Age differences in spatial route-finding ability of tourists:A case study of Imam Reza Shrine

Aims: The ability of channeling, having spatial memory and also cognitive maps of the path are considered as the key components for forming spatial ability in route-finding. This issue might vary between different age groups. In the previous literature, the topic of age differences in route-finding has been widely investigated; however, what has been less paid attention to is the role of age differences in route-finding among the society of tourists. In lines with this, the current study makes an attempt to show that whether there is a difference among various age groups of tourists’ societies in the field of spatial ability of route-finding considering the components of sense of direction, spatial memory and spatial cognition. Methodology: For this purpose, the target population includes the tourists vising the surrounding fabric of Holy Shrine of Imam Reza, and by non-probability and simple and convenient random sampling techniques, 100 persons were selected. Independent statistical t-test and ANOVA were used for data analysis. In the process of data analysis, the age groups were categorized into 5 age classes, ranging from 20 years old to more than 60 years old. Finding: The final data analysis and the results obtained showed that there was no significant difference among the age groups of tourists related to the three components explaining the spatial ability of route-finding. Moreover, the paired comparison of age groups did not show a significant difference among the tourists in the field of perceiving the components of spatial ability of route-finding in the surrounding fabric of the holy shrine. Conclusion: Our study highlights the role of age difference in tourist wayfinding spatial ability. In contrast to previous literature, we found that there is no significant difference among age groups in terms of way finding spatial ability indicators.