Search Results (187)

Makerspaces can serve as distributed urban infrastructures for repair, reuse, tool sharing, and peer learning, yet their contributions to circular economy (CE) goals often occur without being explicitly recognized or framed as CE practices. Inspired by practice theory and the literature on quiet sustainability, this study introduces implicit circularity as circular practices enacted without an explicit sustainability/CE framing by participants, and examines how such practices shape bottom-up circular transitions. Using reflexive thematic analysis informed by constructivist grounded theory procedures, we examined three linked questions: which circular practices occur in makerspaces and how they cluster into domains, how these practices vary across makerspace types, and which barriers and governance arrangements shape makerspaces’ consolidation as circular urban infrastructure. A qualitative multi-method design was employed in Czechia, combining field mapping with in-depth qualitative inquiry. Data included 40 semi-structured interviews with makerspace founders and operators, documentary analysis based on websites, social media, event listings, rules, and other documents, and 21 observations. Using reflexive thematic analysis informed by constructivist grounded theory procedures, we analyzed how circular practices cluster into domains, how implicit versus explicit circularity varies across makerspace types, which barriers constrain makerspaces’ consolidation as circular urban infrastructure, and what governance arrangements could mitigate them. Circularity was dominated by implicit, routine practices rather than formal, CE-branded programs. Three practice domains were identified: repair and maintenance, material flows, and learning/education. Explicit programming was comparatively less common and context-dependent. Barriers formed a reinforcing system spanning institutional fragmentation and coordination deficits, capability gaps, infrastructural constraints, and tensions around autonomy and legitimacy, which together kept many circular contributions low-visibility. Makerspaces constitute an under-recognized form of circular micro-infrastructure that couples technical capacity with social learning and can translate CE ambitions into everyday practice. To mobilize these latent capacities, cities need hybrid governance, especially light-touch coordination platforms, long-horizon operational support, and integration of makerspaces into municipal material-flow systems and repair/reuse strategies. The study offers a practice-based framework and a cross-case typology to support comparative research and grounded urban CE policy design. Full article

This paper presents a deterministic system that combines textual semantic data from panoramic images with LiDAR point clouds in a mobile mapping setup. Urban scenes often include textual elements, such as signs and business names, that provide key details typically missing from LiDAR-based urban digital twins. The presented method uses deep learning-based OCR to extract text from street panoramas and then categorizes it into urban types using a rule-based classifier. Text regions are geometrically projected into the LiDAR environment by converting image coordinates into viewing rays that intersect LiDAR surfaces, such as facades. Data from multiple panoramas are merged with confidence-weighted spatial clustering to produce consistent semantic markers for urban features. Extracted business names enable text-based searches of the LiDAR point cloud, allowing facility location by category, keyword, or brand. Tests on datasets from European and U.S. cities support plausible facade-level localization and demonstrate the framework’s ability to enhance LiDAR point clouds with searchable semantic information. The main contribution is not a new standalone OCR or LiDAR-processing algorithm, but a deterministic multimodal integration framework that combines deep-learning OCR, geometric back-projection, and cross-view spatial fusion to convert street-level textual cues into reliable, queryable 3D semantic markers within mobile-mapping LiDAR data. Full article

To accurately identify characteristics of the tourist experience, optimize tourism management and shape urban tourism brands, this study uses Wuhan as a case and aggregates multimodal user-generated content (UGC) data including tourist reviews, photos and travel vlogs. Based on the “Behavior–Cognition–Affect” framework and the progressive “Region–Route–Site” spatial perspective, this study adopts spatial analysis, image analysis, semantic network analysis, and natural language processing (NLP) to examine tourists’ spatial behavior patterns, visual cognitive preferences, and emotional feedback across urban, attraction, and individual tourist scales. Results show that Wuhan’s tourism presents a “core-periphery” spatial structure, tourists’ visual focus differs significantly across scenic types, and tourists’ emotions are generally positive, with consumption, shopping, and transportation as main negative sources. This study enriches the application of multimodal UGC in tourism geography, providing data to optimize tourism resource allocation and shape urban tourism images. Full article

Delivery services have drawn much attention and become of topmost significance in urban areas by presenting online food delivery selections for a diversity of dishes from a wide range of restaurants, decreasing both travel and waiting times. Customer data analysis acts as a cornerstone in corporate strategy, allowing enterprises to gather and interpret user feedback and helping them to make informed decisions that drive future business development. However, major knowledge gaps remain due to the scarcity of literature review studies on these delivery services, hindering a complete understanding of customer satisfaction in this sector. Furthermore, there has been little systematic research on managerial response tactics to online consumer complaints and negative reviews. Researchers have contributed by applying artificial intelligence, including deep learning and machine learning models, to analyze customer sentiment and understand customer brand perceptions. This study presents a Hybrid Deep Neural Network Model for Customer Satisfaction Analysis (HDNNM-CSA), with the aim of developing an efficient model which is capable of accurately classifying customer satisfaction levels in delivery apps based on textual responses provided by customer experience managers. To achieve this, the model initially pre-processes text data using text cleaning, emoji removal, normalization, tokenization, stop word removal, and stemming to clean and standardize the unstructured text data for further analysis. Following this, term frequency–inverse document frequency-based word embedding is utilized to transform the pre-processed text into meaningful feature representations. Lastly, an ensemble architecture involving bidirectional long short-term memory, temporal convolutional, and graph convolutional networks is deployed to classify customer satisfaction levels with managers’ responses. A series of experimental analyses are performed, and the results are examined for numerous features. A comparative analysis demonstrates the enhanced performance of the HDNNM-CSA technique with respect to existing approaches. Full article

This study examines the roles of startup hubs within the cultural and creative industries (CCIs) and their implications for cultural innovation and tourism in European cities. Despite the growing importance of CCIs in urban development and destination branding, few studies have explored the organisational, social and communicative dynamics of cultural startup hubs. To address this gap, a comparative mixed-methods approach is applied to analyse 91 incubated startups in three European hubs: 104factory (Paris, France), Makerversity (London, UK) and A Lab (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). This study integrates structural variables (sustainability and institutionalisation), social variables (gender representation in leadership) and communication variables (activity and engagement on Instagram). The results reveal distinct organisational models, from highly institutionalised structures to more flexible, community-oriented approaches, with notable differences in terms of sustainability and gender distribution. In terms of communication, greater engagement is associated with content focused on community, identity and collective creativity, rather than promotional strategies. These findings highlight the role of startup hubs as hybrid intermediaries that not only support cultural entrepreneurship, but also contribute to the symbolic positioning and tourist appeal of the cities in which they are located. This study offers theoretical and practical insights for the development of more inclusive, sustainable and effectively communicative cultural ecosystems. Full article

This paper examines the subjective annoyance associated with shared-bike electronic alert sounds (SBeASs), an emerging urban noise source. A study was conducted by employing extensive questionnaire surveys and psychoacoustic experiments. A preliminary survey (N = 1340) indicated that 90.6% of participants reported being impacted by SBeASs, with pronounced effects on nighttime rest and daytime work efficiency. In this study, SBeAS samples were taken from three prominent Chinese bike-sharing brands: Hello Bike, Meituan Bike, and DiDi Bike. Under laboratory conditions, subjective annoyance assessments (N = 28) for SBeASs were conducted at controlled sound pressure levels (SPLs) ranging from 45 to 65 dBA, with occurrence frequencies of 1, 3, and 5 s. Simultaneously, annoyance assessments were also conducted for two reference noise types: traffic noise and street noise. The results indicated a notable increase in annoyance levels related to SBeASs with rising SPL and increased occurrence frequency. Minor variations in annoyance were identified among different bike-sharing brands, which can be attributed to their distinct acoustic features. When the SPL was above 55 dBA, the DiDi Bike SBeASs produced considerably higher annoyance than those of other brands. This can be attributed to its elevated low-frequency energy, loudness, and roughness. Moreover, individuals exhibiting increased sensitivity to noise reported notably higher annoyance ratings on the SBeAS scale (p = 0.019). Under low-SPL conditions (45–55 dBA), the annoyance attributed to frequent SBeASs can exceed that caused by traffic noise and street noise at comparable SPLs, highlighting the distinct disruptive impact of abrupt sound sources. Full article

Ice–snow tourism has become an important development strategy in northern China, but its contribution to urban-rural integration remains uneven. Taking Inner Mongolia as a comparative qualitative case, this study examines how ice-snow tourism can move beyond enclave-oriented development and support inclusive regional development. The analysis draws on policy and planning documents, official reports, media materials, and published secondary studies, and compares Hulunbuir and Tongliao through four common dimensions: space, economy, governance, and culture. On this basis, the paper develops a community-field perspective and connects it with an institution–space–human/land coupling lens. The findings show clear differences in developmental tendency rather than two pure types. Hulunbuir exhibits stronger event-led agglomeration, urban service concentration, and branding capacity, but weaker community benefit capture. Tongliao shows stronger village-level benefit retention, collective participation, and cultural subjectivity, but faces limits in scale linkage and resilience. The paper argues that ice-snow tourism should not be understood as a simple trade-off between efficiency and equity. Instead, a coordinated “pole-community-network” pathway is needed to connect regional growth poles, community-centered governance, and networked collaboration across urban and rural nodes. The study contributes to tourism-led regional development research by clarifying how the community field mediates spatial organization, benefit sharing, and local agency in cold-resource regions. Full article

The accurate measurement and optimization of spatial vitality inside commercial complexes has become crucial for sophisticated urban governance as urban growth moves from rapid expansion to quality-oriented stock augmentation. This research creates a multifaceted assessment methodology that incorporates systemic connectedness (transportation synergy), spatial performance (public activity and social efficacy), and spatial supply (human–land linkages and arrangement). We used a stratified purposive sample of 20 business complexes spread across eight districts in Guangzhou, a typical high-density megacity. In order to understand the underlying mechanisms of spatial vitality, we measured important indicators including the Polycentricity Index (α) and the Spatial Performance Index (β) using a mixed-methods approach that included K-means clustering, multinomial logit regression, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Four important insights are shown by our findings. 1. The paradox of density and efficiency: The notion that high-density development inevitably ensures lively public space is called into question by the lack of a significant linear correlation between the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) and spatial performance (r = 0.32, p > 0.05), despite a core–periphery gradient in development intensity. 2. Structural Supply Demand Mismatch: Although overall spatial performance is strong (β = 0.81 ± 0.07), there is a notable shortfall in cultural and artistic venues, where young adults’ demand (0.27) is 145% greater than supply (0.11). 3. Polycentric Networking vs. Transport Polarization: While spatial structures show a networked polycentric pattern (mean α = 6.40), transportation synergy is affected by core–periphery polarization, which results in “vitality islands” in the periphery. 4. Dual-Path Driving Mechanisms: According to SEM results, cultural spaces have a considerable indirect impact (39.7% mediation) by boosting brand uniqueness and “cultural capital,” while composite plaza spaces have a strong direct effect on commercial performance (γ = 0.682). Based on these findings, we suggest distinct optimization strategies: aging projects need climate-responsive design interventions; growing areas should create family-oriented consumption ecosystems; and core districts should give priority to cultural “IP” integration. For the planning and revitalization of commercial land use in high-density global environments, this study offers a solid analytical framework and practical insights. Full article

Background: Childhood obesity is on the rise in South Africa and adolescents spend a substantial amount of time in the school food environment (SFE), which plays a role in shaping their food choices and provides a critical setting to improve diets. Objective: To investigate South African adolescent school-going learners’ knowledge and understanding of healthy and unhealthy foods and the drivers of their food choices in their (SFE). Design: Qualitative participatory research methods including workshops, photovoice and focus group discussions (FGDs). Setting: Two urban public high schools, one non-metropolitan and one metropolitan, in two separate provinces (Eastern Cape and Gauteng) in South Africa. Participants: Adolescents 14–18 years (n = 42). Results: Unhealthy ultra-processed foods (UPFs) were found to be rampant in the SFE, and healthy foods were scarce, limiting learners’ choices. Taste preference was a major driver of adolescent food choices as were satiety, value for money, affordability, convenience, visual appeal and seeming “cool or “rich” by purchasing branded franchise fast foods. Learners had some general nutrition knowledge, but this did not translate into healthy food choices. Banning unhealthy foods in the SFE and providing affordable and satiating healthy foods were proposed as solutions. Conclusions: UPFs such as packaged foods and fast food were considered tasty but unhealthy, yet were preferred. Interventions are needed to promote healthy diets by changing the SFE, and eventually adolescent food choices. This will require government regulation banning the sale of unhealthy food and beverages (F&Bs) in the SFE and subsidising healthy satiating foods to change dietary behaviour. Full article

This study examines multi-celebrity deployment as a destination branding practice, using Seoul as an empirical case. The analysis draws on 172 official tourism promotional videos released by the Seoul Tourism Organization between 2011 and 2025, featuring 67 identifiable celebrities and 438 destination references. A qualitative content analysis examines how celebrity endorsement is organized as a branding mechanism, focusing on who appears, what is represented, and how representations are communicated across media formats over time. The findings show that Seoul’s tourism promotion operates through a structured multi-celebrity branding system in which multiple endorsers are coordinated across campaigns and periods. Endorser selection is anchored in Hallyu-affiliated celebrities who function as primary carriers of destination meaning, while emerging, non-Hallyu, and heritage-linked figures occupy complementary roles that broaden representational scope and reduce reliance on individual figures. Celebrity endorsement continues to emphasize major and symbolically dense attractions, while also extending visibility to everyday neighborhoods and locally oriented urban landscapes. Long-term ambassador-led campaigns coexist with travel vlogs and other creative video formats, enabling variation in narrative tone and experiential framing. Theoretically, the study extends celebrity endorsement research by conceptualizing multi-celebrity deployment as a coordinated branding system. Practically, the findings show how destination marketing organizations can mobilize a broad pool of celebrity resources to structure endorsement portfolios over time. Coordinated use of celebrities with different levels of familiarity supports wider spatial representation, enables ongoing narrative renewal, and maintains promotional continuity across changing media environments. This configuration is most applicable to destinations with strong cultural visibility and an established celebrity ecosystem, and may be less transferable to destinations with limited access to influential figures. Full article

Greenery and nature are used as symbols in city branding. These symbols have been well documented to be effective in improving physical and mental health. Especially in a country like Japan where natural disasters occur frequently, there may be differences in the impact of these two factors on the intention to live in an urban area. Second, the literature on the impact of greenery and nature on residential intentions is limited to observational studies of existing cities, with a surprising lack of empirical studies encompassing other urban components. Therefore, we address the following research question: ‘Do greenery and nature contribute to the residential intentions of Tokyo residents?’ Orthogonal arrays were adopted to generate 18 patterns of city designs targeting five attributes (residential areas, public facilities, greenery/nature, shopping areas, and station buildings). A randomized controlled trial with 1000 online survey participants revealed that parks were more effective than mountains in increasing people’s intention to live in a city. The effect was greater in more developed cities or among residents with a more urban orientation. In countries where natural disasters occur frequently, it is important to recognize that greenery and nature are similar but differ in their elements. Full article

Background: Influencer marketing has become one of the most effective strategies in digital communication due to its capacity to generate trust, credibility and endorsement within segmented online communities. Within the tourism sector, travel influencers have been progressively integrated as key agents in destination and brand promotion, contributing to both the construction of tourism-related perceptions and travel decision-making. This study aims to analyse how travel influencers communicate and promote tourist destinations, focusing on their profiles, content formats, commercial transparency and audience engagement. Methods: The research is based on a quantitative content analysis of publications by leading Spanish travel influencers identified through the Forbes Best Content Creators 2025 ranking. The observation period covered March to July 2025. Analysis was structured around four analytical blocks comprising 17 variables related to influencer profile, format and content, commercial transparency and ethics, and interaction. Results: The results reveal consistent behavioural patterns associated with gender, destination type and narrative style. Male influencers are more frequently linked to adventure-oriented storytelling and natural landscapes, whereas female influencers tend to emphasise urban and cultural experiences. Short-form video emerges as the dominant format, generating higher interaction levels, while engagement proves to be a more informative indicator of effectiveness than follower count. Conclusions: The findings underscore the importance of prioritising specialisation, narrative coherence, authenticity and transparency when integrating influencers into their communication strategies. Full article

Under the requirements of ecological civilization and rural revitalization strategies in China, studying and evaluating the development potential of rural recreational resources surrounding the urban areas of megacities is of great significance for promoting the integrated development of urban and rural areas. Based on the collection and processing of multi-source datasets, this paper proposes corresponding evaluation methods for the development potential of three types of rural recreational resources (nature-historical culture-village). It combines AHP-entropy weight combination weighting, GIS spatial analysis, and Graphab network connectivity analysis to explore and evaluate the potential of rural recreational resources within the Zhengzhou urban area, which is in Central China. It quantifies the contribution degree and development priority of potential points to the overall recreational network. The results show that the recreational resources in rural areas are abundant and have great development potential. High potential points of the natural category are concentrated in the western shallow mountainous and hilly areas, with convenient transportation and a high green coverage rate, suitable for developing as suburban forest parks. High-potential points of historical sites are close to the urban area, and should be integrated and connected with the urban leisure corridors, suitable for developing as suburban cultural parks. High-potential points of villages are suitable for creating composite stations (homestay, study, folk customs) and developing into key nodes of the recreational network. Potential points with high contribution to the overall recreational network should be prioritized for development. In the future, the optimization and development of rural recreational resources can be achieved through four paths of overall planning, key promotion, brand driving, and network collaboration. Full article

Country parks are an important instrument for implementing China’s strategies on ecological civilization and integrated urban–rural development. This study conducted field surveys in seven country parks of Shanghai. Meanwhile, stakeholder seminars were organized with local residents and park authorities. To assess visitor satisfaction, a questionnaire survey was administered both on-site and online. Through case analysis and a policy review, this study systematically identifies key challenges in leveraging country parks for rural revitalization. The findings indicate that visitors highly value the ecological qualities of the parks, and basic infrastructure like roads and resting facilities generally meets expectations. However, shuttle services and smart guiding systems remain notable shortcomings that hinder the overall visitor experience. Moreover, gaps in service quality, local cultural representation, and the depth of nature education constitute the primary weaknesses affecting visitor satisfaction. Regarding rural revitalization, this study identifies four main limitations in the contribution of country parks: (1) Inadequate functional positioning and weak integration with surrounding resources; (2) Low land use efficiency and an unbalanced provision of supporting facilities; (3) Homogenized industrial formats with limited innovation and integration capacity; and (4) Restricted participation of local farmers and underdeveloped multi-stakeholder governance mechanisms. To address these issues, this study proposes four strategic recommendations: (1) Develop distinctive local brands and strengthen synergies with surrounding resources; (2) Promote mixed land use and enhance supporting service facilities; (3) Foster diversified business formats and facilitate the value realization of ecological products; and (4) Expand income-generation channels for farmers and improve multi-stakeholder governance frameworks. The research demonstrates that optimizing the functions of country parks can improve ecological and recreational services and help establish an integrated “ecology–industry–community” framework through industrial chain extension and community participation, thereby supporting rural revitalization. Full article

Folk festivals and other intangible cultural heritage have received widespread attention, and their socio-cultural value can be used to promote tourism, strengthen local identity, and build city brands. However, it remains unclear how these intangible cultural heritage festivals transform their multi-dimensional and multi-configuration material characteristics into economic benefits and image enhancement. This study proposes a practical decision-making framework aimed at understanding how different festival design and governance strategies can work synergistically under different cultural conditions. Based primarily on a literature review and expert questionnaire survey, this study identified six stable materialized practice modules: productization, spatialization, experientialization, digitalization, branding/communication, and co-creation governance. At the same time, this framework also incorporates two other conditional intervention properties: classicism and novelty. The interactions between these modules shape people’s understanding of intangible cultural heritage festivals. Subsequently, this study used a multimodal national dataset that included official statistics, industry reports, e-commerce and social media data, questionnaires, and expert ratings to construct module scores and cultural attributes for 167 festival case studies. Through rough set analysis (RSA), this study simplifies the attributes and extracts clear “if-then” rules, establishing a configurational causal relationship between module configuration and classic/novel conditions to form high economic benefits and enhance local image. The findings of this study reveal a robust core built around spatialization, digitalization, and co-creative governance, with brand promotion/communication yielding benefits depending on the specific context. This further confirms that classicism reinforces the legitimacy and effectiveness of rituals/spaces and governance pathways, while novelty amplifies the impact of digitalization and immersive interaction. In summary, this study constructs an integrated and easy-to-understand process that links indicators, weights, and rules, and provides operational support for screening schemes and resource allocation in festival event combinations and venue brand governance. Full article