Visitors' consistent stay behavior patterns within free-roaming scenic architectural complexes: Considering impacts of temporal, spatial, and environmental factors

GPS positioning data are increasingly utilized in environmental behavior studies to explore the spatial-temporal behavioral patterns of individuals. However, individuals' stay behavioral pattern and its influencing factors, which are particularly significant for the design and management of scenic architectural complexes, have not been thoroughly examined. Using GPS trajectory data collected from the Palace Museum in Beijing (China), this paper investigated the visitors' stay behavior patterns associated with temporal, spatial, and environmental influencing factors. Types of stay behavior and characteristics of stay in main stay areas were automatically recognized using Python algorithms for further and quantitative analysis. Results showed that visitors' stay time exhibited a consistent pattern regarding psychological time allocation, a relatively unsignificant pattern regarding lunch hour, and no clear pattern regarding fatigue feature. Grouped regression analysis showed positive linear relationships with similar slopes between the average stay length and the number of stay occurrences in each type of stay area. Partial correlation analysis revealed the underlying connection between the impact of seats and greenery on stay behavior. Individually, each of the two environmental elements showed limited effect on stay frequency and stay length, while incorporating greenery into seating areas would notably increase both stay frequency and stay length.