From Transit to Belonging Spaces: Exploring Tourists’ Emotional Bonds in the Minami-Machida Grandberry Park Station in Japan

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-701-9_80How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Railway Station; Place Attachment; Tourist Experience; TOD; Thematic Analysis

Abstract

Against the global evolution of railway stations from transit hubs to multi-functional spaces, this study explores the formation mechanism of tourists’ sense of belonging in railway stations, focusing on Minami-Machida Grandberry Park Station, a representative “station-commerce-park” integrated Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) in Japan. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, the research analyzed tourist reviews from TripAdvisor, Google Reviews, and Dianping, using thematic analysis and text mining. Key findings revealed three dimensions of tourists’ sense of belonging formation: 1) functions, such as transfer efficiency, signage, and family-friendly facility provide the baseline for place dependence; 2) emotional triggers: interactive cultural and ecological elements are the drivers of affective-cognitive bonds; 3) behavioral consolidation via interactive engagement. Thus, this study bridges gaps between transit satisfaction and tourism emotional attachment and provides guidance for emotionalized railway station design, such as prioritizing interactive cultural experiences and evidence-based ecological integration.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Yuheng Wan
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/07/30
TI  - From Transit to Belonging Spaces: Exploring Tourists’ Emotional Bonds in the Minami-Machida Grandberry Park Station in Japan
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 11th International Conference on Social Sciences and Economic Development (ICSSED 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 771
EP  - 782
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-701-9_80
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-701-9_80
ID  - Wan2026
ER  -