Navigating Heritagescapes: a spatial-cognitive mapping approach for optimal tour route recommendations

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The act of navigating is cumbersome in an unfamiliar destination, and in addition, if the destination lacks cohesion, then it is even more complicated to grasp and navigate the routes. Hence, visitors primarily rely on the destination’s spatial information as it aids in enhancing their level of spatial awareness, thereby facilitating better navigation ability. In the context of heritage sites, the navigation ability of the visitors plays a significant role in improving their spatial cognitive ability. However, studies on navigation and spatial-cognitive ability are given less emphasis in the domain of tourism studies. This study attempts to capture the visitor’s ability to navigate within Mahabalipuram, a UNESCO WHS, through the spatial cognitive mapping technique to visualise how visitors with and without spatial orientation establish their relationships between the monuments and reveal their spatial awareness of the heritage site. Destination design framework rooted in behavioural geography domain linked with socio-spatial theory by Lefebvre were instrumented for understanding the mobility pattern of the visitors. The results revealed that both groups had taken different tour routes to explore the heritage site. Further, this paper highlights how visitors’ spatial cognitive awareness contributes to optimal tour route recommendations in World Heritage Sites.