Visitor complaints, waiting arrangements, and landscape evaluation in Chinese gardens: Evidence from online reviews and a vignette experiment

Garden visitors evaluate scenery within a broader visit experience that includes shared spaces and visitor services. This study examined how visitor complaints and waiting arrangements relate to landscape evaluation. Study 1 analyzed 31,737 online reviews from 28 Chinese gardens. Poisson models examined the associations of crowding and shared-space complaints and ticketing and service complaints with the rate of positive landscape statements. Study 2 analyzed data from 550 participants randomly assigned to normal passage, visitor-selected waiting, or staff-designated waiting across three scenarios. Within each scenario, the two obstruction conditions used the same images and passage location and described an obstruction lasting approximately 15 min. Ticketing and service complaints showed a stronger negative association with the rate of positive landscape statements than crowding and shared-space complaints, although the magnitudes varied with denominator definition. In Study 2, landscape ratings were lower under staff-designated than visitor-selected waiting (adjusted difference = −0.295, 95% CI [−0.498, −0.093]); both obstruction conditions received lower landscape ratings than normal passage. Ratings of other visitors and the shared environment were descriptively higher under staff-designated than visitor-selected waiting. These findings extend understanding of visitor experience by linking landscape evaluation to the social and organizational context of a visit. They highlight the value of considering how shared garden spaces are used and organized when interpreting landscape ratings and planning on-site services.