The design of tourist maps. Creating spaces for travellers

Abstract

The present thesis deals with tourist maps. Although tourist maps are used by many people, there is a lack of research in this topic. There are no greater studies about existing tourist maps and there is also not much literature which claims how to design such maps. Present studies about tourist maps are always done from cartography’s point of view. Studies dealing with tourist maps from tourism’s point of view are missing. Therefore, one main aim of this thesis is to evaluate the quality of existing tourist maps. For this evaluation, technical literature about cartography and also tourism will be analysed. With the help of technical literature, design norms for tourist maps can be determined. After that, the design norms from literature are compared to existing tourist maps. Thus, it can be seen which cartographic rules are used in practice and which not. It will also be make clear which rules are maybe obsolete and which ones need to be followed in any case to make maps understandable. The thesis also shows how tourist maps can support spatial planning or how they can be of use in cities and areas which are affected in a negative way by mass tourism. The final aim of this thesis is to give design recommendations for tourist maps. These recommendations can be used for further production of tourist maps.