Synthetic Nature: The Emotional Ecology of AI-Generated Landscapes in Sustainable Tourism

This study examines how individuals experience AI-generated natural landscapes and whether visually simulated, non-immersive environments activate perceptual, emotional, and restorative mechanisms typically associated with real or immersive nature. Grounded in a critical realist epistemology, AI-generated nature is conceptualized not as a substitute for natural environments, but as a distinct experiential domain in which the transferability of established environmental and restoration theories can be empirically tested. A total of 1021 participants evaluated AI-generated landscapes using a 36-item instrument derived from environmental psychology, digital media studies, and restoration research. Exploratory factor analysis identified six experiential dimensions—perceived naturalness, sense of presence, affective attunement, emotional resonance, restorative quality, and cognitive restoration—which were examined using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. While the measurement model showed excellent fit, structural relationships among constructs were consistently weak, indicating systematic non-support of theoretically expected pathways. The findings show that AI-generated landscapes can elicit salient perceptual, affective, and cognitive responses that remain largely unintegrated, limiting their capacity to produce coherent restorative outcomes. The study delineates boundary conditions for applying environmental and restoration theories to visually simulated AI landscapes and supports positioning synthetic nature as a complementary element in sustainable tourism experience design and digital environmental communication.