Introduction

Rural tourism, often referred to as countryside or agritourism tourism, is popular worldwide (Lane 1994). According to the report from Future Market Insights (FMI 2023), the global rural tourism market will reach US$ 102.7 billion in 2023, and it can realize a steady 6.8% compound growth rate in the next decade. Rural tourists are increasingly seeking immersive experiences, a connection with nature, and an escape from the hectic urban life (Chen et al. 2023; Yildirim and Arefi 2022). As one special type of rural tourism, ancient town attractions offer a unique proposition (Su 2010). Ancient towns, as a continuum sitting on a spectrum from rural to urban areas that are characterized by rural functions (such as traditional, locally based, authentic, remote, and sparsely populated), provide the ideal backdrop for modern tourists (Lane 1994; Rosalina et al. 2021). As Orbasli (2002) underlined, ancient towns are traditionally dated back centuries, their rich historical heritage and picturesque settings are found to offer a stark contrast to the modernized and urbanized world. And these reasons contribute to the preference for ancient towns among rural tourists (Gao and Wu 2017). Therefore, rural tourism research, especially the ancient town as a specific tourism destination, has become an important destination topic that cannot be overlooked. Notably, as the popularity of ancient town tourism grows, there is a greater emphasis on its development trends, such as sustainable practices and collaborative conservation (Lane and Kastenholz 2015).

In research on rural experiences, sensory-related attractions are considered essential resources for a destination, and these sensory landscapes serve as important mediums for tourists to perceive the place (Agapito et al. 2014). Hence, more scholars have attempted to study the dimensions of sensescape in the tourism experience (Wong and Lai 2024). For example, previous studies concerned the impact of landscape and heritage buildings on the tourism experience in the ancient town (Fatimah 2015; Zhang et al. 2021). However, as Carneiro et al. (2015) argued, there is a large and complex group of non-visual elements that can stimulate tourist perception in rural destinations, and soundscape is one of the most important factors. Soundscape, introduced by Schafer in 1997, can be thought of as an auditory landscape. In the context of ancient towns, soundscapes refer to the collection of sounds in the area, encompassing both natural (e.g., rustling of leaves, chirping of birds) and human-made sounds (e.g., tolling of historic bells, traditional music) (Chen et al. 2021). These sounds not only contribute to a sense of serenity and harmony with nature but also reflect the daily lives and historical traditions of the local communities (Jiang et al. 2020; Mao et al. 2022). Hence, ancient town tourists are drawn to these tranquil and cultural soundscapes. Practically, destination stakeholders attach great importance to ancient town tourism and continuously in the preservation and enhancement of soundscapes (e.g., sound art installation and digital interpretation) (Qiu et al. 2018). These practices are designed to maintain the authenticity of these destinations and attract rural tourists seeking a connection with tradition and nature (Zhao and Li 2023).

The stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory (Mehrabian and Russell 1974) is an effective theory for investigating the influence of ancient town-related soundscapes on tourists’ experience and behavior. The SOR logic aims to explain and predict how an environmental stimulus (S) provokes an individual’s cognitive and emotional states (O), and ultimately, initiates their behavioral responses (R) (Schreuder et al. 2016). Over recent decades, SOR literature suggested that the environment around tourists can affect their tourism experience through different senses, especially the auditory sense (He et al. 2019). For example, some studies showed that soundscape perceptions can trigger flow experience in visitors in a heritage old town (Lu et al. 2022), and some empirical research demonstrated the role of natural soundscapes in the formation of memorable tourism experiences (MTEs) (Bai et al. 2023; Kankhuni and Ngwira 2022). However, there are limited studies introducing it to explore whether both of them were intergraded works on behavioral intention of soundscapes of ancient towns. To be specific, as suggested by Kim and Thapa (2018), the flow experience tried to describe the on-site state that tourists fully engaged and filtered out all irrelevant perceptions when they absorbed in the soundscape environment. Kim (2018) observed that MTEs is more long-lived, which enables tourists to relive and continually reflect upon their experiences. Additionally, the above studies examined that both flow experience and MTEs positively influence WOM and revisit intentions in the soundscape setting. Hence, while flow experience and MTEs reflect different aspects of the tourist experience, they are also interconnected. Evidently, it is possible that these two types of tourist experiences are different and occur at the same context (Zatori et al. 2018). Above all, more than one type of tourism experience is worth studying for the research background of soundscapes in the ancient town.

In tourism, numerous studies generally reported important mediators such as satisfaction, destination image, and place attachment (Chi and Han 2021a; Chiang 2023). However, different scholars in recent studies argued that the commonly employed mediator in current tourism practices might not be sufficient. For example, Dolnicar et al. (2015) claimed that cultural tourists may have an exceptional experience in Egypt and rate it as satisfactory, but they will never return, since he/she might want to explore as many other novel attractions as possible around the world. Hence, more emerging mediators are needed because some traditional mediators (e.g., satisfaction, destination image) are not always applicable in certain scenarios. As Kim et al. (2023) proposed, in the experience economy, tourism experience is the core concept during travel. Conceptually, different from other factors like satisfaction, the tourism experience can be remembered and recalled. Hence, they are more valuable and unique while other factors may not have achieved the same level of being recalled. Therefore, in order to narrow down the academic focus, as well as examine the distinctive impact of two types of experiences, this study pays close attention to the direct relationships between tourism experiences and behavioral intentions in the proposed framework.

In summary, this study aims to identify the soundscape perceptions from ancient town sites and examine the effect of the soundscape perceptions on rural tourists’ behavioral intentions through flow experience and MTEs. The contributions of this study can be understood in four aspects. First, this study identifies the two-dimensional scale of soundscape perceptions in the ancient town, which enriches the knowledge for soundscape research in rural destinations. Second, this study combines and examines both flow experience and MTEs co-appearing and working together on the tourism experience of ancient towns. This work provides an attempt to investigate the complex interrelationship between tourist different types of experiences for future studies. Third, this examines the effect of soundscape perceptions on rural tourists’ behavioral intentions toward the ancient town, which helps researchers to understand the mechanism of the SOR model in determining rural tourists’ preferences. Finally, the result of this study provides management strategies to rural destination planners to enhance rural tourists’ experience with ancient town-related soundscape attractions in the modern tourism market.

Literature review

The S-O-R framework

The current study expounds on the principles of the S-O-R framework which was rooted in environmental psychology (Mehrabian and Russell 1974) to investigate the tourism experiences of tourists after their soundscape perceptions in the ancient town. According to the S-O-R framework, it suggests that the cues present in the environment act as stimuli that result in emotional and cognitive responses (Xia et al. 2023). This further causes attitudinal and behavioral responses. The S-O-R framework has been applied to tourism-related research over the past decade, such as theme parks (Chang 2014), and VR tourism (Kim et al. 2020). However, its application to investigate the effects of soundscape perceptions on tourist experiences in rural destinations remains scarce. In this study, natural soundscape perceptions and human-made soundscape perceptions represent the stimuli within the framework of the S-O-R model, which constitute the dimensions of soundscape. O stands for the intermediate variable organism, namely, human emotional state and cognitive state. In this context, flow experience and memorable aviotourism experience were selected to assess the internal states of tourists. Finally, behavioral intention was selected to assess their responses.

Ancient town-related soundscape perceptions

Ancient towns are very competitive and popular destination choices around the world (Wang et al. 2022). The ancient town can be defined as s city approved as a famous historical and cultural city that should have rich cultural relic resources and have high historical value or revolutionary significance by the Cultural Relics Protection Law of PRC issued in 1982 (Yin et al. 2019). Differentiating from other types of tourist destinations, ancient towns not only provide the most basic functions such as accommodation, meals, and transportation (Su et al. 2021), but they also have diverse and complex tourism resources (Guo and Sun 2016). Traditional and historic buildings reflect the relatively harmonious relationship between people and nature in the region and can support the residents’ unique social culture, system, lifestyle, nature, including soundscape (Bucurescu 2015). Furthermore, some natural landscapes such as primitive parks, mountains, and rivers are included in ancient towns (Baral et al. 2017), but most of the previous studies neglect other elements in sensory of ancient town studies.

In recent years, acoustic journals have particularly favored the study of soundscapes in indoor and outdoor spaces, and many studies have been conducted on perception and evaluation in rural tourism and ancient town tourism (Francomano et al. 2022), ISO standardized the definition of a soundscape from the Handbook of Acoustic Ecology in 2014 as “an acoustic environment that one person or one perceives or experiences and/or understands in context. Soundscape typically consists of many aspects that occur simultaneously or separately over time, there are many classifications of it by different scholars, some scholars were divided into three categories, namely biological, geophysical, and anthropogenic sounds (Pijanowski et al. 2011), however, according to Zhang et al. (2021), the study emphasizes the soundscape can be divided into natural soundscape and cultural soundscape, and based on Axelsson et al. (2014) defined the classification of soundscape named technology (e.g., road-traffic and other kinds of noise), nature (e.g., water sounds from the fountain and other kinds of natural sounds), and humans (e.g., voices), especially Ma et al. (2021) directly make a distinguish of soundscape elements that are three principal components “Natural sounds”, “Human-made sounds”, and “Mechanical sounds”. This paper mainly focuses on the positive effects of different types of soundscapes. Thus, natural soundscapes and human-made soundscapes are the key dimensions of research objects within soundscapes.

Natural soundscape refers to the group of each sound in nature, weather sounds such as snow, thunder, and rain; Insect sounds such as bird calls, worm calls, or running water (Pijanowski et al. 2011, p. 1214). More and more scholars pay attention to the study of tourism experience in the sensory dimension, and now natural soundscape is developed to be regarded as an important attribute of nature-based destinations and an ideal experience for nature-based tourism (Watts and Pheasant 2015). In addition, natural soundscape has been confirmed to give tourists positive feelings such as peace and relaxation, thus, the natural soundscape has been widely accepted as an important perception element of nature-based tourism destinations (Jiang et al. 2020). Human-made soundscapes can be defined as sound sources produced by human activities or those produced by human beings themselves (such as talking, shouting, or singing) (Qi et al. 2008). In this study, it also includes related to the destination including bells, hawking by small shop runners, various utensils, characteristic sounds of national musical instruments, radio or musical sounds, and so on (Ou et al. 2017). Human-made soundscapes may also include sounds such as children’s play, footsteps, and communication between residents or tourists; those sounds are not related to the attraction (Guo et al. 2022).

In the field of tourism, several studies have addressed soundscape descriptors and prediction models for soundscape were developed, for example, Zhang et al. (2021) proposed the five basic dimensions of everyday soundscape perception in spatiotemporal view and the study on the audio-visual evaluation of the traditional national sound “Dong Grand Song” and made comparative research (Mao et al. 2023). However, previous studies usually focused more on the impact of natural soundscapes on tourists’ emotions and perceptions, even soundscape research on human-made soundscapes is usually negative, such as damaging experience and reducing satisfaction (Francis et al. 2017). Still unclear is to what degree these soundscapes as acoustic beacons for tourism destinations and whether they influence tourism experience in ancient towns.

Tourism experience

Tourism experience has a long and rich history of research and critical discussion, in fact, it can be said to be one of the most central questions or issues in tourism research (Stienmetz et al. 2021). The concept of tourism experience refers to the personal tourism experience as the emotions that visitors perceive during their visit, which explains their immersion in and satisfaction with the experience (Lunardo and Ponsignon 2020, p. 1152). In the study of destination travel, the tourism experience is generally classified into two main streams, for instance, Agapito et al. (2013) developed an empirical study on the sensory dimension of travel experience, and Huang et al. (2020) studied the positive enhancement of virtual reality on travel experience based on flow theory. Some scholars have proposed various dimensions of tourist experience in the same scene of tourism. In an experience study of national parks, Bigne et al. (2020) classify tourist experiences as MTEs or OTEs (ordinary tourist experiences). In addition, MTEs and OTEs are compared to identify any significant differences between their dimensions. Yan et al. (2016) divided tourism experiences in a dark tourism space into emotional tourist experiences and cognitive experiences. Campón-Cerro et al. (2020) mentioned that experiences can be divided into two dimensions: participation and connection. Thus, in this study, tourism experience is divided into two dimensions: flow experience and memorable tourism experience.

Flow experience

Much research on flow experiences in consumer behavior, especially in the travel and leisure field (Chang 2014). Flow experience can be regarded as the best discussion of experience (Csikszentmihalyi and LeFevre 1989), and it refers to a cognitive state of greater pleasure and excitement when experiencing or participating in an activity (O’Neill 1999, p. 130). It reinforces the value and importance of positive psychology and flow in each experience a visitor has.

Flow experience has been improved in past sensory research that individual experience is determined by the physical response of the person’s body to the surrounding environment (e.g., Seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting) (Lugosi and Walls 2013). The ability of the senses to enhance the visitor experience has been supported by much evidence in the past (Agapito et al. 2013). Lu et al. (2022) suggested that tourists’ perception can be regarded as a crucial factor, especially in a stimulating physical environment and the flow experience is positively related to visitor’s perception. During the process of traveling in tourist destinations, soundscapes can make tourists deeply involved in the experience, thereby creating a pleasant psychology or making it easier for tourists to feel immersive (Loepthien and Leipold 2022). Tourists can concentrate more on experience which means that the psychological experience has been produced (Snyder and Lopez 2001). Besides, referring to the literature review, soundscapes can be divided into natural soundscape perception and human-made soundscape perception. Accordingly, the following hypotheses are proposed:

H1a. Natural soundscape perceptions will positively influence the flow experience.

H1b. Human-made soundscape perceptions will positively influence the flow experience.

Memorable tourism experience

Creating memorable consumer experiences is more valuable than other products and services (Wong and Lai 2021; Zhou et al. 2022), it helps producers become more competitive. Tung and Ritchie (2011) investigated several aspects of creating a memorable travel including affection, consequentiality, and recollection and others. A memorable tourism experience (MTE) is defined as “a tourism experience that is positively remembered and recalled after the event has occurred” (Kim et al. 2012). Therefore, MTE is an experience that is selectively recalled from the travel experience and recognized and recalled after the trip. Extraordinary travel experiences or memories with highlights will be easier to remember than ordinary trips (Hosseini et al. 2023; Wong et al. 2019).

Previous studies examined the positive relationship for overland tourists between natural soundscape perceptions and memorable tourism experiences (Kankhuni and Ngwira 2022). Besides, some studies indicated the relevance of the sensory is crucial to a memorable tourism experience (Agapito et al. 2017). On the whole, in quantitative research, few studies use soundscapes to investigate the role of forming memorable travel experiences. Based on this, the following hypotheses are proposed:

H2a. Natural soundscape perceptions will positively influence memorable tourist experiences.

H2b.Human-made soundscape perceptions will positively influence memorable tourist experiences.

Instead of consuming to meet tourists’ needs, travel consumers are looking for experiences that “activate emotions”, “engage processes”, “touch hearts”, and “awaken minds” now (Hosany and Witham 2010). Among these mental processes, one of the concepts that can clarify an individual’s mental state during the experience in the context of activity is the mental process called “flow experience” (Ferrara et al. 1997). Consumers are more likely to seek out and participate in those events which are unique, unusual and memorable (Ayazlar 2015). Wei et al. (2019) found that the recollection of MTE was positively affected by involvement. Zatori et al. (2018) revealed that flow, as a dimension of experiential involvement, can affect memorability. Chen et al. (2020) adopt flow as the “fun” scale by which to capture tourists’ emotional response to the tourism experience and attempt to study the relationship between fun and MTE. Therefore, the hypothesis is proposed:

H3. Flow experience will positively influence memorable tourism experiences.

Behavioral intention

Past tourism studies have extensively proved the relationship between different and diverse factors and behavioral intention, such as satisfaction, perceived quality, brand value, and so on (Lai and Wong 2024; Ng et al. 2023; Zhou et al. 2023). Additionally, these factors will directly or indirectly affect customer loyalty, positive word of mouth, and re-visit willingness (Lai et al. 2022; Williams and Soutar 2009). Destination satisfaction refers to the overall evaluation of all activities and experiences of tourists during their visit to a destination (Cole and Scott 2004) and it is usually used to measure the quality and performance of a destination (Acharya et al. 2023). The revisit intention is defined as the willingness of tourists to visit the same destination again in the future and has a more important impact on destination loyalty. Therefore, when measuring the indicators of tourists’ future behavior, it needs to pay attention to the direct influence of satisfaction, re-visit index, and word-of-mouth (Kozak et al. 2005).

This study indicates the influence of two categories of tourism experience on behavioral intention. Among them, flow experience involves aspects such as satisfaction and happiness and aspects such as trust and loyalty, which are related to the evaluation of tourism product performance and experience (da Silva deMatos et al. 2021). Previous studies have supported that when tourists travel offline, memorable tourism experiences will positively affect tourists’ satisfaction, revisit intention and recommendations (Wong et al. 2020). Sthapit et al. (2019) confirmed that memories of past travel experiences contribute to tourists’ subjective well-being (Rasoolimanesh et al. 2022). The above discussions frame the following hypotheses:

H4a. Flow experience will positively influence behavioral intention.

H4b. Memorable tourism experiences will positively influence behavioral intention.

So, the conceptual model and proposed hypotheses are shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1: Conceptual model.
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The figure presents all the hypothesized associations in the proposed model.

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Research method

Site selection and measurement

The research site was selected in Shawan Ancient Town (located in the northwest of the Pearl River system in Guangdong Province, China), a Lingnan cultural water town with a history of over 800 years. This study identified three sampling areas along the main tourist routes to ensure that there were visitors, including Baomo Garden, Shouwang Tower, and Aoshan Ancient Temple Group. As a famous natural and cultural tourist destination, these sampling areas contain abundant natural and human-made soundscape elements in Shawan Ancient Town. For example, there are folk bands who perform local music on the streets of ancient buildings, accompanied by residents slowly strolling and chatting in the dialect that fills the atmosphere of the ancient town. Meanwhile, in the gardens, tourists can naturally hear the pool water flowing slowly. When tourists stop to rest, they can even hear the wind rustling through the fallen leaves and the ethereal chirping of birds. These healing sounds immerse tourists and evoke profound sensory impressions.

The framework dimensions of ancient town-related soundscapes (ATSP) were inspired by Zhang et al. (2018)’s study recording various sounds heard in Han Buddhist temple setting. And the scale for measuring ATSP in this study, regarding the natural soundscape perceptions (NSP) and human-related soundscape perceptions (HSP), is derived and revised from Kankhuni and Ngwira (2022) to fit into the ancient town context. The scale for measuring flow experience was revised by Kim and Thapa (2018). The scale for measuring memorable tourism experiences was borrowed from Kankhuni and Ngwira (2022). According to behavioral intention, the measuring scale was adapted from Jiang (2022). The measurement items were initially written in English and translated into Chinese and then translated back into English by two professional translators to verify consistency. In early February 2023, a pilot test was conducted on 30 Chinese tourists on sites to establish content validity. All tourists who participated in the pilot test confirmed that they understood exactly the meaning of the measurable items, hence no further modifications were made. Besides, the content proofreading work was completed by two professors in tourism. Finally, all thirty pilot samples were excluded from the formal further statistical analysis. These measurable items are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Mean, standard deviation (S.D.), and factor loading of 18 measurable items.
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Questionnaire design and data collection

The questionnaire includes three main sections. Firstly, as the sampling units are closely integrated with the local community, a scan question “Are you a tourist to the Shawan ancient town?” was set to ensure the respondents. The second section contained 18 questions measuring the five constructs of the conceptual model on a seven-point Likert scale. Each item is measured by a seven-point Likert-type scale, anchored by 1 “strongly disagree” to 7 “strongly agree”. Besides, in front of the section of natural/ human-made soundscapes questions, there is a paragraph of words illustrating clear definitions and examples to ensure respondents’ understanding of the researched objects. Finally, the third section is the background profile, including respondents’ gender, age, education, income, and frequency (see Table 6 in the Appendix).

The survey was conducted from Feb 20 to Mar 12 with a total of 21 days. The survey sites are mainly located at three top attractions in Shawan ancient town in Guangzhou, including Baomo Garden (1st week), Shouwang Tower (2nd week), and Aoshan Ancient Temple Group (3rd week). These three sites have a rich content of ancient town-related (including natural and human-made) sounds for tourists to generate their soundscape perceptions. Referring to Wang et al. (2023) process, systematic sampling was used in this study, which is a frequently employed probability sampling technique in the field of tourism research. Compared with non-probability sampling methods like convenience sampling, systematic sampling helps mitigate the inherent biases that might be present in convenience sampling (Sharma 2017). With the random number 6 was drawn from the mobile device App (the Random Number Generator), every six person was approached to participate in this survey. Besides, only people above 18 years are targeted to be appropriate for the survey. In cases where the targeted tourists declined to participate in the survey, the research assistants postponed the survey until the arrival of the 6th subsequent tourist. The data of the questionnaires were collected face-to-face by eight well-trained research assistants from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, supervised directly by the researchers of this study. The measurement items are originally written in English. To verify the consistency of the survey instrument, the back-translation process suggested by Bracken and Barona (1991) was employed by two professional translators. Each participant took around 20 min to complete one questionnaire. In total, 421 samples were collected. According to Wong et al. (2020)’s criteria of invalid data, 27 samples were judged useable due to incomplete questionnaires or providing the same rating to most of the questions. Finally, as shown in Table S1, 394 samples (including foreign samples 32 and 362 Chinese samples) were retained for further statistical analysis.

Findings

Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) by performing SmartPLS version 3.3.3 (Ringle et al. 2015) was conducted to evaluate the structural model and test the hypothesis. The reason to choose PLS is because that program is an effective statistical technique used to detect relationships between variables in theoretical models (Hair et al. 2011). Also, PLS exerts less restrictive assumptions about normality and is appropriate for handling small samples. Following Hair et al. (2017), 394 cases and 5000 samples were used to perform bootstrapping to assess the significance of the path coefficients for the conceptual model.

Reliability and validity of the measures

As suggested by Anderson and Gerbing (1988) recommended approach, this study tests the reliability, convergent, and discriminant validity of each construct before examining the structural model. The mean, standard deviation, and PLS factor for all 18 measurable items are presented in Table 1. The values of Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability (CR) exceed the acceptable level of 0.7 (ranging from 0.812 to 0.925 and from 0.889 to 0.947, respectively), therefore indicating all constructs in this study have adequate reliability (Fornell and Larcker 1981). The PLS factor loadings for each measurable item are greater than 0.7, which ranged from o.799 to 0.910, and are hence all considered acceptable. Furthermore, the values of the average variance extracted (AVE, ranging from 0.728 to 0.816) of all the constructs are larger than the minimum criteria of 0.5. Subsequently, so the model achieves the satisfying standard convergent validity (Fornell and Larcker 1981). Discriminatory validity is assessed based on the ratio of extracted variance in each variable to the square of the coefficients, indicating that it is statistically distinct from the other variable (Hair et al. 2017). Additionally, the values of each variance extracted are higher than the squared corresponding correlation estimate, and shared variances between twain of latent variables are less than the square root of the respective AVE. Hence, the empirical evidence of discriminant validity is illustrated in this study (see Table 2).

Table 2 Reliability, validity, and correlations.
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Structural model and hypothesis testing

The results of PLS-SEM analysis are shown in Fig. 2 and Table 3. The path coefficient from two dimensions of ancient town-related soundscape perceptions (ATSP), including natural soundscape perceptions (NSP) and human soundscape perceptions (HSP), to flow experience are 0.680 (p value < 0.001) and 0.195 (p value < 0.01). Thus, hypotheses H1a, and H2b are supported. The path coefficients from the two dimensions of ATSP are 0.327 (p value < 0.001) and 0.252 (p value < 0.01), supporting hypotheses H2a and H2b. Additionally, the path coefficient from flow experience to memorable tourism experience is 0.323 (p value < 0.001), indicating that hypothesis H3 is supposed. The path coefficient from tourist experience (flow experience and memorable tourism experience) to behavioral intention is 0.568 (p value < 0.001) and 0.280 (p value < 0.001). Hence, all the above hypotheses are supported. Furthermore, given the concern that common method bias may lead to deflation or inflation of observed relationships between variables (Kock 2015). The results of the PLS algorithm also include the value of the Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) for all independent variables to assess any multicollinearity issues. The results reveal that all the values of VIF (ranging from 2.062 to 3.559) fall below the established threshold of 5, thus indicating the absence of problematic levels of collinearity (James et al. 2014).

Fig. 2: Results of PLS analysis.
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All the hypothesized associations and PLS-SEM findings (including R square, significance level and coefficient values) are presented in the figure.

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Table 3 Results of the hypothesized model using PLS.
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To report the indicator of model fit criterion, the coefficients of determination (R-square), Stone–Geisser Q square, and effect sizes (f-square) for all constructs are presented in Table 4. R-square represents the variance explained in each of the endogenous constructs, are also referred to as in-sample predictive power (Chin 1998). The results show that R-square values for flow experience, memorable tourism experience, and behavioral intention are 0.691, 0.679, and 0.644, respectively, which are both much higher than the suggested criterion of 0.26. Thus, the model’s explanatory power is substantial (Cohen 1988). To better estimate the explanatory value, the change in R-square is estimated if a given exogenous construct is removed from the model. This measure is referred to the effect size (f-square), which assesses how much an exogenous latent construct contributes to an exogenous latent construct R-square value (Hair et al. 2011). The results revealed that the f-square effect size ranged from 0.060 (weak) for HSP on FE to 0.726 for NSP on FE (high). Finally, as a frequently used metric of out-of-sample prediction, the Stone–Geisser’s Q-square was assessed (Hair et al. 2019). According to Hair et al. (2013)’s thresholds evaluation criteria: 0.02, 0.15, and 0.35 for weak, moderate, and strong effects. The values of Q-square in this study establish the strong degree of predictive relevance of endogenous constructs. Above all, these indicators validate the considerable model fit.

Table 4 Predictive accuracy (R2), predictive relevance (Q2) and effect sizes (f2).
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Mediation effects

This study examined the specific indirect and total effects in PLS using the process of bootstrapping (with 394 observations in each subsample and 5000 sub-samples) and a 95% confidence interval analysis. The variance accounted for (VAF) method was employed to examine the strength of the individual mediation effects. The results as presented in Table 5 suggested that FE played a mediating role in the relationship between two constructs of ATSP (NSP and HSP) and MTE (Path 1: IE = 0.220***, TE = 0.547***, 2.5% interval = 0.096 > 0; Path 2: IE = 0.063*, 0.315***, 2.5% interval = 0.022 > 0). The VAF of NSP and HSP are 0.402 and 0.200, respectively. In accordance with the criteria suggested by Hair et al. (2017), since the VAF values are between 20% and 80%, mediation paths 1 and 2 are both identified as partial mediations. Additionally, the effect of FE on BI through the mediation of MTE (Path 3: IE = 0.091**, TE = 0.659***, 2.5% interval = 0.036 > 0) had the value of VAF below 20% (13.8%), indicating that MTE has no mediating role between FE and BI.

Table 5 Results of the mediating effect test.
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Discussion and implications

Discussion

The results of this study identified a measurement scale of soundscape perceptions, encompassing both natural and human-made dimensions, within the context of rural tourism destinations. These two dimensions are aligned with the assertions made by Ma et al. (2021) that environmental soundscape preference in public urban space should consider the principal components, including “Natural sounds” and “Human-made sounds”.

The results of hypotheses H1a and H1b confirmed existing research that ancient town-related soundscape perceptions have significantly positive impacts on the flow experience (Lu et al. 2022). However, different from existing studies that focus on only one type of soundscape, especially the natural soundscapes (Jo and Jeon 2020), this study further discussed how these two types of soundscape perceptions (NSP and HSP) work together to influence the flow experience. Additionally, the finding showed that natural soundscape has a stronger impact on the flow experience. As Qiu et al. (2021) stated, the inherent calming and attention-restoring qualities of natural sounds contribute to reduced distractions, and immersion in the present moment, aligning with the key principles of flow theory. Additionally, according to Lu et al. (2022), in most cases, tourists can appreciate the human-made local music, and find a sense of control or softness in a harmonious and non-intrusive ambiance.

The results of hypotheses H2a and H2b confirmed that compared with human-made soundscapes, natural soundscape perceptions have stronger effects on tourist MTEs, which is consistent with Kankhuni and Ngwira (2022) study. That is, the natural sounds tend to evoke distinct auditory image features in their memory, enhance emotional engagement, and create lasting memories through the sensory richness of nature. Additionally, hypothesis H3 demonstrated that two types of tourist experiences are positively associated, which is neglected in the previous studies. Although there are research indicates that emotional components such as pleasure and excitement help people to remember the journey (Ding and Hung 2021). In this study, it is proven that both flow experience and MTEs occur in the soundscape environment of an ancient town. Specifically, on-site immersion experience will impact post-travel experience recall.

This study also confirmed (H4a and H4b) that these two types of tourist experience positively influence tourist behavioral intentions toward the ancient town. These findings are aligned with the previous studies regarding flow experience and MTEs (Ding and Hung 2021; Kim 2018). Significantly, some extent studies have indicated that the relationship between tourists’ experience and their behavioral intention is mediated by certain important variables, such as satisfaction and place identity (Chi and Han 2021b; Jiang and Yan 2022). With the main focus on showing the significant differences in the direct influence of two types of tourist experiences on behavioral intention, this study did not take such mediation factors into consideration. According to the results, tourist flow experience has a stronger effect than MTEs on positive behaviors, such as oral evaluation and revisit intentions. This finding implies that the flow experience within soundscapes can generate profound and sustained experiential behaviors, underscoring its significance for soundscape studies. Moreover, the discovery also advanced the prior observation with single-type experience in various tourism fields.

Theoretical implications

First, inspired by Zhang et al. (2018)’s study of recording various sounds heard in Han Buddhist temple settings, this study identified a two-dimensions scale of ancient town-related soundscape perceptions (including natural and human-made soundscape perceptions) in the rural tourism destination. Although understanding rural tourists’ soundscape perceptions in ancient towns is important, previous studies have not verified a measurement scale. Referring to Kankhuni and Ngwira (2022), this study amended appropriate measurement items that can reflect the natural and human-made elements in Shawan ancient town tourism, such as the rustling of leaves, chirping of birds, tolling of historic bells, and traditional music as shown in Table 1. Hence, this study highlights the rural tourist’s soundscape perceptions for traveling and provides a framework scale for researchers to take ATSP research.

Second, in tourism experiences research, most researchers have focused on tourism experience quality and single experience (Jiang et al. 2020; Zhou et al. 2023). Researchers rarely notice that tourists may have different travel experiences in rural destinations, especially the ancient town. Hence, by combining two experiences in one scene, the attempt in this study enriched the knowledge of previous studies on tourist experience classification. At the same time, this study examined the positive interplay between on-site flow experience and post-travel MTEs, which indicated the potential connection, and achieved the theoretical integration between flow theory and memory theory.

Third, this study applied the SOR model to demonstrate the theoretical relationships between ancient town-related soundscape perceptions, flow experience, MTEs and behavioral intentions. This study showed a causal sequence from a stimulus (soundscape perceptions) to an intermediate organism (flow experience) transferring to another intermediate organism (MTEs) to a behavioral response (behavioral intentions toward an ancient town). Therefore, this study advanced the ___domain of soundscape tourism research by introducing a novel approach to building the SOR model. It elucidates an approach for enhancing a distinct form of rural tourism, notably emphasizing the promotion of ancient town tourism.

Finally, this study has potential contributions to interdisciplinary research. This interdisciplinary approach integrates elements of psychology, architecture, and tourism, fostering innovative design strategies that prioritize sensory aspects. By understanding how natural and human-made soundscape perceptions significantly enhance tourist experiences and behavioral intentions. Ultimately, this discovery provides new insights into tourism architectural design, not only in ancient town environments. Architectural designers can incorporate acoustic elements into their architectural design and consider esthetic issues.

Practical implications

This study offers insights into soundscape planning and management of ancient town environments or similar tourism attractions in rural destinations. First, given the important role soundscapes play in flow experiences when developing or designing an ancient town or other similar attraction, managers need to pay attention to the overall design of the soundscape and the content of these locations. On the one hand, managers should develop an awareness to preserve and enhance the natural soundscape of the ancient town. Ensure that the sounds of flowing water, birdsong, and rustling leaves are maintained to create a tranquil and immersive atmosphere. On the other hand, attraction managers can implement carefully crafted artificial soundscapes by incorporating ambient sounds like ancestral bells, local band performances, and folk songs. these measures foster a culturally rich and engaging atmosphere, elevating tourists’ connection to the historical setting and enhancing their overall flow experience.

Second, this study confirms that the soundscape of ancient towns is important in shaping MTEs after traveling. Managers therefore are expected to offer tourists novel soundscapes, especially those that are rare in urban life. On a practical level, managers need to protect biological diversity and allow tourists to hear a wider variety of harmonious natural sounds, such as the chirping of cicadas and crickets, or the sound of raindrops wetting leaves. Additionally, attractions should conduct workshops or demonstrations on traditional sounds, such as musical instrument making or local artisan techniques. This in-person activity allows tourists to have a novel and memorable experience of the ancient town’s culture through sounds heard. In addition, the ancient town can also introduce guided sound tours, allowing tourists to understand the importance of various sounds while exploring the ancient town. This knowledge can include the history of traditional music, as well as the stories behind specific natural sounds, which will help form long-term memories for ancient town tourists.

Additionally, attraction planning should focus on creating and enhancing tourists’ on-site flow experience and post-travel MTEs, as both two types of experiences have a positive impact on tourists’ behavioral intentions toward the ancient town. At this point, attraction planners can enhance tourists’ immersive experience in ancient towns by setting up sound equipment. In particular, managers can set up natural bird singing and fountain elements on spacious squares, and set up sound equipment in public areas, streets, bridges, and other places in ancient towns to play natural sounds. Creating a richer natural atmosphere increases pleasure and positive feelings so that tourists can experience the beauty of natural soundscapes and the unique charm of ancient towns. Regarding MTEs, today’s ancient town attractions can consider applying some information technology to produce some sound products. For example, some electronic audio albums include sound samples of the town’s unique sounds. These audio e-books are equipped with audio story descriptions, which not only become important mementoes of tourists’ soundscape experience but also remind tourists to return to the ancient town to find memories. Moreover, tourists can recommend the scenic spots in the destination to their friends by sharing the audio e-books, which also have a promotion function.

Limitations and future research

As with all studies, this study has several limitations. Firstly, the research concentrates on the relationship between soundscape and tourism experiences and ignores other sensory experiences such as sight, taste, smell, and touch. Future studies may expand on this current research by developing multidimensional measures for the evaluation of the tourist sensory experience that could potentially aid in the improvement of tourism experiences. Secondly, each region has different cultural backgrounds. This study only examined the ancient town of Shawan in China and the respondents were mainly Chinese domestic tourists. In fact, their soundscape perceptions may be different from those of international tourists. There are many other ancient towns in Asia or Europe, but the results of this study may not represent all destinations. Third, with a primary emphasis on highlighting substantial distinctions in the direct effect of two types of tourists’ experience on behavioral intention, this study did not consider other potential mediating elements (e.g., satisfaction or destination image). Hence, it is suggested that future studies could include such important mediations to verify the latent relationships between tourist experience and future behavioral intention. Lastly, this study compared the impact of natural and human-made soundscapes on the tourism experience in ancient town tourism destinations. Further studies are recommended to research the impact of soundscapes on tourism destinations with different functions, such as museums and amusement parks.