Is there a way to refactor these if statements?

You can evaluate the north/south and the east/west conditions individually, and glue the directions into your message.

System.out.printf("Travelling %s-%s%n", (yDirection < 0 ? "North" : "South"),
                  (xDirection < 0 ? "West" : "East"));

I assume from the code in your question that you're only concerned about those four complementary directions (not due north, due east, stationary etc.).

If you really want to make it DRY, it can be done using the operator ? but It's neither easy to read nor recommanded. It's used in programming contest where the goal is to go as fast as possible.

It follows the scheme : (Condition?WhatHappenIfConditionIsTrue:WhatHappenIfConditionIsFalse); You can use it in assignment :

int i = (a>0)?a:0;

in that case, if a>0 then i=a, else a=0

In your case, I would do it like that

void printDirection()
{
    System.out.println("Travelling " + (yDirection > 0?"South":"North") + "-" + (xDirection>0?"East":"West"));
}

Some suggestiones: 1. Due to x,y combination; there are five states; you can use enum type to define these status; 2. If you want to reduce if...else statementes in your code, please refer to Status Machine Design Pattern; but i think, under your case, the status is so simple, do not need to make it too complicated

public class Status {

    public enum Direction {
        SOUTH_WEST((x, y) -> y > 0 && x < 0, "Travelling South-West")
        , SOUTH_EAST((x, y) -> y >0 && x > 0, "Travelling South-East")
        , NORTH_EAST((x, y) -> x > 0 && y < 0, "Travelling North-East")
        , NORTH_WEST((x,y) -> x < 0 && y < 0, "Travelling North-West"), CENTER((x,y) -> x == 0 && y == 0, "");

        BiPredicate<Integer, Integer> bp;
        String desc;

        public BiPredicate<Integer, Integer> getBp() {
            return bp;
        }
        public void setBp(BiPredicate<Integer, Integer> bp) {
            this.bp = bp;

        }

        public String getDesc() {
            return desc;
        }
        public void setDesc(String desc) {
            this.desc = desc;
        }
        private Direction(BiPredicate<Integer, Integer> bp, String desc) {
            this.bp = bp;
            this.desc = desc;
        }
        public static Direction getDirection(int x, int y) {
            for (Direction direction : Direction.values()) {
                if(direction.getBp().test(x, y)) {
                    return direction;
                }
            }
            return null;
        }
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Direction d =  Direction.getDirection(3, 4);
        System.out.println(d.getDesc());
        /*      if(d == Direction.SOUTH_WEST){
                    System.out.println("do some thing");
                } else if(d == Direction.SOUTH_EAST){
                    System.out.println("do some thing");
                } else if(d == Direction.NORTH_EAST){
                    System.out.println("do some thing");
                } else if(d == Direction.NORTH_WEST){
                    System.out.println("do some thing");
                }*/
    }
}