This study investigated the wayfinding strategy and efficiency. Experiments involving 44 participants (22 Japanese and 22 Taiwanese nationals) were conducted in Tamsui, Taiwan and Yokohama, Japan. Experimental tools included electronic and paper maps. Participants were in an unfamiliar environment, understood environmental information differently, and used different navigation tools. The researchers recorded the participants' walking time, path, and the number of turns from the starting point to the destination. SPSS statistical software was used to conduct one-way and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The findings revealed the following. First, when navigating linear roads and being uncertain about the accessibility of map-presented roads, relative to local participants, foreign participants were more likely to choose roads that were at the exit of the MRT station and take more identifiable roads. Second, all participants used landmarks when navigating intersecting parallel roads, but participants who used paper maps were more likely to use obvious buildings as landmarks. Third, in the wayfinding process, participants who used both electronic and paper maps made more turns when wayfinding in a familiar environment than in an unfamiliar environment. Participants familiar with the navigation tool exhibited a lower walking time.

This study was conducted in the city of Yokohama, which has featured several charming tourist attractions such as Chinatown and old Western-style historical buildings, as the place of study to investigate the difference between tourists using paper maps and those using digital maps in their movement behaviors. And both foreign and local participants were engaged in the study to explore the travel movement effects of participants with diverse experience and backgrounds. This study found that the paper map group traveled fewer repeated roads and had a higher circuitous movement rate in terms of walking distance. In terms of cognitive maps, the number of drafted attractions was larger in the paper map group than in the electronic map group. However, the attraction location accuracy as drafted by the electronic map group was higher than that of the paper map group. In the mirrorimage discrimination test, the paper map group fully recognized more attraction photographs than did the electronic map group. The accuracy of the drafted attraction locations was higher for foreign participants than for local participants. The foreign participants had recognized more photographs than the local participants did.