The impact of spatial perception at agricultural heritage sites on tourists’ carbon reduction behavior

With “Carbon Neutral” goals and rural revitalization strategies, developing low-carbon tourism at agricultural heritage sites has become academically significant. Existing research overlooks how agricultural traditions, human-land relationships, and cultural diversity influence tourists’ carbon-reducing behaviors at heritage sites. Using XGBoost-SHAP machine learning models, this study explores how spatial perception influences tourists’ carbon reduction behaviors. Findings reveal that land use coordination perception and cultural heritage value recognition are dominant factors, contributing 58.267% and 57.810% to transportation and recreational behaviors, respectively. Different spatial perception elements show differentiated impacts: immediate carbon reduction behaviors are primarily influenced by land use coordination and traditional agricultural features, while sustained behaviors depend on traffic accessibility and interpretation system performance. Significant synergistic effects exist among spatial elements, particularly between land use coordination and cultural heritage value recognition. This study reveals nonlinear relationships between spatial perception and carbon reduction behaviors, providing theoretical guidance for heritage site optimization.