Exploring the Spatial Image of Traditional Villages from the Tourists’ Hand-Drawn Sketches

Abstract

As an important concept in cognitive psychology and behavioural geography, destination spatial image cognition has a significant impact on the quality of tourists’ experience, and on their behavioural intention. However, studies of spatial image cognition in small-scale traditional villages are limited. Therefore, the present study analyses the spatial image characteristics of four traditional villages of World Cultural Heritage sites in China through the use of tourists’ hand-drawn sketches, using a sample of 366 respondents to further explore the evolution process of cognitive map types and constituent elements with tourists’ stay days. Results indicate that the spatial cognitive map and landmarks are the main types and dominant elements of spatial image cognition, respectively. The tourists’ spatial cognitive process includes two sequences, as follows: the evolution sequence of dominant cognitive maps is “spatial + individual → spatial + individual + hybrid → spatial + individual”, while the evolution sequence of dominant cognition elements is “landmark + path + animal and plant → landmark + animal and plant + path”. This study extends the current destination spatial image cognition literature, and has substantial value for the destination in terms of developing traditional village sustainable tourism based on the tourists’ attitude, as obtained by the cognitive map method.

The Legibility Efficacy of Historical Neighborhoods in Creating a Cognitive Map for Citizens

“…In relation to the undeniable role of landmarks and signs in the legibility of urban spaces, the findings of this research are in agreement with those of previous studies in this field [10,50,[69][70][71]91]. However, the use of navigation boards as one of the most important factors affecting legibility is another finding that emerged in the present study from the perspective of the statistical community, which, despite its significance and easy assessment, is usually neglected in research projects.…”

Perception of Spatial Legibility and Its Association with Human Mobility Patterns: An Empirical Assessment of the Historical Districts in Rasht, Iran

“…Consistent with previous studies [ 38 , 49 , 96 , 97 , 98 ], landmark was identified as the most important physical element affecting the subjective aspect of spatial legibility disseminated by Kevin Lynch [ 27 ]. In addition, three major criteria, including historical monuments , vernacular elements , and socio-economic centers such as traditional bazaars were found to possess an overwhelming impact on the creation of cognitive maps.…”

“…Additionally, a wide range of studies have been conducted in order to evaluate the role of legibility in urban spaces using the Space Syntax method [ 6 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ]. Moreover, a set of studies have been focused on the role of spatial cognition using sketch drawings [ 25 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 ]. In addition, in order to attain a suitable method towards assessing the movement patterns of people in urban spaces, a number of studies have culminated their works using time-lapse methods [ 55 , 56 , 57 ].…”

Relevance between Tourist Behavior and the Spatial Environment in Huizhou Traditional Villages—A Case Study of Pingshan Village, Yi County, China

“…This technique can accurately identify the spatial elements in the characteristic space of traditional villages through the real scene, and the spatial elements can be divided into five categories: scale, traditional elements, business, landscape elements, and infrastructure. In previous studies, traditional village spatial elements were classified as cognitive elements, including landmarks, paths, flora and fauna, regions, edges, and nodes [79]. In previous studies, the author investigated and sorted out the style and features of traditional villages in Huizhou based on four aspects: residential space, facade form, detailed decoration, and village space [80].…”