A Sustainable Evaluation Method for a Tourism Public Wayfinding System: A Case Study of Shanghai Disneyland Resort

Abstract

The traditional method of designing wayfinding systems has been used in tourism management for decades. However, the absence of quantitative evaluations for the wayfinding system at tourist resorts may affect information transmission and cause visitors to feel lost. This article proposes a quantitative approach and applies it to the wayfinding system at the Shanghai Disneyland Resort from 2017 to 2019, where the layouts and the contents of wayfinding signboards are systematically evaluated. The analytic hierarchy process is used in conjunction with expert advice to rank 11 elements of content design, and four reasonable indices are calculated to explore the spatial–topological relationships at the tourism resort. According to both the field and expert investigation and tourists’ responses to designed questionnaires, the results show that this method containing content and layout evaluation can enhance tourist satisfaction in certain aspects, thus helping to improve tourism management by considering important indices in wayfinding signage design and modification.