantly more than that of women, accounting for about 52.6% of the total number, while the proportion of women was about 47.3%. As for the age distribution, 2.4% are under 18 years old, 66.5% are between 19 and 30 years old, 26.5% are between 31 and 45 years old, and less than 5.0% are between 45 and 60 years old and above. Nearly 50% of the visitors’ education was undergraduate and above, including 11.7% with a master’s degree; all age stages were distributed, and the sample met the research needs of the interpretive audience target.

4.2. Visitor Cluster Clustering

According to the results of the K-means clustering analysis, the result of clustering into four categories was satisfactory (

Table 2. K-Means Cluster visitor spatiotemporal path clustering results.

Clustering Types	Hiking and Sightseeing	Sightseeing	Walking and Boating	Boating
Spatial elements
Aspen grove Waterfall group	1 1	0 0	1 1	0 0
Dangquka	1	1	1	1
Photography corridor Scenic spots of the torch relay Observation tower	1 1 1	1 0 1	1 1 1	1 0 1
Boarding place	0	0	1	1
Alpine flowers	1	1	0	0
Rhododendron Shrub	1	1	0	0
Tree Beard Forest	1	1	0	0
Spruce	1	1	0	0
Spruce and fir	1	1	0	0
Dead wood by the lake	1	1	0	0
Sanctuary	1	1	0	0
Disembarkation place Waiting room	0 0	0 0	1 1	1 1
Time element
Equipment distribution time	9:56:00	9:27:00	12:45:00	15:03:00
Equipment recycling period	13:25:00	12:14:00	15:36:00	16:56:00
Clustering sample size	98	125	75	67

). Each category was named according to the principle of “temporal behavior characteristics + spatial behavior characteristics”. Those who chose to take the boat route were named boat tour type, those who chose to take the 3.3 km wooden walkway on the Shudu Lake were named sightseeing type, those who chose to take the 2.2 km ecological hiking trail and boat route were named as hiking cruise type, and those who chose the 2.2 km ecological hiking trail and 3.3 km Shudu Lake trail route were named hiking + sightseeing type.

4.3. Visitor Spatiotemporal Behavior

From the “mobile paradigm” perspective, space is the dimension that presents the value of ecological experience [26]. What kind of ecological experience visitors have during the spatial and temporal behavior of visiting national parks is firstly reflected in how much space they reach and what space they reach. From the perspective of experience acquisition, time becomes an important dimension that affects the depth of experience, and the length of time visitors stay after reaching a new space directly affects the depth of experience [27]. In the characteristics of spatial behavior, we analyzed the visitors passing through the visited interpretation locations. In the characteristics of temporal behavior, we explored the length of time visitors stay in different interpretation locations and summarize the spatiotemporal behavior of four different types of visitor clusters (Figure 4).

(1) Hiking + sightseeing type: visitors experience the Pudacuo ecological trekking experience area (Aspen grove and waterfall group) and the central core area (Shudu Lake area) in a more comprehensive way. The number of locations visited was 16, with a large number of locations visited and a wide spatial range. In the ecological hiking experience area under the mountain, visitors spent a short time at the locations of the Aspen grove in the first spot. In the core area of the Shudu Lake, the length of stay of visitors at the interpretive sites in the Shudu Lake area shows the characteristic of “long in the front and short in the back,” with the length of stay at the front part of the interpretive locations being higher than that at the back part. Visitors stayed the longest at three interpretive points, mainly in the first half of the journey, namely, attraction No. 2 “waterfall group”, attraction No. 6 “observation tower”, and attraction No. 8 “Rhododendron shrub”.

(2) Sightseeing type: this type of visitor chooses to take the bus directly to the core area of Shudu Lake; the visited interpretation locations have thirteen concentrated in the Shudu Lake area. Visitors take the bus up the mountain to the Shudu Lake area. In the ecological hiking experience area in the area of locations 1 and 2, more visitors were reluctant to get off the bus to visit the area, mainly because the interpreter on the bus did not introduce the area to visitors, and the publicity in the park was not in place. In the core area of the lake, the length of stay of visitors in the interpreted locations shows the characteristic of “long at both ends and short in the middle”, with visitors staying longer in the first and last part of the journey and shorter in the middle part. The three locations with the longest visitor stays were the No. 6 attraction Observation Tower, the No. 8 attraction Rhododendron Shrub, and the No. 13 attraction Sanctuary.

(3) The hiking+boating visitors first visited the ecological experience trekking area at the bottom of the mountain. Afterward, they arrived at the Shudu Lake area. Then, they passed by attraction No. 3 “Dangquka” and attraction No. 4 “photography corridor”, arriving at attraction No. 14 “boat point” at the Shudu Lake pier. They then experienced the Shudu Lake area by boat, arriving at attraction No. 15. Finally, they got off the boat to end the tour route, seeing eight locations in total. Compared with the hiking + sightseeing type and sightseeing type who chose to take the wooden walkway, the number of interpretation points and the mileage route were less, so they were not able to experience the lake area better, and the boat tour the lake allowed visitors to enjoy the observation deck. In terms of time, visitors spent a short time at all the sites they passed through. The longest stay was at two sites, namely 14 and 16, while the shortest stay was at site 1, where there was almost no stay.

(4) Boating type: this mode of visitor mainly visits the core lake area, does not reach the ecological hiking experience area on the way up the mountain by car, and experiences the tour by boat after reaching the core area of Shudu Lake. The visitors who chose this route tour mode passed through the least number of interpretation locations, only six sites, and could only partially visit the whole lake area. In terms of time, the overall time was the shortest, and there were two interpretive locations with the most extended length of stay, namely site 14 and site 16.

4.4. Visitor Emotional Experience

Visitor behavior occurs based on spatial movement and available time, and affective experience is the combined emotional, spiritual, psychological, and learning outcome of the individual’s dynamic process of tourist behavior [28,29] During a visit to Pudacuo National Park, visitors are influenced by specific environmental conditions (provision of resources or constraints) that affect their spatiotemporal behavior and stimulate their emotions and cognition to generate experiences. Environmental interpretation provides destination information and orientation services to national park visitors in various ways, promotes visitors’ awareness of interpretation resources, and enables visitors to have a rich and enjoyable ecological experience [30]. When visitors arrive at different interpretive points, different interpretive resource elements and forms of interpretation have different degrees of impact on visitors’ ecological experiences, resulting in changing intensity of the experience. To measure visitors’ intrinsic emotional experience intensity values, data on emotional experience values were collected using the questionnaire method. According to the cluster analysis results, there are four types of visitor clusters: hiking + sightseeing-type, sightseeing-type, hiking+boating-type, and boating-type visitors. An attempt was made to analyze the emotional experience of the four types of visitor clusters by calculating the results of the mean values of the visitors’ scores at the interpretation locations (Figure 5).

The mean values of the overall emotional experience of the four types of visitor clusters were hiking + sightseeing type (4.21), sightseeing type (4.15), hiking + cruise type (4.13), and cruise type (4.06). In terms of overall emotional experience degree, hiking + sightseeing type > sightseeing type > hiking+boating type > boating type, the mean value of visitor cluster emotion in the hiking + sightseeing type category was the highest, and visitors had the best overall experience feeling. The difference between the emotional experience values of visitors of the sightseeing type (4.15) and the hiking+boating type (4.13) was insignificant. The comparison of the emotional mean values of the four visitor clusters also showed that the overall experience value of visitors who chose to visit the ecological experience hiking area under the mountain was higher than that of visitors who only visited the core area of the Shudu Lake, indicating that expanding the scope of the visiting area helps to improve the emotional experience of visitors.

In terms of the fluctuation of emotional experience value, the fluctuation of emotional experience value of the two clusters of hiking + sightseeing and sightseeing and walking + boat were nearly the same, and the emotional experience value was “high in the front and low in the back”, and the visitor’s experience of the explanation locations in the front part of the route was higher than that in the back part. The rich landscape resources in the surface area of Shudu Lake, combined with the explanatory signs and other services, give visitors a better experience. In contrast, the landscape of the forest area of the lake in the latter part of the route is relatively uniform and lacks environmental explanatory services, and the explanatory signs are old. The content is not deep enough to make visitors’ experience feel worse. For the two groups that chose to visit the lake by boat, there is a lack of interpretation services at several points during the boat ride and after disembarkation in the latter part of the route, which makes the visitors’ experience poor. In terms of the extreme values of emotional experience, the peak value of the emotional experience for the hiking + sightseeing type was for the Observation tower (4.55) location, and the lowest value was for the Aspen grove (3.75) location, while the peak value of the emotional experience for the tourism type was for the Observation tower (4.42) location, and the lowest value was for the Spruce (3.83) location. The peak emotional experience of walking+boating type was for the waterfall festival (4.39) and the lowest value was for the Disembarkation place (3.81) location, and the peak emotional experience of the boating type was for the Photo corridor (4.26) and the lowest value for the Dangquka place (3.91) location. The peak emotional experiences of visitors who chose to visit the ecological experience hiking area under the mountain and who hiked to the lake area were higher than those of the other visitors.

4.5. Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Environmental Interpretation Services

The evaluation of environmental interpretation is a process of evaluating the objective attributes of environmental interpretation and its implementation effects based on certain scientific benchmarks. Based on the results of measuring the external spatial and temporal behavioral characteristics and internal emotional changes of visitors to Pudacuo National Park after receiving interpretation services, it is conducive to testing the effectiveness of the implementation of environmental interpretation services and providing a reference for future environmental interpretation planning and management in Pudacuo National Park.

The “tourism emotional path” (TEP) model has been studied, which uses a two-dimensional coordinate axis to quantify and visualize spatiotemporal emotional experiences, express tourism emotions using a vertical axis, and describe spatiotemporal paths using a horizontal axis [20]. It shows the entire process of emotional fluctuations and changes in the whole process of tourism experience as time and location change, and visualizes the entire process of visitors’ spatiotemporal emotional experience in Pudacuo country using a two-dimensional composite chart (Figure 6). It was used to express the average time of visitors’ stay at specific interpretation locations using horizontal and vertical coordinates of a histogram (the total time of visitors’ stay at locations calculated based on a geographical processing model in seconds, divided by 60 to convert into minutes, and then divided by the number of samples of each type of visitor cluster), and express the average value of visitors’ emotional experience using vertical coordinates of a line graph. We established a one-to-one correspondence between the emotional experience of visitors and the interpretation locations in the spatiotemporal path and divided them into two groups to compare and explore the relationship between the external spatiotemporal behavior and internal psychological experience of the four types of visitor clusters.

(1) The spatiotemporal emotional experience of hiking + sightseeing type: the inner emotional experience value of sightseeing type of visitors is positively correlated with the length of stay at external locations, indicating that the resource landscape of locations combined with various forms of content-rich environmental interpretation services attract visitors to stop and enhance their recreational experience. According to the spatial distribution of interpretation locations visited by hiking and sightseeing visitors, they are mainly divided into three main areas, which are the ecological hiking experience area of Dugang River under the mountain (Aspen grove, Waterfall group) with ecosystem landscape, the lake viewing experience area (Dangquka, Photography corridor, Alpine flowers, Rhododendron Shrub, Tree Beard Forest, Spruce) with vegetation landscape along the lake with water landscape, and the forest ecosystem Experience Zone (Spruce and fir, Deadwood by the lake, Sanctuary); the landscape resources of different spatial areas combined with environmental interpretation services show visitors different scenes of the park, respectively.

There are three interpretation locations with high temporal and spatial emotional experience values, and the length of stay of visitors are positively correlated with the emotional value. The ecotourism trail with paved roads, trash cans, and other artificial facilities at the waterfall location, the observation tower, the Rhododendron Shrub, and the waterfall enhance visitors’ recreational experiences. The locations are equipped with signage and guide maps, and the length of stay is enhanced compared to the locations on the leisurely trail, which has the greatest length of stay and emotional value. The best place to take photos and enjoy the lake view is staff along the lake walkway from time to time to carry out interpretation activities to enrich visitors’ recreation experiences. Still, there need to be more safety warning signs. At location 8, there is an interpretive direction sign to guide visitors to observe and appreciate the azalea bushes, and there is an interpretive sign that introduces the growth habit of highland azalea plants, but the content of the interpretive sign uses more professional terms, and the abstract description of the plants does not inspire visitors to identify the plants, and the interpretive sign is old and damaged; although the time spent at these locations is long, the interpretive service does not provide a good recreational experience.

There are three locations with low temporal and spatial emotional experience values, where visitors’ length of stay and emotional experience values are low, mainly in the forest ecological experience area. The length of stay and the emotional experience value of the three locations in this 9-10-11 have a decreasing trend, with only a single interpretive signage and a lack of guide-type personnel to explain, which cannot attract the attention of visitors, and the emotional value and length of stay of visitors hence decrease. Site 9 was too far from the tour route, resulting in most visitors not noticing the site and not being able to see it up close, and no guide signs or self-guided tour services were placed. At sites 10 and 11, the nodal spruce king interpretive signs only have height-diameter data, no no-smoking signs, the plant signage is in a single form, the interpretive signs are old and damaged and insufficient to attract visitors, too few resting points are set up on the trail, and the content of the interpretive signs does not reflect the importance of emphasizing and protecting the ecosystem.

(2) The length of stay at the 1-2-3-4-6 section of the site was positively correlated with the affective values of walking+boatling- and boating-type visitors. The peaks that were positively correlated with visitors’ spatiotemporal affective experience were the three interpretive locations of the waterfall at site 2, the photo corridor at site 4, and the observation tower at site 6. The waterfall at site 2 had a viewing platform with a wooden walkway, but no realistic interpretive sign, only a warning sign of falling water; visitors stopped there to take pictures and stayed longer because of the beautiful scenery. In the photo corridor of attraction No. 4, there is an interpretive sign that graphically guides visitors to view pictures of the lake in different seasons and directs the best shooting positions, attracting them to stop and enriching the tourist experience. A viewing platform has been added to the viewing platform of attraction 6 to facilitate visitors to view the scenery from different angles, but the emotional experience of visitors is affected by the irregularity of the interpreters and the varying levels of interpretation. There is no safety warning sign on the spots where the cruise ship arrives at the pier and the viewing platform, but there is a real-life interpretation sign.

For the three locations on the 14-15-16 section of the journey, the time visitors spent at the locations was not proportional to the emotional experience value for the section from the boat ride point to the disembarkation point and then to the bus ride point; the time spent at the locations was long, but the emotional experience was lacking. There is no interpretive service at the three locations en route and at the stops of this section of the lake cruise. Due to waiting at the transportation point, visitors stay longer at the boat and bus points, both for 5–10 min, but there are no related supporting interpretive activities, longer stay and wait times, and the emotional value is low.

On the whole, through the analysis of the changing relationship between the spatial and temporal changes in the external behavior of the four types of visitors and the intrinsic emotional experience value of receiving interpretation services, the areas with a better sense of visitor experience are mainly distributed in the lake viewing experience area in the core area of the genus Duhu, with the main locations of the photography corridor, alpine flowers, tree beard, and spruce king. The rich interpretation form of fixed-point personnel interpretation, scientific and educational interpretation signs, perfect recreation experience facility observation platforms, and stacks combined with unique landscape resources enrich visitors’ recreation experiences, visitors’ lengths of stay, and recreation experience. The areas with low emotional experience value are mainly concentrated in the forest ecological experience area (fir, inverted dead wood, bird’s paradise, azalea sea); the boat rides to the bus section (embarkation, disembarkation point, bus ride), sightseeing visitors stay in several locations of the ecological experience area for a short time, and there are problems such as old interpretation boards, simple interpretation content, and a single form of interpretation. At the three locations of the boat ride section, the emotional value is negatively correlated with the dwell time, and visitors wait for a longer time for the boat ride and the bus ride due to the objective conditions, but the emotional experience value is low without any interpretation service.

5. Optimization Solutions

Based on the evaluation of the effect of the environmental interpretation service in Pudacuo, the scientific improvement of the environmental interpretation was carried out, and the optimization plan of the environmental interpretation in Pudacuo including five items of theme positioning, main idea, interpretation point, media selection, and specific content was proposed. Based on the spatial distribution of the interpretation resources of the Shudu Lake, different interpretation themes are refined based on the tour route. According to the routes and interpretation points of four clusters obtained from the clustering analysis of Pudacuo visitors, different themed trails are designed, sub-themes are designed under the main theme, and different interpretation themes are selected for the sub-themes, around which interpretation information is delivered to visitors to strengthen their emotional experience (

Table 3. Pudacuo National Park environmental interpretation optimization scheme design table.

Theme	Main Idea	Explanation Point	Media	Content
	Explore the lake ecosystem	Waterfall group	Interpretive panels, Portable audition media	Knowledge of highland lake ecosystems, formation and characteristics of lakes, their habitats, and their historical legends and stories
Shudu Lake is a shining pearl on the plateau	The diverse landscapes, distinctive water bodies, and pristine natural environment will take visitors to a fairytale world.	Dangquka, Photography corridor, Observation tower	Interpretive panels, Interpretation by fixed-point personnel, Brochures, Portable audition media	1. Natural landscape interpretation is the main focus, taking into account the introduction of environmental facilities 2. Many works of art, photography, film, and art literature portray Shudu Lake
Explore life in the water	Shudu Lake is rich in rare fish resources	Boarding place En route by boat Disembarkation place	Interpretive panels, Interpretation by fixed-point personnel, Brochures,	Introduction of the fish species in the water of Shudu Lake
Recognizing Highland Plants	Species and Characteristics of Upland Plant Communities	Alpine flowers Rhododendron Shrub, Tree Beard Forest, Spruce, and fir	Interpretive panels, Interpretation by fixed-point personnel, Explanation manual	Characteristics, roles, and habitat animals of alpine vegetation such as spruce forests, fir forests, and redwoods, the difference between vertical grazing and vertical migration
Shudu Lake Lake has a good biological cycle and is also a paradise and a haven for birds	The benign biosphere of the Shudu Lake	Dead wood by the lake, Sanctuary	Interpretive panels, Brochures, Portable audition media Explanation manual	Reasons for the formation of fallen dead wood, providing fuel for other organisms
The importance of protecting the ecological environment of highland lakes	Shudu Lake is a precious treasure, and mankind and nature are in harmony	Waiting room	Interpretive panels, Brochures, Portable audition media Explanation manual, Interpretation by fixed-point personnel, Performance	The scarcity of ecological environment on the Shudu Lake plateau, environmental protection is the focus of ecological civilization construction

).

According to visitors’ route to the Shudu Lake by foot and by boat, the thematic trails are designed for three themes: “the beauty of the lake, the beauty of life, and the beauty of humanity”. For the different themes, the interpretation system is planned. For the “Lake” theme, visitors can take a boat ride, and fixed-point interpreters are arranged to advocate to visitors that the natural ecological environment of Shudu Lake requires common efforts, reflection on their behavior, and cleaning up the trash on the lake together. The “Life” theme visitors walk the 3.2-km wooden trestle and set up corresponding interpretation signs or automatic voice broadcast at the spots along the road, such as the dead woods, rhododendron sea, migratory birds habitat, etc. The content should highlight the growth habits of plants and the significance of protection and encourage visitors to embrace the trees and make plant specimens together. Finally, the theme of “humanities” is held in the resting area after the tour with folk songs and dances, environmental education performances, and local storytelling, allowing visitors to experience life and learn ecological awareness through the recreation experience under the three types of interpretation themes; visitors have an in-depth understanding of Pudacuo National Park.

6. Conclusions and Discussion

6.1. Research Conclusions

This study explored the spatiotemporal change pattern of visitors’ emotions systematically and comprehensively under the research method of combining GPS and questionnaire data from the main line of spatiotemporal thinking, visualized and described the spatiotemporal change pattern of visitors’ emotions to summarize, and drew the following conclusions.

(1) Visitors’ choice of environmental interpretation service is mainly divided into four route types in terms of spatiotemporal behavior performance, which are four types of spatiotemporal behavior patterns, namely the sightseeing type, hiking + sightseeing type, boating type, and hiking+boating type, and the visitors’ visiting space and locations stopping time varies in different route types;

(2) In terms of spatiotemporal behavior, the number of interpretive sites visited and the duration of site stays were longer for the sightseeing and walking tour types than for the hiking + sightseeing type and the boating type. In respect to time, the stay time at the locations of the hiking + sightseeing type and sightseeing type showed the characteristic of “short before and long after”, the stay at the locations of the first part of the trip was longer than the stay at the locations of the second part of the trip, while the visitors of the hiking+boating type and the boating type waited longer at the transportation points, the embarkation points, and the disembarkation points of the transportation points;

(3) In terms of emotional experience, the overall emotional experience values of the four visitor spatiotemporal behavior patterns were hiking + sightseeing type > sightseeing type > hiking+boating type > boating type and the mean value of visitor cluster emotion in the hiking + sightseeing type category was the highest, and visitors had the best overall experience. The overall experience value of visitors who chose to visit the ecological experience hiking area under the mountain was higher than those who only visited the core area of the Shudu Lake, indicating that expanding the scope of the visiting area helped to improve the emotional experience of visitors;

(4) The environmental interpretation service was evaluated according to the changes in the external spatiotemporal behavior and internal emotional experience of visitors. The emotional experience values of hiking + sightseeing type and sightseeing type visitors were positively correlated with the length of stay at the attraction, and the intensity of the emotional experience was higher, corresponding to the spatiotemporal behavior pattern of longer stay and more stay behavior at the attraction, indicating that the environmental services of the attraction helped to extend the time of visitors and produce a high-quality recreation experience. The hiking+boating-type and boating-type tourists wait longer at the transportation points such as boat ride point, boat disembarkation point, and bus ride point, during which there are no interpretive activities, and the emotional experience value is negatively correlated with the duration, indicating that tourists cannot allocate their time independently due to objective factors, and the emotional experience is reduced; it is necessary to provide different forms of interpretive services at the transportation points where tourists wait longer to enrich their entertainment experience;

(5) For the tour routes, Shudu Lake is an important factor affecting the emotion of visitors. The types of locations with greater importance should be increased, along with the hardware facility optimization and upgrading of the Shudu Lake interpretation system. There needs to be a unified and standardized design of interpretation boards, which should also be supplemented. Natural geographic information such as mountain topography and forest ecosystems should be expanded, along with the planning of suitable locations and proper maintenance and repair. Automatic induction-type voice playback and regular skill training examinations for the Pudacuo interpretation staff should also be increased.

6.2. Discussion

(1) This study investigated the spatiotemporal behavior patterns of visitors from a microscopic perspective, which can answer not only the behavioral patterns in recreational experiences, but also the information of internalized psycho-emotional experience, and is an active exploration of the integration of the temporal geography perspective into the subjective analysis of behavioral individuals, and the integration of behavioral psychology and temporal geography research methods. From the results of this study, first, different combinations of the four types of visitor clusters in terms of spatial movement, time allocation, and their stopping behavior cause differences in the dimensionality and intensity of memorable tourism experiences. Specifically, comparing the clusters of visitors who chose to visit on foot and by boat, visitors of the walking+sightseeing and sightseeing types visited more locations and stayed longer, corresponding to the high emotional experience value of each attraction, indicating that experiencing multiple locations in-depth and staying at the core resource locations within a generous period is more likely to generate high-quality spatio-temporal emotional experiences. Farber and Hall pointed out that factors such as landscape and activities influence visitors’ affective experience [31], and by exploring the changes in the intrinsic emotional value of visitors, the attraction features, and good environmental interpretation services can promote positive emotions of visitors; space constraints are likely to trigger negative emotions of visitors such as long waiting times at the ferry point, and waiting for the bus can lower the emotional value of visitors.

(2) At the methodological level, a new assessment approach was adopted to evaluate the service effectiveness of environmental interpretation from the perspective of a combination of objective external temporal and spatial behavioral GPS + internal emotional experience. Stewart and Hayward pointed out that the evaluation of environmental interpretation should not only evaluate objective attributes such as interpretation facilities, interpretation media, and interpretation services but should also evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation of interpretation [32,33]. The results of a proper evaluation will allow the park management to understand whether the interpretation content and interpretation methods currently in use are appropriate. Most of the current studies on the evaluation of environmental interpretation services have been conducted by assessing visitors’ satisfaction with several aspects such as interpretation facilities, themes, and activities, and the research methods are mainly based on questionnaires and interview report-based methods, lacking the measurement of visitors’ behavior. The combination of GPS and questionnaires “anchors” the location of the inner psychological experience, and provides a more rigorous and accurate basis for identifying and evaluating the impact of environmental interpretation services on visitors’ outer behavior and inner emotional experience at each site. The combination of GPS and questionnaires “anchors” the location where the inner psychological experience occurs so as to identify and evaluate the impact of environmental interpretation services on visitors’ external behavior and inner emotional experience at each site, and provide a basis for improving the effectiveness of environmental interpretation services and the spatial and temporal combination of interpretation contents and media.

(3) In practice, this study explored the optimization of the environmental interpretation model based on the combination of visitor spatiotemporal behavior and emotional experience and provides a reference for the construction of environmental interpretation models in other national parks. The relationship between visitors’ emotions and spatio-temporal behavior is used to design environmental interpretation products and guide tourists’ behavior in the path arrangement, which can provide a richer set of geographic elements to choose from, rationalize the spatiotemporal configuration of interpretation activities and products, and organize a scientific spatio-temporal activity chain so as to provide more personalized and diverse environmental interpretation services and guide visitors’ high-quality emotional experience formation. It also provides a reference for park management and service quality improvement.

(4) The shortcomings of the study are the difficulty of data collection, the need for the full understanding and cooperation of visitors in carrying GPS devices during the tour, the low participation of older visitors, and the youthfulness of the sample data. In addition, the construction of the interpretation system in Pudacuo National Park, especially in terms of hardware, is relatively homogeneous, the natural science interpretation center is closed, the arrangement of interpretation staff is not fixed, and some tour sites are closed, which makes it impossible to evaluate the environmental interpretation of the park in a comprehensive and multi-scale manner. Future surveys can be conducted in other national parks to compare the behavioral and emotional changes of the public in receiving environmental interpretation services under different natural sites and environmental interpretation activities, and to provide more in-depth research references for environmental interpretation services in national parks and other protected areas to promote high-quality tourism experiences.