A tourist sign, often referred to as a brown sign, is a

traffic sign Traffic signs or road signs are signs erected at the side of or above roads to give instructions or provide information to road users. The earliest signs were simple wooden or stone milestones. Later, signs with directional arms were introduc ...

whose purpose is to direct visitors to tourist destinations, such as

historic buildings This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and human-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In man ...

, tourist regions, caravan or camp sites, picnic areas, sporting facilities or museums. By international convention brown signs with white lettering and white pictograms are often used for this purpose. In the mid-1970s tourist signs were introduced in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. Since that time the idea of directing tourists to sights and attractions using a uniform type of signage has spread around the world. In Germany these tourist signs were first used in 1984. It is not clear which of the two signs, to the Löwensteiner Berge or to Burg Teck, was first erected there.

Usage

Tourist signs have three main applications: * as information signs and signposts that point to important tourist destinations or places of interest in a specific area, such as within a village or a town; * as standard signs used to mark tourist or

holiday route A scenic route, tourist road, tourist drive, scenic byway, or holiday road is a specially designated road or waterway that travels through an area of natural or cultural beauty. It often passes by Scenic viewpoint, scenic viewpoints. The designat ...

s with special themes; or * to herald the presence of nearby landscapes, towns and regions, usually on long-distance routes such as motorways.

Design

In many countries the design and use of tourist signs is laid down in order to ensure a uniform appearance. In addition to their typically brown and white colours, they use

sans serif In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif (), gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than ...

fonts that are easy to read. In order to improve their usefulness for tourists dual languages may be used. The pictograms employed are designed to be simple and meaningful, and are not multi-coloured. In some countries, such as the UK, the pictograms are standardised; though there are still signs which employ the use of non-standard pictograms, such as for the

National Space Centre The National Space Centre is a museum and educational resource covering the fields of space science and astronomy, along with a space research programme in partnership with the University of Leicester. It is located on the north side of the city ...

Criticism and reception

Critics complain that tourists signs contain too much information and distract motorists from concentrating on the road. The number of tourist signs continues to grow and less significant destinations are increasingly being signed. A study carried out at Harz University of Applied Sciences in 2019 found that one in six motorists on German freeways had already spontaneously visited a destination advertised on a tourist information board. Around two thirds could also recall specific contents of individual information boards.Tourismusmarketing: Spontane Abstecher von der Autobahn
vom 28.02.2020, absatzwirtschaft.de

References

External links

''Touristic signage on German Autobahns: Perception and reception of touristic roadside signage''
Study published by Harz University in 2020
''Zeichen 386 Touristischer Hinweis''
("Sign 386 - Tourist Information") - Tourist signs in the German Road Traffic Act)
''Die braun-weißen Hinweisschilder an der Autobahn kennt jeder - ihre Schöpfer nicht''
("Everyone Knows The Brown and White Signs on the Autobahn...") at www.leo.tu-chemnitz.de
''Tourist Signs in Great Britain''
{{in lang, en
Experience Guide
free audio guide app to the brown signs along the motorways in Germany (currently available for BW, HE, NRW, BAY) Traffic signs Tourism

Usage

Design

Criticism and reception

See also

References

External links