engleski

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: the visiting student's perception of Zagreb

The paper deals with the perception of the City of Zagreb from the visiting students’ perspective. The basic hypothesis is that perception of any place is the result of a plethora of interactions, such as those between the physical world, one’s own perspective and experience, city marketing and many others. Mental maps are one of the ways in which the results of such interactions can be studied. A special emphasis in this paper is given to the perceived tourist attractions of the City of Zagreb. The study was conducted on a sample of 50 foreign students, using methods of mental maps and combining it with a questionnaire. In the first map students were asked to draw key objects, streets and areas which they consider interesting/ worth seeing on a blank map. In the second map students were asked to mark city quarters which they find (un)interesting on a map of Zagreb with full street grid. The questionnaire provided us with additional information on students’ perception and experience of Zagreb as a tourist destination. The maps were analyzed using qualitative methods and quantitative methods through GIS modeling, and then linked to the questionnaire which was also analyzed qualitatively and using SPSS software. The final result of the study is an aggregate map of Zagreb showing combined drawings of all the maps. The study demonstrated how much knowledge about Zagreb visiting students acquired during their stay as well as their subjective perception of space as a result of the experience of the City.

Mental maps ; perception ; tourist attractions ; visiting students ; Zagreb

nije evidentirano