Research in action -tourism and its impacts on the environmental soundscape- A community-initiated pilot study

In this study we conducted a spatial and temporal environmental noise assessment of an urban downtown, and a residential island community in Portland, Maine to analyze the differences between the winter tourism off-season and the summer tourism on-season. We collected 320 5-min samples of 1-s data, repeated equally across 40 measurement sites, during daytime and nighttime, weekdays, and weekends, and during the off-season and on-season. Changes in transportation use, and population density are known to influence sound levels, but few studies have looked at how fluctuations in seasonal tourism can influence the soundscape. We mapped the acoustical environment at each time interval and use linear mixed-effects models to estimate the differences in sound levels due to tourism. Overall, summer tourism was significantly associated with higher A-weighted sound levels on Peaks Island, Maine. In Downtown Portland, Maine there is evidence of increased sound levels concentrated in the busy Old Port area, but no significant changes throughout the rest of the study area, suggesting that the acoustical environment of Downtown Portland is dominated by transportation noise, that does not change by season. These results emphasize the importance of smart tourism practices, especially in quieter residential areas with a large draw for seasonal tourism. •Summer tourism significantly changed the soundscape of a seasonal tourist attraction.•In contrast, there was no overall difference in seasonal sound levels of a busy city downtown area.•Significant annual noise patterns may negatively influence perception of environmental quality.