Influence of visual landscape on dwell and movement behaviours in Du Fu Thatched Cottage

Within contemporary tourism contexts, classical-garden spatial narratives have become decoupled from visitor behaviours, underscoring the need to elucidate mechanisms for engagement. This study investigates the Du Fu Thatched Cottage in Xishu Gardens as a case study, integrating panoramic imaging, semantic segmentation and machine learning to quantify five visual-spatial metrics: naturalness, commemorativeness, complexity, scale and colour. Visitor dwell time and visit frequency were recorded via a panoramic roaming platform. The results reveal that the spatiotemporal distributions of visual attributes and visitor dwell and movement behaviours synergistically align along the central axis. These distributions exhibit positive correlations, with commemorative element visibility and water-body coverage showing the strongest associations and manifesting multidimensional threshold effects within the commemorative dimension. By examining both dwell and movement behaviours, this study uncovers synergistic mechanisms underlying heritage-space interactions and offers actionable recommendations for the sustainable conservation and management of classical gardens.