User Preferences for Cartographic Presentation in Tourist Information Search Across Geographic Scales

This study touches upon the issue of searching for tourist information in the context of preferred forms of cartographic presentation in different geographic scales. The main objective of our research was to examine the link between the type of tourist information that is searched for and the graphical level of abstraction, as well as geographic scale. We used the method of the online survey on twelve maps to study users’ preferences in two respondent groups: geographers and sociologists. Based on the map rankings obtained, we have drawn conclusions on the informative value of realistic and conventional sources of tourist information. The study has demonstrated the globalization of social behavior that significantly favors global web map services over other online sources. The most important factor in choosing a map is whether it contains the information the user is currently seeking. It is impossible to clearly indicate a preferred level of abstraction for presenting tourist information at every geographical scale. However, consistently high rankings were observed for maps using pictorial and symbolic signs. The map type preferences of geographers and sociologists were very similar, although geographers showed a slightly stronger preference for maps with conventional symbols. All respondents rated traditional hypsometric maps highly.