Olfactory heritage and tourist experience in Binondo, Manila: a route-based smellscape study of a dense urban food district

Urban tourism research increasingly recognises multisensory experience, yet olfactory perception remains underexamined in dense heritage food districts where culinary appeal, infrastructure, crowding, and environmental quality intersect. Situated in Binondo, Manila, this exploratory qualitative route-based study examines how smell shapes tourist movement, affect, memory, heritage interpretation, and visitor experience in a historic Chinatown and urban food tourism district. Fifteen repeat visitors participated in facilitated smellwalks along a structured route, supported by in-situ interviews, smell notes, and researcher field notes. Data were analysed through reflexive thematic analysis. Findings identify four route-generated olfactory subscapes: Thrillscape, where appetitive aromas were interrupted by traffic smoke at the entry point; Indulgescape, where layered food aromas and incense supported immersion and cultural atmosphere; Ambivalencescape, where bakery and fruit scents competed with canal odour at an infrastructural edge; and Blissscape, where familiar Chinese Filipino food aromas activated nostalgia, appetite, and return-oriented attachment. These subscapes are sensitising analytical constructs from the Binondo smellwalk data, not fixed odour zones or universal typological categories. The study clarifies how olfactory experience mediates movement, sensory conflict, environmental appraisal, and mnemonic attachment, offering preliminary diagnostic implications for odour-sensitive destination management.