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An important resource for small town tourism is maximising the local advantage of natural mineral springs. Only a small international literature exists on the evolution of spa resorts with scant writings for the Global South. For small town South Africa the histories of spa tourism mostly are unrecorded. This article addresses this knowledge gap by investigating the historical development of one spa tourism resort, namely Montagu in the Western Cape. Archival and documentary sources are utilised to analyse the tourism development of this small town from its formal establishment in the early 1850s to the closing apartheid years during the late 1980s. It is shown that Montagu's rise was part of the wider growth of South Africa as a health destination which was anchored upon its assets of climate and mineral springs. The thermal springs of Montagu put the town on the tourist map resulting in its declaration as a health resort and emergence as a popular holiday destination. By the time of the apartheid period Montagu was becoming a more leisure-tourism dominated and a less health focussed destination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the development of ecotourism in the Ulytau Nature Park using innovative Geographi c information systems technologies. The main purpose of the study is to create a favorable and innovative environment for the development of the tourist experience, including the search and discovery of historical sites, the development of optimal routes and infrastructure improvements. The use of GIS maps in ecological tourism contributes to the development of optimal routes, improvement of tourist infrastructure and provision of informative services. The analysis of the study makes it possible to identify recommendations for public and private organizations in the field of using GIS technologies for the sustainable development of ecotourism. The created GIS map provides information about the park's territory, the location of objects and routes, which contributes to a more informative and oriented tourist experience. The experience of working with GIS technologies enhances the ability of tourists to navigate, discover and obtain information about historical sites and attractions in ecotourism and help enrich the tourist experience.

This article analyzes the development of ecotourism in the Ulytau Nature Park using innovative Geographi c information systems technologies. The main purpose of the study is to create a favorable and innovative environment for the development of the tourist experience, including the search and discovery of historical sites, the development of optimal routes and infrastructure improvements. The use of GIS maps in ecological tourism contributes to the development of optimal routes, improvement of tourist infrastructure and provision of informative services. The analysis of the study makes it possible to identify recommendations for public and private organizations in the field of using GIS technologies for the sustainable development of ecotourism. The created GIS map provides information about the park's territory, the location of objects and routes, which contributes to a more informative and oriented tourist experience. The experience of working with GIS technologies enhances the ability of tourists to navigate, discover and obtain information about historical sites and attractions in ecotourism and help enrich the tourist experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Bocas del Toro, Panama, tourists are shuffled on panga boats between Dolphin Bay, Starfish Beach, and Sloth Island in hopes of seeing and photographing those species specifically – one at a time. The aim of this research was to explore the governance of the wildlife tourism industry by gauging tourist satisfaction and assessing the relationship between industry operations and tourist demand. A mixed method approach utilized semi-structured interviews with tour operators (n = 21) and surveys with wildlife tourists (n = 101). Empirical evidence demonstrates that a collectivist organization with de facto ownership/control of wildlife tourism sites has not been effective at self-governing towards a sustainable industry capable of ensuring the well-being of target species and conservation. Communication issues between tourists and guides are also shown to be behind the creation of the de-territorialized and reductionist (and consequentially detrimental) wildlife tourism attraction map. This, along with survey results demonstrating unaddressed demand for providing more education, better wildlife treatment and conservation, together poke holes in the assumption that industry governance might be best steered by global efforts to shift consciousness to include demand for wildlife equity. Findings instead place priority on the need to interrogate the financial incentives that drive industry governance and towards understanding how the profitability of wildlife equity and conservation could be empirically demonstrated to those who control industry operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, many maps produced in the former Soviet Union have become available. However, researchers have focused on topographical maps or those of Western cities produced by the General Staff for military use, and less on maps created by GUGK, the state mapping agency, for domestic purposes, including tourism. By contrast, this paper focuses on maps produced for tourists, whether travelling by private car or on an organized rail or bus tour. The 42 maps reviewed take three main forms: those covering a single administrative region, ranging from an oblast to a Soviet republic; those of a specific tourist area or associated with a literary hero; and strip maps connecting major cities. The paper considers the general design and symbology used on these maps, tracing some of the stylistic changes and developments in the quarter-century prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between October 2019 and August 2020, Beirut underwent an unprecedented sequence of events in its recent history, starting with massive anti-government protests, followed by an economic and financial meltdown, coupled with the Covid-19 pandemic, and ending with an explosion in the port that devastated large parts of the metropolis. As a city-newcomer and urban design student from the Technische Universität Berlin, researching the theme of borders in fragmented cities for my master’s thesis, I was faced with a city-in-flux for 200 days, where mobility restrictions and safety measurements, as impacted by Covid-19, led to the exclusion of field investigation as a primary source of information. Hedging against the limitations imposed, I developed and tested a methodology that involves analyzing tourist maps as an alternative reconnaissance tool for urban designers. On the example of the Beirut port blast area, namely Gemmayze and Mar Mikhael, this study includes the decomposition of three tourist maps of Beirut in order to extract and verify their data and, furthermore, reconstruct the identity and image of the neighborhoods through this secondary resource. The analytical framework brings together the theories of place and space that exist in the different disciplines of spatial studies: social science’s The Production of Space by Lefebvre; urban geography’s Place and Placelessness by Relph; environmental psychology’s The Psychology of Place by Canter; and urban design’s Components of the Sense of Place by Punter and Montgomery. By exemplifying what it means to be a foreigner and a researcher exploring tourist maps in Beirut during this particular time, this article aims to encourage interdisciplinary approaches in urban studies and to critically reflect on atypical and underutilized tools for studying contemporary cities under extraordinary conditions of change.

Hiking is one of the most popular outdoor sports activities in Hungary. Despite not having many mountainous areas, a wide network of hiking trails crosses the country's landscapes. As online tourist maps and thematic mobile applications become more and more popular among hikers, the role of paper-based, analogue tourist maps decreases. However, no thematic application has been issued that contains detailed surveyed (or crowdsourced) data on attractions or the natural circumstances (coverage, difficulty) for a certain area in Hungary yet. Nature tourism in the Bükkalja Region, Hungary is mostly based on geological-geomorphological features that are completed with cultural facilities. The length of the hiking trail system is more than 370 km in the examined 354 km2 large sample area. We have developed an OS mobile application that offers guidance for tourists based on four basic pillars: the physical condition of the trails, the attractions along a trail, dangerous trail segments and hiking trail marking quality. These pillars are visualized with an OpenLayers-based online map. The result is a multi-purpose smartphone application. Its main aim is to offer a planning platform for tourists by examining the difficulty of the trails and designating the attractions to visit. There is information on the most important attractions of the area: cultural and geoscientific sites are also presented. We also encourage users to report changes to the map data content via the crowdsourcing menu. These comments and remarks are continuously checked for validity and the database is modified with the use of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study highlights the significance of the toponyms and their use in time within the Parâng Mountains, their diversity (oiconyms, geomorphonyms, hydronyms, hodonyms, anthroponyms, hileonyms), their preservation or loss over time. An important aspect is the difference between the toponyms on cartographical materials and their location and names assigned by the locals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourist maps are one of the most common groups of cartographic documents. Their variety in terms of content, subject matter and publication titles is a result of growing popularity of diverse forms of tourism activity. The aim of the authors of this article is to demonstrate issues related to tourist maps, including their variety in relation to contemporary forms of tourism. As tourist maps are constantly developing, the authors decided to propose a classification of tourist maps which is adequate from the point of view of the types of maps we currently distinguish. Taking into consideration the aim and type of tourism, the maps were divided into the following sub-groups: maps for sightseeing tourism, qualified tourism, and other tourism, as well as tourist city maps, and maps prepared for promotion and advertising of tourism. The first there categories were further divided into more detailed sub-categories and each of them was described briefly in terms of its content. The classification of maps based on their scales and form of content presentation was also included.

Modern map designe is heavily influenced by the achievements in computer graphics software development. 3D symbols are widely used now in different maps. Such symbols are used very often in the design of various tourist maps. Our research is devoted to the design of the library of 3D symbols used for compilation and design of the Tourist Atlas of Europe.

Conventional paper-based tourist maps are still created and provided by many local tourism organizations, as they have advantages in representing highly detailed and contextual information, although the static medium limits the functions of such maps. To benefit these analog maps from location-aware environments, interactivity, and data feedback from mobile devices, a sustainable ecosystem for local tourist maps is proposed. A low-cost solution for developing mobile tourism applications by providing tools to georeference analog maps and integrate multimedia sightseeing information owned by local tourism organizations is implemented. The processes for analog map georeferencing and content integration, as well as the design principles for mobile tourism applications, are introduced and discussed in detail. In cooperation with college students, university campuses, and local tourism organizations, experimental applications were implemented to evaluate the functionality and usability of the proposed mobile mapping application and the feasibility of the proposed solution. Two published applications are introduced briefly, with preliminary analyses using data donated by application users, which have shown positive contributions to understanding users' behavior and requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural beauties of Eastern Serbia combined with the culture, traditions, food specialties and music, can become a recognizable tourism brand, which could improve the image of this part of Serbia, and that is the reason why Eastern Serbia has been recently discovering its potential for tourism development. The aim of this paper is to analyze the current and potential elements for tourism development of Eastern Serbia's products. Based on the relevant literature and factual situation on the field, the goal is to rank strategies for tourism development on the territory of Eastern Serbia in order to enable better positioning of tourism in Eastern Serbia on the Serbian tourist map. In order to rank tourism development strategies we have used neutrosophic sets. The justification and usability of the proposed approach for the selection of tourism development strategy is demonstrated in the implemented numerical example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complete presentation of a geotourist site requires a description of the location. Some maps are designed exactly for that purpose, but geotourist features may be also found on other tourist maps. After presentation of the general idea of the tourist maps, the main characteristics of these maps (purposes, types and content) are discussed with remarks on geotourism. The principal questions concern the properties of the geological information and the geological information in relation to other subject matters. The number, classes and graphical form of the represented sites are considered from the perspective of cartographical symbolization. The additional content of maps, especially the descriptive part, is also compared. Polish tourist maps are involved as the subject of studies. Some examples, derived from these maps, illustrate the discussed problems. A prior selection was made to compare maps designed in various times and by different publishing houses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the Slovak geosites are not protected by law, but from a scientific and academic point of view many of them are extremely valuable geological objects, which should be maintained for future generations as geological heritage. Within the period of 2008 - 2011 in the scope of the project of Information system of important geosites in Slovakia a database of 480 geosites was elaborated at SGIDŠ. Later on, in 2014, the web application database was developed in the scope of the SGIDŠ project GEOIS. Each record of the database contains geological description of the site in detail, degree and the reason for its protection, location within the tourist map and the geological map at scale 1 : 50,000, graphic documentation in the form of photographs, drawings and contemporary postcards and references. The popular texts are provided both in Slovak and English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental education activities should be organized in order to protect the nature and to increase population awareness in this sense. The present paper aims to achieve this objective, by using Valea Ro.ie Nature 2000 tourist map in print and digital form as an instrument for environmental education activities. These types of graphical and cartographic materials can be efficient means for transmitting information to pupils/students, tourists etc. Also, it can contribute to school curriculum improvement in a moment when many educational institutions have eliminated or drastically reduced environmental education classes and activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the uses of the anamorphic images for transit maps development. Particular focus is given to the elements of the urban transportation network map which comprises of modes of transport including buses, trams and trains. According to the article maps should also present orienting elements such as rivers, mountains or hotels.

A mental map is considered a representation of an individual's spatial cognition. It defines an individual's choice set of plausible activity locations and influences his/her daily activity-travel patterns. Despite its importance, how individuals' activity travel patterns interact with their mental maps on a daily basis is largely unknown, mainly due to data, operation, and measurement issues. The aim of this study is to address this. A total of 57 individuals in Stockholm were asked to record a two-week travel diary and draw their familiar areas in the specified maps. The familiar areas, which in this study are considered as representative of individual mental maps, were manually drawn and transferred from graph to ASCII code in ArcGIS for modelling purposes. The recently visited activity locations were used to construct the individuals' activity spaces. The crucial determinants that related to these activity spaces and familiar areas were investigated. The marginal effect of each key variable was calculated in order to understand the magnitude of influence of each variable to the individuals' activity spaces and familiar areas. The results show that an individual's activity space is partially or completely located within the individual's familiar areas and they are strongly correlated to each other. Large activity centres, such as Stockholm's central areas and areas of Huvudsta have higher probabilities to be included in both individuals' familiar areas and activity spaces than other areas that are closer to home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several everyday cartography applications do not require sharply precise base maps, and in fact benefit from their generalization or deliberate obscuration, such as tourist or transit maps. Additionally, raster data fine enough for a given map scale are not always available. We present a method of creating an impressionistic land cover base map for topographic mapping in which the above two conditions are true, using the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) of the US Geological Survey (USGS). The method is based on reclassification, upsampling, constrained randomization at class boundary edges, and deliberate use of colors with very similar lightness values. The method spans both scientific geospatial data treatment and artistic cartographic design, and both generalizes and enhances the data. The processing, automated in ArcGIS™, is detailed, and examples of the product are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays tourist maps are one of the most popular and familiar type of maps worldwide. As the available data, technological innovations, and human demands are increasing rapidly, it is essential to improve maps that are used for travel purposes in order to succeed better information transmission and communication between the map and the user. This article aims to research the symbolization utilized in online tourist and general-purpose maps that can be used by tourists. In this research framework, a number of available online maps were selected taking into account criteria such as the popularity (downloads and reviews), the portrayal of a variety of POIs, and the map interactivity and were classified into four categories; general-use maps, maps included in on line travel guides, maps produced by National Tourist Organizations, and touristic web applications. In total, fourteen online maps are studied: Google Map, Open Street Map, Bing Map, Maps.me, Sygic Travel Map, Offline Map and maps in travel guide, Roadtrippers, Orange Smile, Visit Norway.com, Visit Esthonia.com, HERE WeGo, France.fr, Search.ch and Welcome to Warsaw. The research focuses on the symbols utilized for the Points of Interest (POIs) portrayed on these maps as they are of great interest to the tourists. POIs address various human activities such as accommodation, transportation, facilities, etc. They can be grouped in general categories: Accommodation, Culture, Gastronomy -- Entertainment, Leisure, Shops, History, Services, Transportation and Healthcare. Subcategories can be also formed based on the POIs type. For instance, the general category "Accommodation" has the following subcategories: guest accommodation, motel, hotel, camping, etc. In Figure 1, one can see the symbols used for "Hotel" on the maps that are examined: After recording the symbols utilized for each subcategory in the selected map sources, the next stage of the study is the selection of various visual variables that can describe the symbols and can be used for the symbol analysis. Each symbol is divided into two main elements the frame and the pictogram. The frame is considered as the closed border around the symbol, whereas the pictogram is considered the graphic symbol inside of the frame. The variables capture the basic hue which is the dominant symbol hue, the existence or not of a frame, the frame outline color, the existence or not of background in the frame, the frame background color, the frame shape, whether the frame shape is pinned, the pictogram shape, the pictogram color and the frame size in desktop and in mobile phones. The frame shape is coded as square, circle, bubble talk, or pin. The pictogram shape description is based on semantic categories created from the symbols e.g. furniture, human activity, edible items, etc. The analysis is based on the cognitive scheme for interpretation of cartographic symbols (MacEachren, 1995; Kuveždić Divjak et al. 2020) but three new elements are added such as whether the frame shape is pinned, the semantic description of the pictogram shape and the basic hue. In Table 1, one can see an example of the analysis of symbols used for the "Hotel" in the selected online maps and the values of the proposed variables. Based on the description of symbols with the selected variables, statistical analysis is applied. Conclusions on the characteristics of the symbols globally and in relation to a specific tourist map, a symbol category or a subcategory are extracted. The results of this analysis record the characteristics of the point symbols that appear on the selected maps and constitute a documentation of modern cartographic practices applied in popular online maps. For example, some characteristics of the "Hotel" symbol based on the majority of the symbols involved in the research are: presented: 1) Basic hue: blue, 2) Existence of frame outline and frame background, 3) Frame outline color: white, 4) Frame background color: blue, 5) Frame shape: circle 6) Pictogram shape: bed. Such statistical analysis refers not only to the variables of each symbol, but also to the map -- sources and to the content categories. The main trends that prevail in the design of these symbols are revealed and are commented in relation to traditional cartographic practices for the design of point symbols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By the representation way, by the manner of selecting the elements represented graphically in a determined natural or administrative area, by the geographic location, the tourist map can have various subjectivism degrees. In the case of the present study, using a methodology tested in the specialty literature, there are analyzed the advantages and disadvantages which can be provided by an orientation and information cartographic material at the level of a tourist resort (Băile Felix) by location and content. Through this analysis and exemplifications, there are provided good and bad practice examples in the tourist planning and organization politics on the promotion and information segment, by placing boards with cartographic material. The objectivity and complexity of such a map changes when it is elaborated for a certain area (public or private) and it represents "by extraction" only certain elements from the same area, excluding the others of the same type. Under such circumstances, a type of selective, subjective and exclusive map is created. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourist maps of a given destination offer information to tourists on its geographical environment and tourist sites of interest. This sort of information service is important for tourists unless they are very familiar with their destinations. This study mainly concerns with tourists' satisfaction with this geographical and touristic information service which has been neglected in the existing literature. The study, using Macau as a case, was designed to explore tourists' evaluation of tourist maps and the determining factors of the overall satisfaction, which were mainly involved in the content and design of tourist maps. The control variables including demographics and trip features were also examined. It was found that respondents were, in general, satisfied with the tourist map they used for sightseeing; however, their attitudes towards various elements of map content and design differed. These attitudes reflected by the data have implications for tourist map design and distribution in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The history of Hawai'i's relationship with the United States is marked by continued attempts on the part of the islanders to renegotiate Hawai'i's place in the American political imagination. In three separate instances, those efforts took cartographic shape. In 1876, with the Kingdom of Hawai'i beginning to feel the leading waves of US imperialism, the kingdom sent a modern, scientific map to the Centennial World's Fair in Philadelphia, making an argument for Hawaiian sovereignty. In 1893, with the question of annexation on the table after the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, haole insurrectionists endorsed a map depicting the islands' proximity to and reliance on the United States - a map that showed the indigenous Hawaiian peoples as barbarous and unable to rule themselves without Western intervention. And in 1937 the Hawaiian Pineapple Company (Dole) commissioned a tourist map of the territory that sought to tame Hawai'i in the mainlanders' imagination even as the islands' business leaders began their first serious push for statehood. These three maps, set alongside each other, demonstrate a long and contested discussion between the islands and the mainland about how the United States understood Hawai'i and Pacific politics: a cartographic conversation that remained thematically consistent across multiple iterations of Hawaiian governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glaciers in Lake Baikal Area were plotted on topographic and tourist maps, but often big perennial snow patches were designated as glaciers. A special study of these entities to classify them in one group or another was necessary. Recently published data of remote sensing (satellite images) of high resolution allow distinguishing a variety of snow and ice objects (accurate to 0.5 m). In identifying sustainable nival-glacial formations it was necessary to measure the characteristic parameters of these objects and their boundaries using topographic maps, satellite images, and GPS devices. The GIS project and the database of nival-glacial formations for the quantitative analysis of the accumulated information have been created. The glaciers of mountain ridges of East Siberia significantly reduced in thickness for the last decades, and their abrupt degradation is manifested in the last 5-10 years. The main glaciers of the Barguzinskiy ridge decreases with 0.002 km year that is comparable with the reduction rate of the glaciers of the Eastern Sayan ridge, but is less than of the representative of the Kodar ridge the Azarovoy glacier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study identifies and maps forest-based ecotourism areas in West Virginia by incorporating visitors' preferences. Relative weights for ecotourism destination criteria were obtained using the Analytic Hierarchy Process based on a survey of 777 participants. The study classified the state into five levels of naturalness with areas under Class I being the least natural and Class V being the most natural. The presence of wildlife was found to be the most important criterion and slope was found to be the least. Results also showed significant variations in visitors' preferences. Areas under Class IV and Class V in both weighted and unweighted ecotourism maps covered more than half of the state's area, suggesting high prospects for promoting forest-based ecotourism in the state. The results further showed that each class changed in size when visitors' preferences were applied. The ecotourism maps created provide useful insights for visitors, destination managers, and decision makers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Tourist maps are designed to direct tourists to tourist attractions in unfamiliar areas. A well-designed tourist map can provide tourists with sufficient and intuitive information about places of interest. Thus, providing up-to-date information on places of interest and selecting their representative icons are fundamental and important in automatic generation of tourist maps. In this article, approaches for determining places of interest and for determining their representative icons are introduced. In contrast to general digital tourist maps that use text, simple shapes, or three-dimensional models, we use photos that offer abundant visual features of places of interest as icons in tourist maps. The photos are automatically extracted from a repository of photos downloaded from photo-sharing communities. Tourist attractions and their corresponding image icons are determined by means of photo voting and photo quality assessment. Qualitative analyses, including a user study and experiments in several areas with numerous tourist attractions, indicated that the proposed method can generate visually pleasant and elaborate tourist maps. In addition, the analyses indicated that the map produced by our method is better than maps generated by related methods and is comparable to hand-designed tourist maps. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Amount and diversity of thematic maps published in Lithuania nowadays is mostly due to various tourist maps. Such maps naturally are in great demand, though the quality of communicated information is not always satisfactory. Systems of cartographic signs for tourist maps are often designed without considering the final user and what has to be done in order to improve visual rendering of geographic and attribute information so that all signs in a map are not only informative but also easily and comfortably readable, correctly interpreted and memorised for a long time. Until recent years few or none investigations into perception of cartographic signs were performed in Lithuania. This paper is an attempt to define the main trends of investigation into usability aspect of icon signs, taking tourist maps as example because of their variety, importance and feedback information. Usability of a sign as a whole and perception of the main graphic attributes of it ought to be tested in different groups of users, always considering the impact of the context. A test of recognition of tourist maps’ signs is described as a case study. The results show that it is possible to get statistically reliable answer to the relationship between of particular icon signs and their recognition. Textual and graphic symbols were recognised best, while increasing graphic similarity to the represented object does not improve recognition beyond this group of signs. Thus realistic drawings and photographs are not recommended to use in general tourist maps at all. Difference in recognition of signs was observed between men and woman, whereas difference between younger and elder people was not significant. Article in Lithuanian Turistinių žemėlapių ženklų sistemų pragmatinis aspektas: ženklų atpažinimas Santrauka. Lietuvoje išleidžiama daug ir įvairios teminės kartografinės produkcijos. Ypač didelę teminių žemėlapių dalį sudaro įvairi turistinė kartografinė medžiaga. Nors jos paklausa didelė, tačiau informacijos perdavimo kokybė toli gražu ne visada esti nepriekaištinga. Sudarant ženklų sistemas kol kas mažai galvojama apie būsimą žemėlapio naudotoją bei kaip pateikti informaciją, kad žemėlapio ženklai būtų informatyvūs, greitai bei teisingai suvokiami vizualiai ir gerai įsimenami. Lietuvoje kartografinių tyrimų ženklų suvokimo problemoms spręsti iki šiol nebuvo atliekama. Straipsnyje bandoma nubrėžti svarbiausias turistinių žemėlapių pragmatikos tyrimų kryptis pagal naudotojų grupes ir ženklų ypatybes. Aprašomas pirmasis bandymas tirti žemėlapiuose naudojamų ženklų atpažinimo ypatumus. Rezultatai leidžia teigti: ikoninio sutartinio ženklo panašumas į žymimą objektą ir raiškumas negarantuoja, kad toks ženklas įsimenamas lengviau. Geriausiai atpažįstami tekstiniai ir simboliniai ženklai; be to, vyrai ir moterys ženklus atpažįsta skirtingai. Remiantis tyrimo rezultatais pateikta rekomendacijų turistinių žemėlapių sudarytojams. Raktažodžiai: sutartiniai ženklai, teminė kartografija, turistiniai žemėlapiai, vizualizavimas, ženklų semiotinė analizė, vizualinis suvokimas, atpažinimo testai.

This paper presents the findings of research carried out by the author, concerning the development of tourist function in the period 1995-2005. Tourist function was defined by means of two features: the number of tourists using lodging facilities and the number of companies registered in the REGON system, section H. In order to quantify the tourist function, a synthetic measure (Ft) was employed according to the procedure of Z. Zioło (1973). Based on this measure, five levels of tourist function development were specified. Next, an analysis was carried out on what changes (quantitative and spatial) occurred in the development of tourist function in rural areas. Special attention was paid to the so-called tourist communes (gmina), i.e. those where the tourist function is developed to at least an intermediate level. For these communes, nine functional types were identified, based on two features - the average length of visitors' stay and the percentage of all-year lodging). Moreover, changes taking place in the studied period were specified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of this article is the first extant topographical engraving of Meteora, the second largest monastic complex in Greece and one of the most spectacular landscapes in the world. This late eighteenth-century print combined cartographic principles with techniques traditionally used in Byzantine painting, which situates it within a broader vernacular Greek cartographic tradition. It can also be considered a mental map of the region as envisaged by eighteenth century monks, as well as a tool for advertising the region and its monasteries at a time of political and financial distress. As with any map, the engraving simultaneously concealed and revealed, masking difficult terrestrial conditions while showing pathways to heaven. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Although satellite imagery was a secondary product of the Space Race, it had a major military importance. In the socialist countries, all the state topographic maps and aerial photographs were classified, and the maps produced for public use (tourist maps and city maps) were generally distorted. There was only a limited relationship between the two parts the world; therefore, collecting information on the other side became important. Hungary was a part of the Soviet block at that time, but we had practically no access to the Soviet satellite images. Hungary established its state/scientific institutes on space sciences and cooperated with Soviet institutions, but the real use of satellite images only started when the Landsat images became available. As Hungary was a very well-mapped country, the satellite images were not necessary for the state topographic maps. However, they were useful to monitor certain problems of agriculture, floods or to map natural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]