Objective Urban parks in China have long been dominated by their public-welfare function, with construction, maintenance, and operation primarily relying on public financial support. With the gradual implementation of open and shared green space policies, urban parks are increasingly expected to serve not only as ecological and recreational spaces, but also as important carriers of cultural experience, social interaction, and urban vitality. Against this background, how to activate the consumption potential of parks while preserving their public-welfare attributes has become an important issue for park management and sustainable operation. Existing studies have largely assessed the cultural service value of parks through willingness-to-pay, travel-cost, or overall ecosystem service valuation methods. However, such studies often focus on national parks, nature reserves, or scenic areas, paying insufficient attention to the actual consumption behavior of users in urban parks. In particular, the differentiated consumption characteristics across specific types of cultural services remain unclear. Taking urban parks in Beijing as a case, this study therefore investigates the actual consumption characteristics of cultural services in urban parks and the factors influencing them.

Methods This study selected 24 representative urban parks in Beijing as research sites, covering comprehensive parks, special parks, historic parks, community parks, ecological parks, and nature parks. Field surveys were conducted from July to September 2024, and 624 valid questionnaires were collected. Based on the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) framework and the local characteristics of cultural activities in Beijing parks, ten types of park cultural services were identified: scenic appreciation, religious activities, cultural and traditional activities, physical and mental relaxation, ecological tourism and nature experience, recreational sports, social interaction, scientific education, cultural conservation, and artistic creation. The questionnaire recorded users’ actual expenditure on these cultural services, as well as their socio-demographic characteristics and park-use behaviors. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the overall level and structural characteristics of cultural service consumption; cross-tabulation analysis was used to compare consumption differences among park types; and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to test the relationship between user attributes and consumption behavior. Furthermore, an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model was constructed to identify the effects of park supply factors and surrounding use-context factors on actual consumption.

Results 1) Beijing’s urban parks have established a certain foundation for cultural service consumption, but the overall level of value conversion remains limited and uneven. Of the 624 valid samples, 289 respondents reported actual in-park spending, accounting for 46.31% of the total sample. The average expenditure among users who made purchases was 93.45 yuan, while the average expenditure across all respondents was 43.28 yuan. This indicates that although nearly half of the users engaged in actual consumption, a considerable proportion of park users still did not transform their park experience into direct cultural service consumption. Consumption patterns varied significantly across park types. Comprehensive parks had the highest per-capita expenditure among consuming users (152.94 yuan), yet their participation rate was relatively low, at 38.89%. Historic parks and nature parks had a 100% consumption participation rate, largely related to ticketing systems, but their per capita spending was relatively low, especially in nature parks, where the average expenditure was 44.20 yuan. Community parks showed the weakest consumption performance, with both the lowest participation rate and low consumption amount; Only 12.61% of visitors reported consumption here, with an average expenditure of merely 8.05 yuan. 2) In terms of service categories, actual consumption was highly concentrated. Among consuming users, 55% consumed only one type of cultural service, 33% consumed two types, and only 12% consumed three or more types. Overall, 88% of consuming users were involved in only one or two types of services. Scenic appreciation and social interaction were the dominant consumption categories. By contrast, services such as scientific education, artistic creation, cultural and traditional activities, and ecological tourism and nature experience had relatively limited participation, while religious activities, physical and mental relaxation, and cultural conservation showed no consumption in the sample. This indicates that current cultural service consumption in urban parks is still concentrated on basic viewing and social functions, while other cultural services have not yet achieved effective value conversion. 3) The analysis of user attributes shows that basic sociodemographic characteristics such as gender, age, occupation, education, and income were not significantly associated with total consumption amount. However, differences appeared in specific service categories. For example, visit frequency was significantly related to spending on scenic appreciation and social interaction, with low-frequency users showing higher average consumption. Income level was significantly associated with social interaction consumption, suggesting that higher-income users may have stronger willingness or ability to pay for social and leisure-related services. The regression results further indicate that internal water and wetland area, the number of commercial facilities within the park, and surrounding bus stop density had significant positive effects on actual consumption. Conversely, internal visitor flow, surrounding population density, and internal road density showed significant negative effects, suggesting that high crowd density or excessive spatial fragmentation may weaken users’ consumption experience and willingness to pay.

Conclusion Assessing the value of cultural services in urban parks from the perspective of actual consumption behavior reveals the differentiated effects of park types, service contents, and spatial environmental factors on consumption conversion. The findings suggest that improving the consumption potential of urban parks should not be understood as simple commercialization. Rather, it should be based on maintaining public welfare functions, while optimizing ecological landscape resources, providing appropriate commercial and cultural service facilities, improving accessibility, and expanding higher-value services such as ecological experience, science education, artistic creation, and cultural activities. This study provides empirical evidence and methodological reference for optimizing cultural service provision, stimulating consumption potential, and coordinating public welfare functions with sustainable operation in urban parks under the context of open and shared green space policies.