Urban green spaces (UGSs) can meet the spiritual and cultural needs of citizens and provide various ecosystem services. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the utilization of UGSs has been affected in various countries worldwide. This study considered 13 UGSs in Guangzhou, China, as examples. It obtained user check-in data by sampling the check-in pages of Sina Weibo locations using a Python-based web crawler program. The study was conducted for 731 days from 1 October 2019 to 30 September 2021, during different phases of the pandemic. Based on automated Chinese corpus recognition technology, statistical results were obtained after periodization and sentiment calculation. The study assessed the pandemic’s impact on the use of UGSs by analyzing the time, frequency, and emotions of residents visiting UGSs. The study concluded that the emotions of UGS users during COVID-19 tended to be positive. They tended to choose UGSs with low expected population density and visited UGSs on weekdays. Additionally, the religious attributes of UGSs also influenced their utilization.

Understanding the relationship between environmental features and perceptions of urban green spaces (UGS) is crucial for UGS design and management. However, quantifying park perceptions on a large spatial and temporal scale is challenging, and it remains unclear which environmental features lead to different perceptions in cross-cultural comparisons. This study addressed this issue by collecting 11,782 valid social media comments and photos covering 36 UGSs from 2020 to 2022 using a Python 3.6-based crawler. Natural language processing and image recognition methods from Google were then utilized to quantify UGS perceptions. This study obtained 32 high-frequency feature words through sentiment analysis and quantified 17 environmental feature factors that emerged using object and scene recognition techniques for photos. The results show that users generally perceive Japanese UGSs as more positive than Chinese UGSs. Chinese UGS users prioritize plant green design and UGS user density, whereas Japanese UGS focuses on integrating specific cultural elements. Therefore, when designing and managing urban greenspace systems, local environmental and cultural characteristics must be considered to meet the needs of residents and visitors. This study offers a replicable and systematic approach for researchers investigating the utilization of UGS on a global scale.

Urban Tourism Green Spaces (UTGSs) in Okinawa are the most frequented areas by tourists and are an important part of the area’s unique tourism image and brand value. This study selected 40 UTGSs in Ishigaki City, Okinawa, for comparative analysis before the COVID-19 pandemic (January 2009–December 2019) and during the strict control period (January 2020–December 2021). Data on tourist reviews were collected in Python. Correlations were collated through Pearson correlation tests. Text-mining methods were used to examine tourist reviews to characterise changes in tourists’ use and experience of UTGSs amid the extreme hardship experienced by tourist cities during the pandemic. Visitors expressed positive emotions towards the green space, particularly in post-pandemic times, despite disruptions and uncertainties caused by travel restrictions. Rather than focusing on water activities as before, visitors preferred exploring the island’s hinterland areas with low crowd density and seeking spiritual comfort in open public spaces. This highlights the potential of these areas to be developed as a new tourism resource. This study’s findings will provide valuable insights for urban planners and tourism operators in developing effective crisis response strategies and guiding the development of urban tourism areas towards more appealing and sustainable destinations.

We employed publicly available user-generated content (UGC) data from the website Tripadvisor and developed an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model using the R language to analyze the seasonality of the use of urban green space (UGS) in Okinawa under normal conditions and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The seasonality of the use of ocean-area UGS is primarily influenced by climatic factors, with the peak season occurring from April to October and the off-peak season from November to March. Conversely, the seasonality of the use of non-ocean-area UGS remains fairly stable throughout the year, with a relatively high number of visitors in January and May. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic greatly impacted visitor enthusiasm for travel, resulting in significantly fewer actual postings compared with predictions. During the outbreak, use of ocean-area UGS was severely restricted, resulting in even fewer postings and a negative correlation with the number of new cases. In contrast, for non-ocean-area UGS, a positive correlation was observed between the change in postings and the number of new cases. We offer several suggestions to develop UGS management in Okinawa, considering the opportunity for a period of recovery for the tourism industry.