Questions/Answers

The UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, published in May 2020, stated that the number of global tourists had constantly increased until the world economy was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Compared to the pre-COVID 19 pandemic statistics of 2019, the number of international tourists nosedived by 73 percent in 2020, with about 400 million fewer people travelling around the world. Such plunge in international tourism caused a severe loss in revenue of the tourism industry in the Republic of Korea, adversely affecting the nation socially, culturally, and economically. In order to facilitate a sustainable recovery of the tourism industry, the exchange of information and ideas started to happen across the private sector and various levels of government, from central and municipal to the smallest administrative unit in South Korea. In 2018, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization selected Busan Metropolitan City to develop a comprehensive and inclusive signage system, as one of the key measures to lessen the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis. Design Council Busan, a public agency responsible for developing urban design projects, cooperated with the city government to formulate a comprehensive information and wayfinding system. The project is now known as “Walk & Discover – Busan Wayfinding Initiative.” The initiative resulted in the development and implementation of a signage system whose objectives include: first, developing an inclusive wayfinding system that does not exclude any vulnerable groups; second, helping visitors make quick and reasonable decision in wayfinding; and third, optimizing the use of various tourism resources. Busan wayfinding initiative supports the tourism industry to emerge more sustainable and stronger from the COVID-19 crisis.

We believed that good signage design is something shared and enjoyed by as many people as possible. Whether or not one is female or male, elderly or young, Korean-speaking or non-native speaking, any visitor to Busan can make a quick and easy decision on walking and public transport. Signs created and installed under the initiative were sorted into five types in accordance with the purpose of wayfinding. Accurate and vital information on tourist attractions and wayfinding is available in various digital formats, i.e. media kiosks, applications for mobile devices, downloadable suite of maps available online via Busan Tourism Organization’s website.

The tourist sector can contribute to the fulfillment of all Sustainable Development Goals. Above all, Busan Wayfinding Initiative supports and describe SDGs 11 and 16. SDG 11: tourism can be a powerful tool for community development for it advances urban infrastructure and universal accessibility. In this regard, the initiative adopted the universal design principles so that the signs developed under the initiative prevent any discrimination against physical disabilities and gender. For instance, the wayfinding system uses gender-neutral pictograms and adopted inclusive color palettes for the color blind. SDG 16: tourist activities involve countless encounters among people of diverse cultural backgrounds. In this regard, the tourist sector can foster multicultural understanding and tolerance, and lay the foundation for more peaceful societies. For instance, a family of new signage created under the initiative is provided in four languages – Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese – to lower the linguistic barrier against the foreign-born or non-Korean speakers. Furthermore, all proper nouns, i.e. name of a landmark or point of interest, written on signs were transliterated in Latin script in compliance with the Revised Romanization of Korean, which facilitates and expedites effective cross-cultural communication.

Providing high quality navigation tools such as effective wayfinding signage certainly increased the use of sustainable transportation, including a change in behavior to park once and walk between destinations. In addition, public transport use considerably increased, and car travel decreased when visitors were given sustainable travel information. This clearly demonstrates that modal shift can be achieved when tourists are made aware of the journey options. Furthermore, the initiative supported the implementation of information digitalization. For instance, the management ledgers for installed signs are now digitalized for the sake of sustainable and effective upkeep.

Before the implementation of the new wayfinding signage system, visitors often found themselves perplexed by inconsistent and inaccurate tourist information, creating a barrier for the users. Since the launch of the initiative, however, the city has been developing and installing an extensive multi-modal wayfinding strategy across its system of rail, subway and bus routes. Moreover, the initiative is essential to spurring the process of changing tourism data into a digital form that can be easily read and processed by a user. For example, a new sign was assigned a distinctive reference number based on its informational function, the installed location, and its structural appearance. Each district where a sign is located maintains a digitally unified management ledger, which enables an individual district to promptly deal with a tourist complaint and to easily provide continuous content updates.

All pictograms summarizing tourist information and data abide by the regulations and rules of the International Organization for Standardization and the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards. A few pictograms were independently developed by Design Council Busan. Any human figure icons were designed to eliminate gender distinctions.

Design Council Busan first created a “visitor persona” regardless of physical disability and nationality and conducted ethnographic research workshops participating by tourists from home and abroad. Based on the results of these ethnographic workshops, researchers constructed various visitor personas and planned a tour itinerary from the customers’ point of view. Each itinerary consisted of 5 phases as follows: first, wayfinding information on greater metropolitan area; second, wayfinding information on a specific district area; third, wayfinding information on walking in general; fourth, wayfinding information on pedestrian directional; and lastly, wayfinding information on destination confirmation. Consistency and uniformity of design in the pedestrian wayfinding system helped increase the identification and legibility of signs, enabling workshop participants to better explore the events and attractions of the city. A workshop participant then provided feedback in each phase to be analyzed for an individual persona type, which optimized the effectiveness of information and wayfinding services.

Design Council Busan conducted preliminary surveys and research as a part of conceptual design process to build a pedestrian wayfinding system. Design layout, color scheme, typefaces, pictogram, and informational content of the previously existing signs were all examined and compared to the survey outcomes and research results, which helped researchers address the key issues of the existing tourist signage system. Ethnographic research was performed on tourists, domestic and foreign, by monitoring their behavior and conducting interviews. In addition, research participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire and to play out a wayfinding simulation scenario. Based on the feedback of the participants and the monitoring results, researchers were able to evaluate how effectively wayfinding information was disseminated and utilized. Once preliminary surveys and research had been completed, Design Council Busan oversaw the entire process of sign fabrication, i.e. creation of conceptual design, manufacturing a prototype, on-site survey of the prospective signage location, identification of land owners of the proposed signage sites, obtaining construction and installation approvals, carrying out a structural safety test on the prototypes, and confirming the quantity of the final products.

Design Council Busan transferred the management of the previously installed signs to a corresponding administrative district of the city upon which each municipal district removed and collected the old signs and information boards. To streamline the process of management transfer, the Council hosted several presentation and review sessions with sixteen municipal districts, and provided them with transfer guidelines to facilitate efficient and safe transfer. In addition, every phase of transfer was made in close cooperation with local design consulting firms and construction companies. Moreover, Design Council Busan have drew up and published specific guidelines regarding design layout, typeface, and color to be used in a new wayfinding system. These guidelines ensured the consistency of graphic design regardless of future content updates. In addition, the management ledgers for installed signs were all digitalized, and thereby, anyone in charge of the maintenance and management of sign can effectively and promptly deal with structural safety emergency.

Service design methodology, including ethnographic and persona-based researches, was employed to discover various latent opinions and ideas of domestic and foreign visitors. The size of a sign was determined by the maximum viewing distance while information and map content of a sign was strategically placed to facilitate the viewing experience of people with disabilities. Moreover, downloadable applications and QR codes assist travelers in connecting with in-depth tourist information sorted by themes and locations.

“Legible London” and “ Walk NYC” are the two best practices that influenced greatly the Busan Wayfinding Initiative. The two aforementioned projects inspired the local policy makers and graphic designers in deciding content hierarchy and overall design layout of wayfinding signage.

All sign poles and stands are equipped with QR codes that automatically link tourists to relevant websites of points of interest and landmarks. In particular, the main web page of the Busan Tourism Organization and Busan National Geopark provide visitors with authoritative and up-to-date information on tourist destinations, themed tours, and other travelers’ review.

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In 2018, Busan Metropolitan City was the first local government to be selected by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), regarding the development of a comprehensive and inclusive signage system, as one of the key measures to boost the tourism industry hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis. Following the footsteps of Busan, Incheon Metropolitan City and Namwon City were selected, in 2022, by the Ministry and KTO as the next city to adopt a new wayfinding system. The experience and know-how the Busan city government and Design Council Busan have been fully shared by Incheon and Namwon, and more local governments will learn from and adopt our wayfinding initiative. As a leader who pioneered a new wayfinding paradigm in Korean context, the city of government and Design Council Busan is well prepared to disseminate our experience and knowledge on the fabrication, installation and removal of wayfinding signs.

As a government-funded project, both national and municipal budgets were injected to Busan Wayfinding Initiative. The central government funds, disbursed through the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, amounted to KRW 816,000,000 (USD 693,300). Additionally, KRW 806,000,000 (USD 684,700) was appropriated for the initiative by the local government, making the total sum of public funds USD 1,378,000. As for the human resource, total of 28 experts took part in the initiative. The human resource was pooled from the Ministry, the city government, Design Council Busan, Busan Tourism Organization, leading figures in academia, local design consulting firms, and construction companies.

Busan Wayfinding initiative will be sustained over time in terms of both finance and administration. Financial funding to maintain and update will be fully appropriated by the metropolitan government of Busan and its sixteen administrative districts. In every fiscal year, the city government and the sixteen administrative districts allocate a specific annual budget for the upkeep of the wayfinding signage system. In institutional terms, the city government, the administrative districts, and Design Council hold a regular review session and closely cooperate to better provide tourism service.

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Upon the implementation of the initiative, Busan Tourism Organization commissioned one of the leading market research firms in the Asia-Pacific to conduct a post-project survey. The survey was developed to measure and understand user satisfaction regarding new wayfinding signs. Based on the evaluation results, the city government determined how to best improve or change the current signage system and will share and transfer the know-how to other regions in Korea who undertake a wayfinding signage project.

The evaluation criteria of the post-project survey were as follow: well-maintained; the extent of damage; legible; non-redundant; easy to use; sufficient, simple, complementary to surrounding landscape; culturally distinctive; consistent; appropriate to be installed; accurate; and overall satisfaction.

The results of the post-project survey clearly demonstrated that the newly installed wayfinding signs were well-maintained. The survey results also showed that the consistency and legibility in design layout and content were significantly improved, compared to the previous tourist signs. However, visitors rated relatively low the following criteria – appropriate place for installation and easy to use. Therefore, when additional signs are installed in the future, further examination and review on whether a new sign is truly necessary and fit well in the surrounding landscape will be required. In case of ‘effectiveness of a wayfinding sign’, many travelers voiced their opinion that mobile search had been the most useful tool in wayfinding. As a result, the city government decided to develop more digital formats to provide detailed information on travel and wayfinding.

As a central government agency in charge of the areas of tourism, culture, art, religion, and sports, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism launched a nationwide public project to improve the existing tourist sign system and selected Busan Metropolitan City as the very first local government to carry out such undertaking. According to the Paragraph 2, Article 11 of the Industrial Design Promotion Act of 2018, concerning the Establishment of Regional Design Centers, the city government of Busan commissioned a wayfinding and signage project to Design Council Busan and the Busan Tourism Organization, two governmental institutions invested ad funded by the local government. Skilled personnel from the two public institutions worked closely together with the civic officials from the Ministry and the city government by holding review sessions and participating in business meetings.

The exchange of information and ideas started to happen across the various levels of government, from central and municipal to the smallest administrative unit in South Korea. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism planned a nationwide wayfinding project and secured the national governmental funding. After winning a bid to obtain the national funding to launch a wayfinding project on a regional level, Busan Metropolitan City developed an execution plan and provided administrative supports for Design Council Busan who, in turn, developed conceptual design of wayfinding signage and sign fabrication. The Busan Tourism Organization conducted preliminary and post-project surveys and evaluation. The sixteen administrative districts of Busan removed the old signs and took charge of the management and upkeep of new wayfinding signs.

The first local government to launch a comprehensive wayfinding signage system, Busan was also designated prestigious “International Tourism City” by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2021, securing additional national funding and administrative supports from the central government. The launch of a new wayfinding system and the designation as International Tourism City helped the city to achieve extra energy and motivation to reinvigorate the tourism industry, one of the hardest-hit sectors of the Korean economy. Throughout the planning and implementation processes, the city learned the importance of collaboration and partnership across the private sector and all levels of government. To retain the success of the wayfinding system and enhance its sustainability, the city will continuously feed latest information and data to the wayfinding signs and other digital wayfinding formats in the most consistent manner. In this regard, we propose the use of technology to assist travelers, meeting the growing expectation that rich and accurate information is available in digital formats. For instance, more downloadable suite of maps will be available online via the Busan Tourism Organization website. More digital kiosks will be placed showing real-time, event-based information on the street, at the airport, hotels and other selected attractions.