Videography-facilitated nature-based mindfulness at natural destinations

Nature-based tourism is increasingly regarded as a means of enhancing mindfulness and human well-being. As digital practices become integral to tourist experiences, videography offers a promising medium through which visitors attend to and reflect on natural environments. To address this gap, this study explores and conceptualizes videography-facilitated nature-based mindfulness at natural destinations, guided by the broaden-and-build theory and the attention restoration theory. Employing a mixed-method approach, the research integrates qualitative phenomenological self-reflections from fieldwork across nine natural destinations in Florida, along with a quantitative analysis of 3,045 online reviews of nature-based mindfulness experiences from Airbnb Online Experiences. This analysis utilizes text mining and sentiment analysis to evaluate ten major topics, as well as the positive, neutral, and negative sentiment scores across all reviews. The findings suggest that positive emotions derived from videography-enhanced nature experiences expand attention and thinking (e.g., attention restoration, nature inclusiveness, and nature stewardship). This broadening effect contributes to building positive emotional feedback (e.g., beautiful life) and personal coping resources (e.g., meditation), ultimately enhancing well-being and human flourishing (e.g., hope). This research significantly advances our understanding of tourism’s potential to improve well-being, offering meaningful implications for future tourism practices and research across theoretical, practical, and methodological dimensions.