Visitors to vineyards enjoyed their tours more when they heard enhanced sounds of diverse birdsong, new research has found.
The findings from the University of East Anglia suggest that outdoor businesses could improve their customer experience by investing in the biodiversity of their sites.
Sounds are all around and collectively they form ‘soundscapes’, which play an important role in people’s experience of the outside world. However, unprecedented biodiversity declines are silencing natural soundscapes, while the sounds of ever-increasing urbanisation are becoming dominant.
Lead author Dr Natalia Zielonka, of UEA’s School of Biological Sciences, said: “To understand the direct contributions of sounds to our experience of nature, we studied soundscapes in English vineyards and measured their effect on vineyard visitors’ experience of tours.
“To mirror what soundscapes with more birdsong may sound like, we hid speakers in vineyards along tour routes. These played additional birdsong to some tour groups, creating ‘enhanced soundscapes’ that were louder and more diverse. At the end of tours, we collected responses from visitors through a survey to measure their tour experience. Vineyard visitors who experienced our enhanced soundscapes reported improved tour experience and showed stronger agreement with statements that the sounds in the vineyard were appealing and made them feel engrossed.”
The study was performed in English vineyards, which like other agricultural systems are encouraged to safeguard biodiversity. The researchers say the findings demonstrate how measures to conserve birds could also enhance vineyard visitors’ experience of the vineyards, which they hypothesise could in turn benefit the industry.
The research was conducted in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, with support from the UKRI Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Norwich Research Park Biosciences Doctoral Training Partnership, the UKRI Natural Environment Research Council, the University of East Anglia and the Sustainable Wine of Great Britain scholarship.
