Can a sidewalk’s color nudge tourists to walk along city streetcapes?

Author: Dr. Xinran Lehto

An experimental study examines how social priming and sidewalk color design strategies nudge tourists along city streetscapes, motivating them to engage in healthy walking behavior as they explore a destination.

With sedentary lifestyles proliferating, people, including tourists, need to fit exercise into busy schedules. An experimental study from Purdue University’s White Lodging-J.W. Marriott, Jr. School of Hospitality and Tourism Management examines how social norm priming and strategic color usage within sidewalk design nudge tourists along, motivating them to engage in healthy walking behavior as they explore a destination. Improved urban streetscapes can offer healthy behavior solutions and become part of an overall tourism wayfinding strategy fitting with city brand strategy.