Tourist information signs on Austria's motorways

Studies on the significance of notice boards on motorways in Austria

As part of the author's research semester in 2019, the focus was on the perception, memory and behavioural effects of tourist information boards on German motorways. Three different methodological approaches were used for this purpose. On the one hand, guided interviews and memory tests were conducted and, on the other, an online survey. The most important results of the investigations were made available to the public in various ways. These contributions were able to achieve a high media response and enquiries will continue into 2024. As similar signs also exist in other countries, an online survey on the so-called announcement boards in Austria was conducted in 2023.

Problem and objective

After extensive research and information from various institutions, at the time of the online survey in Austria at the end of 2023, there were no studies on the perception, reminder and/or decision support provided by the announcement boards in Austria. The aim of the study was therefore to find out to what extent the announcement boards for cultural sights ("brown" boards) and important tourist destinations ("green" boards) on Austrian motorways are perceived by travellers, to what extent they are remembered and whether this results in decisions. Results on the questions of how many drivers have already left the motorway at least once to spontaneously visit a POI (point of interest) shown and whether they have consciously visited one of the POIs shown later are also considered. The survey also includes, for example, details of the last departure, satisfaction with the announcement boards in Austria and their importance, as well as nine pre-formulated ideas for the future of the announcement boards. The detailed results will soon be published in the book "Touristische Beschilderung in Deutschland und Österreich - Wahrnehmung, Effekte, Entscheidungsverhalten" by UVK-Verlag.

Number of notice boards in Austria

The first step was to research how many announcement boards there are in Austria in total. According to ASFINAG, 525 cultural destinations will be signposted in its route area by the end of 2023. This will take the form of announcement boards (approx. 150 signs) as well as single-line inserts on orientation boards. In addition, 598 tourist destinations are signposted. This is done both in the form of announcement boards and in the form of single-line inserts on orientation boards (cf. Goisser 2023).

Methodology

The survey for the online survey was awarded to bilendi GmbH, which was responsible for creating the filter-guided online questionnaire, which could also be answered via smartphone, recruiting the respondents, conducting the data collection, hosting the questionnaire and data for the entire duration of the survey and delivering the data. The survey period took place from 17 to 22 November 2023. Respondents took an average of around 16 minutes (median: 10 min. 45 sec.) to complete the questionnaire. The population includes German-speaking internet users between the ages of 18 and 75 living in private households who regularly or occasionally use a car and/or motorbike and/or motorhome privately or are a passenger in these and who have travelled on motorways in Austria in the last twelve months. The sample is representative (confidence level: 95%, margin of error: 4%) of the population of Austrian internet users who have a car in their household (n = 613), subject to the restrictions of a quota-based online sample (for more information, see below). The characteristics used to construct the sample were age, gender and origin (by federal state).

Melk Schallaburg Abbey: The most frequently remembered sight on brown plaques in Austria.

Results - Perception

Almost all Austrian respondents stated that they perceive the announcement boards either as drivers and/or co-drivers on motorways. In the case of perception as a driver, the TOP 2 responses ("always" or "mostly") result in 48.4% for the "brown" announcement boards and 49.6% for the "green" announcement boards, meaning that there are hardly any differences. However, every 11th person (8.8%) as a passenger and every 15th person as a driver (6.7%) does not notice the announcement boards for important tourist destinations and cultural sights.

Results - Reminder

Around one in five respondents (20.1%) have driven off a motorway at least once because of the two Austrian notice boards. 8.6% stated that they had done so because of a "brown sign" and 5.2% because of a "green sign". Some of the respondents (6.2%) had been motivated by both tourist information boards.

In Germany, on the other hand, almost one in six respondents (17.1%) had already spontaneously left a motorway at least once because of a tourist information board in order to visit the sight, city or landscape depicted.

In addition to a spontaneous departure, the POIs shown may also have been deliberately visited later or the intention may have arisen to visit them in the future. 5.1% have visited one of the depicted important tourist destinations at least once on a return journey due to a "green sign" and 8.5% have visited a cultural attraction due to a "brown sign". Furthermore, some of the respondents stated that they had visited a POI at a later date - 16.2% for the "green signs" and 22.5% for the "brown signs". Conversely, 58.9% of respondents have never consciously visited a destination seen on the outward journey on the return journey or at an even later point in time.

The potential for future visits is relatively high. Almost two out of three respondents can imagine visiting a POI depicted on an announcement board in the future. However, it should be noted that most respondents answered "yes, possibly" (40.1%). However, some (7.5%) are "quite sure" that they would like to visit an attraction, town or landscape depicted on an announcement board in the future.

Conclusion

The announcement boards in Austria are noticed by almost all test persons and are remembered by most of them, at least to some extent. In addition, various behavioural effects can be observed in the majority. Based on the results, several practical recommendations can be derived, which are formulated in the above-mentioned publication.

In a quota sample, an attempt is made to establish representativeness by constructing the sample in such a way that it correctly reflects known characteristic distributions in the population. The basic assumption is that a sample that reflects known characteristic distributions in the correct proportion should also be representative of unknown characteristic distributions. This assumption is controversial in the scientific debate. As only people with internet access were able to take part in the survey, and of these only people who are members of the panel, certain income brackets, occupational groups or similar could be over- or under-represented. A key argument in favour of the representativeness and applicability of such samples is that they have proven themselves many times in practice and are more economical and faster than random selections. In the present case, a random sample had to be used, as there is no complete list of the population that would have been available for the realisation of a truly representative random selection. Further disadvantages of such quota sampling are described in the literature, such as the effect of self-selection when compiling the panel and the panel effect.