INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH Int J Tourism Res 13, 511–526 (2011) Published online 30 November 2010 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/jtr.818 Segmentation by Genres: the Case of the Aardklop National Arts Festival Martinette Kruger1,*, Melville Saayman1 and Suria Ellis2 Institute for Tourism and Leisure Studies, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa Statistical Consultation Service, North West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to distinguish between genre supporters and non-genre supporters at the Aardklop National Arts Festival This was done to determine genre supporters’ individual needs and wants so that effective marketing strategies can be developed and the festival programme can be designed to attract more genre supporters Previous research indicated that the future of festivals is dependent on the number of show tickets sold and festivals therefore need to attract more genre supporters To achieve this goal, a questionnaire survey (N = 495) was conducted, where afterwards independent t-tests were used to determine the differences between visitors who attend the different ticketed shows/productions and those who not Results showed that genre attendees and non-attendees differ significantly based on socio-demographic and behaviour characteristics, which gave a comprehensive profile of the two types of visitors at the festival This method proved to be successful especially in increasing ticket sales Marketing and management implications for effectively targeting genre supporters were also indicated Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd *Correspondence to: M Kruger, Institute for Tourism and Leisure Studies, School for Business Management, NorthWest University (Potchefstroom Campus), Private Bag X6001, Potchefstroom 2520, South Africa E-mail: 13018493@nwu.ac.za Keywords: genre segmentation; t-test analysis; festivals; market profile Received November 2009; Revised 18 September 2010; Accepted 11 October 2010 INTRODUCTION T he aim of this research is to determine whether there are significant differences between visitors who attend the different types of shows/productions (genres) at the Aardklop National Arts Festival (hereafter referred to as Aardklop) and those that not This will be done for the following two reasons: first, launched in 1998, Aardklop is one of three largest South African arts festivals It is held annually in the town of Potchefstroom, situated in the North West Province The aim of the festival is preserving and enhancing the Afrikaans language and culture, as well as to meet the need for an arts festival in the northern part of the country (Van Heerden, 2003, pp 11–12; Van Zyl and Strydom, 2007, p 127) Second, from an economic point of view, an estimated 100 000 people visit the festival annually over five days in September, generating over R46 million in 2008 for the region (Kruger et al., 2008, p 29) According to Quinn (2006, p 288), festivals such as Aardklop can provide an effective vehicle for sustainable tourism as it reduces seasonality by extending the tourist season (Nicholson and Pearce, 2000, p 237) The latter is especially important in a country such as South Africa, where the growth and diversity in festivals creates high levels of competition Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 512 M Kruger, M Saayman and S Ellis (Nicholson and Pearce, 2000) However, the ticket sales in 2008 show a slight decline (see Figure 1) compared with previous years, indicating that Aardklop is moving into the decline phase of its product life cycle This has a serious impact on the future profitability and sustainability of festivals in the country (Le Grange, 2003, p 56) Koc and Altinay (2007, p 228), Lee and Beeler (2009, p 17) and Uys (2003, p 13) stated that developing and sustaining competitive advantage in competitive tourism (festival) markets largely depends upon understanding visitors in terms of who buys what, when, why, where and how through the process of market segmentation According to Kruger (2009, p 3), to sustain the nature of the festival it is important to identify and attract the visitors who attend ticketed productions/shows since these visitors stay longer and spend more than those who not (Thrane, 2002, p 281; Saayman and Saayman, 2006, p 220; Kruger et al., 2008) To achieve the aim of this research, the article is structured in the following manner: a literature review is followed by a description of the survey and a discussion of the results and, finally, the implications and the conclusions LITERATURE REVIEW Market segmentation is widely considered to be at the very heart of marketing (Morgan and Pritchard, 2001, p 153) and an indication that markets and the individuals who make up such markets, are not homogenous and therefore, no single market offering will satisfy all individuals (Cooper and Wahab, 2001, p 88; Dibb et al., 2001, p 205; Fill, 2006`, p 329; Cook et al., 2010, p 39; Tkaczynski and RundleThiele, 2010, p 6) Morgan and Pritchard (2001, p 153) and Thompson and Schofield (2009, p 1) add that market segmentation maximizes market demand by directing marketing efforts at what is regarded as economically significant groups of visitors Added benefits of market segmentation include an ability to predict visitor behaviour, an improved ability to identify and exploit new market opportunities for commercial benefit, and more focused ideas for product development (Heok et al., 1996; Jang et al., 2002, p 20; Middleton et al., 2009, p 98) Segmentation further enables marketers to avoid direct competition in an increasingly crowded marketplace because it provides opportunities to distinguish their particular product (festival), perhaps on the basis of price, but more often through styling, promotional appeal and festival programme/packages (Morgan and Pritchard, 2001, p 153; Cook et al., 2010, p 40) The process therefore allows for easier choices about the most appropriate visitors to serve, and making the best of limited resources (Dibb and Simkin, 2001, p 609; Hoyle, 2002, p 178) 94000 92000 91156 90000 88567 TICKET SALES 88000 86000 85532 84000 84559 82655 82000 81022 80000 79530 78000 76000 74000 72000 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 YEAR Figure 1: Porduct lifecycle measured in ticket sales Source: Kruger, Saayman & Saayman 2008:26 Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd Int J Tourism Res 13, 511–526 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr Segmentation by Genre According to research undertaken by Mayfield and Crompton (1995), festival organizers not undertake thorough visitor-orientated research, believing in their own ability to know what their visitors want, or are lacking in the resources to research Frisby and Getz (1989, p 7) warn that all tourism products, including events/festivals, go through successive stages of growth, and therefore their programme/ product must also respond to changes in demand It is, according to Mayfield and Crompton (1995), crucial to know and understand the underlying desires of the visitors to attend a festival or event, if the festival programme is to meet their needs and wants With market segmentation, changes can be determined and this will assist festival marketers and organizers in selecting the right target market and providing a relevant programme (Jang et al., 2002, p 19) The more detailed the knowledge of each visitor, the closer the festival marketers can get to a customized offering that creates greater satisfaction and long-term visitor relationships (Ali-Knight et al., 2004, p 136) According to Jang et al (2002, p 19), one of the most common ways of identifying the right target market is to profile the segments of the total market, as profiling helps by distinguishing the attitudes, behaviours, sociodemographics, travel planning patterns and trip-related characteristics of travel market segments Researchers have experimented with a wide range of market segmentation applications in an effort to define or profile their target markets (Hsu and Crotts, 2006, p 280) The most popular variables or bases for visitor segmentation include the geographic (nations, states, provinces, regions, counties, cities or neighbourhoods), demographic (age, language, family size, family life cycle, gender, religion, race, generation and nationality), socio-economic (income, education, occupation, and social class), psychographics (psychological/personality traits, lifestyle, travel motivation or values) and behavioural characteristics (occasions, benefits, user status, usage rate, loyalty status, buyer readiness stage, attitude and visitor expenditure) (Mouthinho and Witt, 1994, p 306; Dibb and Simkin, 1996, p 14; Youell, 1996, p 138; Kara and Kaynak, 1997, p 873; Burke and Resnick, 2000, p 41; Cooper Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 513 and Wahab, 2001, p 89; Horner and Swarbrooke, 2001, p 159; Armstrong and Kotler, 2005, p 54; Fill, 2006, p 329; Hanlan et al., 2006, p 17; Bothma and Burgess, 2007, p 37; Page and Connell, 2009, pp 94–97; Cook et al., 2010, pp 38–44) Although these variables have been recommended as viable segmentation bases, researchers seem to agree that there is no single ideal segmentation base that fits every situation (Jang et al., 2002, p 367; Morrison, 2002) Authors such as Morrison et al (1996), Loker and Perdue (1992) as well as Jang et al (2002, p 367) have suggested that behaviour or benefit segmentation is one of the best segmentation variables The rationale behind this segmentation approach is that benefits sought by visitors are the fundamental reasons for the existence of true market segments and they determine the visitor’s behaviour much more accurately than other descriptive variables such as demographic and geographic characteristics It is therefore suggested that behaviour segmentation is used in combination with other socio-demographic and geographic variables Frochot and Morrison (2000) and Ahmed et al (1998) furthermore argue that benefit segmentation is most helpful in designing and modifying facilities and attractions, vacation (festival) packaging, activity (festival) programming and service quality measurement One of the most important behaviours of festino’s is the number of tickets purchased as well as the type of shows/productions (genres) attended The reason being that research by Kruger (2009) and Kruger et al (2009) revealed that ticket sales and the genres attended can be used as an indicator of visitor interest in a festival and how successfully the programme addresses and fulfils visitors’ needs Ticket sales are also directly linked to the product life cycle of the festival (as shown in Figure 1) and are furthermore the festivals’ primary source of income Therefore, it is crucial for the festival to sustain its growth in ticket sales by attracting more genre supporters since these ‘festival junkies’ seem to be the most viable and profitable target market (Saayman and Saayman, 2006, pp 218–219; Kruger, 2009) Based on this, Figure illustrates that there are two possible types of visitor attending the festival: those that buy tickets (ticket show Int J Tourism Res 13, 511–526 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr 514 M Kruger, M Saayman and S Ellis Event/ Arts Festival Ticketed show visitors Non-ticketed show visitors Attend a variety of genres: • • • • • • • • • • • Drama Dance theatre Word art & Poetry Children’s’ theatre Theatre discussions Music theatre & cabaret Classical music Choir & Ensemble Rock Visual arts & exhibitions Comedy Contributes highly to the sustainability of the festival Attend a smaller variety of genres Will mainly attend (free) music shows Small contribution to the sustainability of the festival Figure Event/Arts festival markets visitors) and those that only attend free shows (non-ticket show visitors) The ticket show visitors attend a variety of shows/productions at the festival and therefore contribute greatly to the sustainability of the festival The nonticket show attendees, on the other hand, are limited in terms of what is free — which are mostly music shows From a marketing point of view, it is important for the festival marketers/organizers to keep the main aim of the festival (to preserve and enhance the Afrikaans language and culture) in mind when targeting these visitors Considering the latter as well as the importance of increasing ticket sales, this study has three research questions: (i) is there a difference between the profiles of ticketed show visitors and non-ticketed visitors; (ii) what are the differences; and (iii) how does this impact on the festival organizers? METHOD OF RESEARCH For the purpose of this article, the data obtained in 2008 will be used The method of research used will be discussed under the following Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd headings: (i) the questionnaire and (ii) data analysis The questionnaire The questionnaire used to survey visitors to Aardklop in 2008 consisted of four sections Section A captured demographic details (gender, home language, age, occupation, home province and preferred accommodation) as well as spending behaviour (number of persons paid for, length of stay and expenditure of visitors on different spending components) The spending questions were detailed by spending category, including accommodation, shows, food and beverages, shopping, recreation and transport Section B captured all the information with regard to the festival (type of shows at the festival, the number of tickets bought, other festivals attended and the number of years attended), while Section C focused on the visitors’ specific motivations for attending Aardklop, as well as the preferred type of accommodation and media Similar to the spending questions, the type of shows Int J Tourism Res 13, 511–526 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr Segmentation by Genre (genres) at the festival were also categorized and included: drama, dance theatre, word art and poetry, children’s theatre, theatre discussions, music theatre and cabaret, choir and ensemble, rock, visual arts and exhibitions and comedy Section D measured the respondents’ evaluation of certain aspects of the festival For the purpose of this article, the information obtained from sections A, B and C was predominantly used In total, 495 questionnaires were completed over a period of five days (30 September to October 2008) by means of availability sampling According to Cooper and Emory (1995, p 207), for any population of 100 000 (N), the recommended sample size (S) is 384 Because a total of 55 518 visitor groups attended Aardklop in 2008 (Kruger et al., 2008, p 27), the number of completed questionnaires is greater than the required number of questionnaires All questionnaires were completed at the Main Festival Grounds and various venues in Potchefstroom, where fieldworkers moved around to minimize bias Microsoft© Excel© (Microsoft Office Professional by Microsoft) was used for data capturing Most questions have multiple choice responses or were answered on a five-point Likert scale The socio-demographic and behavioural determinants used in the analysis are described in Table Section C of the questionnaire measured visitor’s motives to attend Aardklop Nineteen items were measured in the motivation section on a five-point Likert scale and respondents were asked to indicate how important they considered each item on the scale (1 = not at all important; = less important; = important; = very important; and = extremely important) The motivation factors, as indicated by Kruger et al (2009), included in the t-test analysis are also displayed in Table below Factor scores were calculated as the average of all items contributing to a specific factor, and results indicated that Escape was the most important motive for visitors to attend Aardklop This was consistent with research done by Lee et al (2004, p 66) and De Guzman et al (2006, p 864–865) This was followed by Festival productions/shows and Festival attractiveness Family togetherness and Exploration received the lowest mean scores and were therefore not central motives to attend the festival (Kruger et al., 2009) Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 515 Statistical analysis The analysis of data in this study consisted of two stages First, a general profile of visitors to Aardklop was compiled with the help of SPSS (SPSS Inc., 2007) Second, independent t-tests were used to compare the mean scores between visitors who attend ticketed productions/ shows and those who not Each genre was compared separately to determine whether there are statistically significant differences between show attendees and non-show attendees in terms of demographical variables (age) as well as behavioural variables (group size, number of people paid for, length of stay, number of tickets bought, free shows attended, expenditure per person, other festivals attended and travel motives, as indicated in Table 1) Cohen’s d values were also calculated as a measure of the effect size as this will provide an indication of the magnitude of the differences between the two groups Guidelines for interpretation of the effect size are d = 0.2 indicates a small effect, d = 0.5 indicates a medium effect and d = 0.8 indicates a large effect (Steyn, 2009) RESULTS The results will be discussed in two sections First, an overview of the profile of visitors to the Aardklop National Arts Festival will be presented Second, the results of the t-test will be discussed separately for each genre Visitor profile to Aardklop National Arts Festival Based on the results captured and displayed in Table 2, more visitors are female, predominantly Afrikaans-speaking, with an average age of approximately 41 years and they originate mainly from Gauteng and North West provinces Furthermore, the largest group of visitors are in a professional occupation; on average, are financially responsible for approximately two persons during their visit and stay an average of approximately three days and three nights in Potchefstroom Visitors purchase an average of five tickets and mostly attend comedy, drama and music theatre and cabaret productions Visitors are loyal to the Int J Tourism Res 13, 511–526 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr 516 M Kruger, M Saayman and S Ellis Table Questions used and their descriptions Category Socio-demographics Behavioural characteristics Travel motives Question description Coding Variable Age Group size Number of people paid for Number of days Number of nights Number of visits to KKNK Number of free shows attended Factor 1: Festival productions / shows Quality productions Variety of productions Ticket prices are reasonable Factor 2: Family togetherness To the benefit of my children To buy arts To spend time with family Factor 3: Exploration To explore the environment To meet new people Aardklop is different to other festivals Factor 4: Escape To relax To get away from my routine To spend time with friends Sociable festival Factor 5: Festival attractiveness To support the food stalls To support the stalls To see well-known performers It is primarily an Afrikaans festival It is an annual commitment It is the closest festival for me Open question Open question Open question Open question Open question Open question Open question Five-point Likert Scale Age Group size People paid for Days Nights Years attended Free shows Festival productions Five-point Likert Scale Family togetherness Five-point Likert Scale Exploration Five-point Likert Scale Escape Five-point Likert Scale Festival attractiveness Table Aardklop visitor profile 2008 Category Gender Home language Age Province of residence Occupation Number of tickets bough Most popular shows attended Number of days Number of nights Number of people paid for Expenditure per group* Number of visits to festival Profile of visitors Male 42%; Female 58% Afrikaans (94%) Average age: 41.56 years Gauteng (43%) and North West (32%) Provinces Professional (31%) Average of 5.2 tickets Comedy (48%); Drama (44%) and Music theatre and Cabaret (40%) Average of 3.10 days in Potchefstroom Average of 3.25 nights in Potchefstroom Average of 2.31 persons R2799.97 Average of 4.26 times * Expenditure per group was calculated by adding the spending of the respondent on the various components asked, and subtracting transport cost to the festival from the value obtained, since the inclusion of transport cost would automatically cause a bias for visitors further away from Potchefstroom Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd Int J Tourism Res 13, 511–526 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr Segmentation by Genre 517 festival, indicating that they have visited Aardklop an average of four times on travel motives Drama attendees are more motivated by the Festival productions and are therefore more likely to attend productions/ shows at the festival, while non-drama attendees are motivated more by Exploration Drama attendees also represent the second largest group of respondents Results from the independent t-test Independent t-tests were done for each genre to determine whether there are significant differences between the visitors who attend a specific genre against those who not The significant results for each genre will be discussed separately in this section Dance theatre Table indicates that Dance theatre attendees only differ significantly from non-attendees based on their travel motives Similar to drama attendees, visitors who attend dance theatre productions/shows are more motivated by Festival productions at Aardklop Drama As shown in Table 3, there is a significant difference between drama attendees and non-drama attendees based on age, number of days spent in Potchefstroom, number of tickets bought, number of years attended, some of the travel motives and spending per person Drama attendees are considerably older (an average of 46 years) and purchase significantly more tickets (an average of 8) compared with non-drama attendees (who are an average of 38 years old and only buy an average of five tickets) Furthermore, they stay longer at the festival (an average of 3.3 days) and spend noticeably more per person (R1674.71 compared with R944.37) It is also clear that attendees are loyal visitors and have attended the festival an average of 4.6 times Attendees and non-attendees also differ significantly based Word art and poetry Word art and poetry attendees differ significantly from non-attendees based on age, number of tickets bought, number of years attended, some travel motives and spending per person (see Table 5) Attendees are in their late 40s (average age of 49 years) which is significantly older than non-attendees who are in their early 40s Significantly more tickets are also purchased by attendees (an average of 10 tickets) and it is therefore not surprising that these visitors are mainly motivated by Festival productions Attendees spend more per person (an average of R1729.74) compared with non-attendees and have attended the festival an average of six times Compared Table t-Test results for drama Attendees Variables Age Group size People paid for Days Nights Tickets Free shows Years attended Festival productions Family togetherness Exploration Escape Festival attractiveness Spending per person Non-attendees Mean SD n Mean SD n t-value p 46.17 3.79 2.35 3.30 3.29 8.05 3.82 4.63 3.93 2.65 2.53 3.74 3.46 1674.71 13.61 3.40 1.43 1.43 1.50 7.11 3.52 3.00 0.79 1.17 1.05 0.96 0.90 1606.90 214 214 211 213 173 204 112 201 210 203 207 212 210 212 37.94 3.51 2.28 2.95 3.21 4.57 4.73 3.96 3.33 2.59 2.78 3.80 3.46 944.37 15.53 2.64 1.67 1.55 1.68 3.95 4.06 2.94 1.08 1.19 1.03 0.85 0.90 1044.88 272 273 268 275 180 171 182 252 270 265 266 274 274 268 6.12 1.06 0.49 2.57 0.46 5.71 −1.95 2.38 6.70 0.57 −2.60 −0.75 −0.02 6.01 0.0000* 0.2917 0.6247 0.0105* 0.6472 0.0000* 0.0524 0.0178* 0.0000* 0.5694 0.0095* 0.4551 0.9880 0.0000* SD, standard deviation Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd Int J Tourism Res 13, 511–526 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr 518 M Kruger, M Saayman and S Ellis Table t-Test results for dance theatre Attendees Variables Age Group size People paid for Days Nights Tickets Free shows Years attended Festival productions Family togetherness Exploration Escape Festival attractiveness Spending per person Non-attendees Mean SD n Mean SD n t-value p 39.62 3.57 2.15 3.33 3.30 7.52 3.93 4.98 4.08 2.88 2.88 3.94 3.67 1316.73 15.83 2.57 1.28 1.47 1.79 7.03 2.32 3.42 0.90 1.29 1.20 0.96 1.04 1081.03 55 54 54 54 46 52 30 49 52 51 53 54 52 54 41.81 3.64 2.33 3.07 3.24 6.30 4.43 4.17 3.53 2.59 2.64 3.75 3.43 1260.62 15.19 3.05 1.60 1.51 1.57 5.96 4.02 2.92 1.00 1.16 1.03 0.89 0.88 1403.68 431 433 425 434 307 323 264 404 428 417 420 432 432 426 −1.00 −0.15 −0.81 1.19 0.25 1.34 −0.67 1.79 3.72 1.66 1.54 1.47 1.79 0.28 0.3159 0.8796 0.4193 0.2327 0.8023 0.1821 0.5060 0.0739 0.0002* 0.0976 0.1232 0.1413 0.0737 0.7772 SD, standard deviation Table t-Test results for word art and poetry Attendees Variables Age Group size People paid for Days Nights Tickets Freeshows Years attended Festival productions Family togetherness Exploration Escape Festival attractiveness Spending per person Non-attendees Mean SD n Mean SD n t-value p 49.44 3.92 2.34 3.31 3.44 9.68 4.82 6.34 4.02 2.58 2.46 3.53 3.32 1729.74 13.52 3.44 1.74 1.26 1.39 7.14 4.94 3.00 0.68 1.19 1.11 1.12 0.82 1536.87 39 39 38 39 32 38 17 35 38 35 37 38 38 38 40.88 3.61 2.31 3.08 3.23 6.10 4.35 4.09 3.56 2.62 2.69 3.79 3.47 1227.15 15.22 2.96 1.56 1.53 1.62 5.90 3.82 2.92 1.02 1.18 1.04 0.88 0.91 1349.59 447 448 441 449 321 337 277 418 442 433 436 448 446 442 3.40 0.63 0.13 0.89 0.70 3.47 0.48 4.39 2.73 −0.19 −1.28 −1.74 −0.97 2.18 0.0007* 0.5285 0.8992 0.3756 0.4849 0.0006* 0.6290 0.0000* 0.0066* 0.8507 0.2010 0.0823 0.3337 0.0299* SD, standard deviation with the other genres, word art and poetry attendees have attended the festival the longest and are therefore Aardklop’s most loyal visitors Children’s theatre Table shows that there is a significant difference between Children’s theatre attendees and non-attendees based on Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd the number of people paid for and travel motives Attendees pay on average for more people during their stay (an average of three persons compared with two) as they most likely travel with children to the festival It is therefore not surprising that these visitors are more motivated by Family togetherness Children’s theatre attendees also represent the smallest group of attendees Int J Tourism Res 13, 511–526 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr Segmentation by Genre 519 Table t-Test results for children’s theatre Attendees Variables Age Group size People paid for Days Nights Tickets Freeshows Years attended Festival productions Family togetherness Exploration Escape Festival attractiveness Spending per person Non-attendees Mean SD n Mean SD n t-value p 40.66 3.65 3.06 3.37 3.21 7.19 3.54 4.66 3.87 3.43 2.70 3.87 3.48 1084.02 14.06 1.25 1.26 1.35 1.27 7.85 2.11 3.07 0.73 1.13 1.27 0.88 1.01 969.16 29 31 31 30 19 31 24 29 29 29 29 30 30 31 41.62 3.63 2.26 3.09 3.25 6.40 4.46 4.23 3.58 2.56 2.67 3.77 3.46 1279.56 15.35 3.08 1.58 1.52 1.61 5.95 4.00 2.98 1.02 1.17 1.03 0.90 0.89 1393.69 457 456 448 458 334 344 270 424 451 439 444 456 454 449 −0.33 0.02 2.78 0.99 −0.11 0.69 −1.11 0.74 1.52 3.86 0.16 0.62 0.12 −0.77 0.7413 0.9806 0.0057 0.3218 0.9135 0.4910 0.2698 0.4620 0.1292 0.0001 0.8743 0.5366 0.9041 0.4428 SD, standard deviation Table t-Test results for theatre discussions Attendees Variables Age Group size People paid for Days Nights Tickets Free shows Years attended Festival productions Family togetherness Exploration Escape Festival attractiveness Spending per person Non-attendees Mean SD n Mean SD n t-value p 48.12 3.48 2.53 3.48 3.33 7.33 5.86 4.55 3.96 2.86 2.87 3.81 3.53 1543.50 14.04 2.43 1.95 1.28 1.56 6.36 4.50 3.02 1.04 1.37 1.17 1.11 1.04 1105.54 34 33 32 33 30 33 21 31 34 33 34 34 34 32 41.07 3.64 2.30 3.07 3.24 6.38 4.27 4.24 3.56 2.60 2.66 3.77 3.46 1247.18 15.25 3.04 1.54 1.52 1.60 6.10 3.82 2.98 1.00 1.17 1.04 0.88 0.89 1386.22 452 454 447 455 323 342 273 422 446 435 439 452 450 448 2.61 −0.29 0.82 1.51 0.30 0.85 1.82 0.56 2.22 1.24 1.13 0.24 0.45 1.18 0.0093* 0.7700 0.4126 0.1311 0.7634 0.3954 0.0705 0.5782 0.0269* 0.2141 0.2574 0.8094 0.6521 0.2377 SD, standard deviation Theatre discussions Based on the results reflected in Table 7, theatre discussion attendees are in their late 40s (average age of 48 years) which is significantly older than non-attendees (average age of 41 years) and are more motivated by Festival productions Music theatre and 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Int J Tourism Res 13, 583–599 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH Int J Tourism Res 13, 600–612 (2011) Published online 21 January 2011 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/jtr.832 Surveying the ‘Empty Land’ in Selected South African Landscape Postcards Jeanne van Eeden* Department of Visual Arts, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa ABSTRACT This paper adds to the discourse around picture postcards by looking at a number of South African postcards and photographs from about the 1940s to the 1970s wherein the object of the gaze is the supposedly empty landscape These postcards simultaneously reveal and conceal the political and social realities of South Africa at that time by only showing white people gazing at the land It is argued that the accessible and portable nature of postcards made them an ideal medium by which white peoples’ relationship with the land was rehearsed and enacted during a decisive period of South African history Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd Keywords: postcards; South Africa; landscape; tourist gaze; panoramic view; tourism Received 30 September 2010; Revised 30 November 2010; Accepted 22 December 2010 INTRODUCTION T his paper considers a sample of South African topographical postcards and photographs from around the 1940s to 1970s published by the South African Railways Publicity and Travel Department (SARPTD) that depict white people gazing at *Correspondence to: Jeanne van Eeden, Department of Visual Arts, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa E-mail: jeanne.vaneeden@up.ac.za the supposedly ‘empty’ landscape This paper suggests that a specific visual trope that consisted of white figures gazing at the empty South Africa landscape was prevalent in topographical postcards during the period under discussion Tourism material often represents empty, enticing, pristine landscapes to potential tourists as spaces into which they can escape, but the fact that these selected postcards are peopled is suggestive of other ideologies at play, specifically in terms of white people literally ‘figuring out’ their relationship with the land As accessible, portable and widely circulating products of everyday culture, postcards were part of the circuit of culture (Hall, 1997) that helped to both construct and reflect South African discourses regarding landscape, class, nationhood and tourism The assumption here is that postcards have the ability to evoke artificial nostalgia for a past that never really existed, presenting ‘an idealized self-portrait [of a country] at a particular moment in history’ (Meikle, 2000, p 269) The critical study of postcards needs no validation; since the ethnologist Orvar Löfgren’s (1985, p 90) pioneering article on postcards, there has been interest in many forms of popular mass-produced imagery that were previously considered inconsequential Malek Alloula’s (1987) investigation of colonial postcards initiated a number of publications that investigated photography and postcards from a post-colonial perspective (see, e.g Edwards, 1996; Geary and Webb, 1998; Landau and Kaspin, 2002; Pinney and Peterson, 2003; Burns, 2004) A number of influential studies on international postcards have now been written from the trajectories of tourism studies, cultural geography, cultural studies and visual Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd The ‘Empty Land’ in South African Postcards culture (see, e.g Löfgren, 1985; Marsh, 1985; Mamiya, 1992; Mellinger, 1992a, 1992b, 1994; Schor, 1992; Monsivais, 1997; Ryan and Huyton, 1998; Geary, 1998; Markwick, 2001; Waitt and Head, 2002; Moors, 2003; Pritchard and Morgan, 2003, 2005; Yee, 2004; Van Eeden, 2009; Rakic´ and Travlou, forthcoming) The research for this paper started with a sample of about 600 South African topographical postcards collected over a period of nine months in 2010 by means of what Dubin (1987, p 129) calls ‘residual methodology’, which looks at objects that have been discarded and surface at auctions, street markets, antique shops and specialist collectors This means that only a portion of the entire population, whose size is not known, can be used From this collection, it was possible to identity themes such as the depiction of leisure activities; beach scenes; cities, modernity and technology; wildlife; indigenous cultures; and landscapes Thereafter, a purposive horizontal sample of about 50 postcards dating from roughly the 1950s to the 1980s that depict figures gazing at the landscape was extracted The sample was further delimited to six postcards and two photographs published by the SARPTD between the 1940s and the 1970s as this paper contends that this corporation propagated a specific view of the land If the postcards were not able to be dated by means of their stamps, they were dated approximately by means of contextual and stylistic features (e.g dress) The majority of studies regarding postcards combine quantitative with qualitative analysis (see, e.g Marsh, 1985; Dubin, 1987; Markwick, 2001; Pritchard and Morgan, 2003, 2005) Quantitative content analysis is useful for determining the frequency of images (e.g figures in the landscape), whereas semiotic analysis can be used to expose ideological meanings (e.g the erasure of black people from the landscape) (Marsh, 1985, pp 266–267; Albers and James, 1988, pp 145–149; Raento, 2009, p 129) This investigation of postcards borrows from tourism studies, art history, visual culture studies, post-colonialism and cultural geography, specifically the manner in which they deal with the landscape The paper starts with a brief overview of South African tourism, focusing on how the tourist gaze and an imaginative geography of South Africa were constructed Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 601 by the SARPTD Thereafter, some salient issues in landscape theory are noted before an examination of the selected postcards wherein white people engage with the empty South African landscape SOUTH AFRICAN TOURISM AND THE TOURIST GAZE As a modern form of leisure activity, tourism increased dramatically after the Second World War in response to international legislation regarding paid annual leave, more leisure hours, more disposable income, better transportation and information systems, and sophisticated modes of visual marketing (Ferrario, 1988, pp 28–29; Cosgrove, 2008, p 31) Although tourism was democratized, in many respects travel continued to be a marker of social status, and class divisions were evident in the ways in which certain tourist gazes were created (Ferrario, 1988, pp 28–29) So, for instance, nature tourism has generally been associated with the so-called intellectual and middle classes (Urry, 1990, pp 5, 89; Bell and Lyall, 2002, pp 9, 11) In his influential study of the sociology of tourism, John Urry (1990) describes the tourist gaze that organizes what tourists look at on holiday This ‘social construction and performance of tourism landscapes’ is a continuous process that involves residents, visitors and the tourism industry (Pritchard and Morgan, 2003, p 112) Photographs and postcards mediate landscapes and create intertextual networks that envision what tourists should travel to see and how they should see it (Meikle, 2000, pp 267–268; Raento, 2009, p 134) Nature has been an important part of the tourism experience from the later eighteenth century, and since then social constructions of nature have been packaged for the leisure market Urry (1990) describes two types of tourist gaze directed at nature: the romantic and the collective The romantic tourist gaze indicates the solitary consumption of nature, ‘privacy and a personal, semi-spiritual relationship with the object of the gaze’ (Urry, 2005, p 21) This solitary and emotional engagement with nature has connotations of elitism, as one should not have to gaze at other people (Urry, 1990, pp 86, 98) Other places are designed as Int J Tourism Res 13, 600–612 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr 602 public places for the collective gaze, and need people in them to give them a holiday atmosphere (Urry, 1990, pp 44–46, 57) For the purposes of this paper, it is important to note that the white settlement of South Africa began in 1652 under the Netherlands in the Western Cape, but after 1815, Britain became the dominant imperial power, steadily defeating the remained African polities as its influence extended inexorably eastwards The South African War of 1899–1902 played a decisive role in starting to establish South African unity and independence — the Union of South Africa was declared in 1910, and thereafter, it became an independent dominion within the British Commonwealth during the 1920s The expedient solidarity that arose between English- and Afrikaans-speaking South Africans during the early decades of the twentieth century was mitigated by the rise of articulate Afrikaner nationalism during the 1930s that signalled the influence of a new generation of urbanized, middle-class Afrikaner leaders and intellectuals (Foster, 2008, p 250) After 1910, various white governments enforced segregationist policies designed to entrench white control The National Party victory in 1948 ushered in the apartheid era, in which Afrikaners specifically sought to establish dominance of the country The tenuous fusion between whites against blacks reflected the ‘complex ways in which race, class, and economics were becoming intertwined in South Africa and inscribed in the country’s physical landscape’ (Foster, 2008, p 34) As already noted, the postcards and photographs discussed in this paper were published by the SARPTD between about the 1940s and 1970s At the end of the South African War in 1902, the separate railway systems were amalgamated into the government-controlled South African Railways (SAR) in 1910 One of the key moments in terms of tourism was the founding of the SARPTD in 1919 During its heyday, it had offices in New York and London and by 1933 had agreements with over 130 companies to promote tourism to South Africa (Coetzee, 1992, p 7) The SAR assumed a strategically influential role with regard not only to trade (the Harbours were incorporated in 1922), but also to travel and tourism (South African Airways was incorporated in 1934) Before the Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd J van Eeden advent of mass air travel, all travellers to and from South Africa had to pass through either the harbour of Cape Town or Park Railway Station in Johannesburg The SAR was for many years the largest single corporation in South Africa; it transformed the economy and was also a major source of (white) employment (Foster, 2008, p 202) The SARPTD was mandated to provide visual imagery that would stimulate tourism, as well as potential overseas settlers and investors (Foster, 2008, p 205; Bickford-Smith, 2009, p 1769) Accordingly, it produced a huge range of photographic images that were used in publications, posters and brochures, nationally and internationally By 1921, 20 000 black and white topographical photographs had already been produced (Foster, 2008, pp 211–212) This was the first systematic visual recording of the country, and many of the early views produced by the SARPTD became iconic, establishing a ‘range of landscape motifs, effects, and points of view [that] acquired cultural currency’ and shaped the way the landscape was seen and experienced by white South Africans (Foster, 2008, pp 212, 215) These visual images formed a conceptual space through which the contemporary constructions of identity and nationhood and the notion of South Africa as a ‘white man’s country’ were read (Foster, 2008, pp 40–42, 86–87) The postcards published by the SARPTD were sold in their branch offices and were also distributed as calendars (Meyer, personal communication, 2010) It is therefore arguable that many landscape postcards were not necessarily bought as relics of a visit already undertaken but rather served as a promotional tool to urge a middle-class, white, domestic audience to travel the land — and make it their own Although mass international tourism in South Africa only dates from the 1960s — in 1961 there were still only about 31 000 overseas tourists (Visser and Rogerson, 2004, p 202) — the network of railways that linked the interior of the land with the coast in the late nineteenth century already established places such as Muizenberg near Cape Town as popular holiday destinations (Bickford-Smith, 2009, p 1767) Tourism remained relatively low on the Nationalist government’s agenda until the late 1950s with the arrival of commercial jet aircraft Int J Tourism Res 13, 600–612 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr The ‘Empty Land’ in South African Postcards and improvements to roads and infrastructure (Grundlingh, 2006, pp 105–106) The Sharpeville killings in 1960 temporarily halted international tourism, but the economic boom of the 1960s and apparent stability that followed the banning of black political organizations reassured foreign tourists Official publicity material featured the obligatory images of sun, sea, sport and wildlife; according to Grundlingh (2006, p 110), ‘South Africa had to appear as an invitingly outdoor, exclusively white country’ Foreign tourists to South Africa numbered over 400 000 by 1975, but plummeted for a number of years in the aftermath of the Soweto riots of June 1976 In none of the foregoing was provision made for the leisure needs of black people and it is clear, according to Visser and Rogerson (2004, p 201), that tourism in South Africa mainly served the needs of the ‘white elite culture’ The tourism industry either ignored or repressed black cultures, or marketed them as stereotypical exotic commodities The needs of the black tourism market were only addressed from the mid-1980s onwards (Visser and Rogerson, 2004, p 202), and it is clear that black tourists were not considered in the construction of the South African tourist gaze discussed in this paper From the beginning of the twentieth century, tourism in South Africa was ordered around its natural beauty and wildlife in equal measure with tourists’ desires to experience its so-called primitive tribal life (Wolf, 1991; Rassool and Witz, 1996, p 365) Early twentieth-century landscape images seem to have been created for a European audience reared on picturesque and panoramic views, and prototypical gazes in Cape Town such as Table Mountain and Chapman’s Peak Drive (Figure 1, ca 1940s) were soon established by bodies such as the SARPTD With the help of the SAR and the SARPTD, a number of new landscapes were opened up for tourism in the 1920s, and consequently, places such as the Garden Route, the Drakensberg, and the Eastern Transvaal were encoded as typical South African scenes (Foster, 2008, p 218) These sites were constructed for the leisured gaze of white subjectivities, who were predisposed to gaze at a supposedly empty, white man’s country (Foster, 2008, pp 219, 224; Bickford-Smith, 2009, p 1771) Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 603 Figure South African Railways Publicity and Travel Department photograph of Chapman’s Peak Drive, Cape Town, ca 1940s (Copyright: Transnet Heritage Library) THEORIZING LAND Contemporary landscape theory problematizes landscape in order to reveal its ideological associations and its inherently constructed and mediated nature Because landscapes designate ways of seeing the world and other people, they always occur within specific geographical, social, political and cultural contexts and are implicated in the formation of social and subjective identities (Cosgrove, 2008, p.18; Mitchell, 1994, p 1) Landscape almost invariably encompasses some form of human agency, and what is significant for this paper is that even so-called ‘natural’ landscapes are framed or encoded in some manner that make them meaningful for a culture (Mitchell, 1994, p 14; Cosgrove, 2008, p 34) By the late eighteenth century, nature was associated with ‘the romantic landscape of contemplation and recreation’ (Löfgren, 1985, p 92; Urry, 2005, p 175) that expressed the need of newly urbanized subjects to escape temporarily from their environment The rise of tourism in the nineteenth century led to the inscription of specific kinds of views for urban middle-class tourists who wished to commune with nature devoid of other human presence (Löfgren, 1985, pp 91–92) This kind of nostalgic pastoralist vision, which sees nature as a refuge from the demands of city living, made people turn to nature ‘as a locus of privacy, sensation, and refreshment’ (Wilson, 1992, Int J Tourism Res 13, 600–612 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr 604 p 94; Bell and Lyall, 2002, p 174; Foster, 2008, p 22) As already suggested, landscape is a carrier of ideological propositions regarding ownership, class formation and entitlement to leisure The commodification of landscape is not just a capitalist enterprise; it also reflects the capacity of powerful institutions, such as the SARPTD, to impose their view on landscape (Zukin, 1991, p 16; Bunn, 1993, p 49) In South Africa, ideologies related to class and race have been transmitted efficiently through landscape and its sophisticated mechanics of inclusion or exclusion The origins of this can be traced back to the myths propagated by colonial spatial history One of the most fundamental gestures of colonialism is that of taking possession of land and inscribing it with new meanings by means of travel, naming and mapping (Carter, 1987, pp xxi, 67; Cosgrove, 2008, p 330) Furthermore, the historical gendering of colonial conquest as male resulted in the coding of the landscape as female (Pratt, 1992, p 57; Dann, 1999, p 170) One of the myths that originated from the colonial gaze was that of Africa as empty; its peoples are absent or unseen, or inhabit a timeless and unchanging zone Both Afrikaners and English-speaking South Africans embraced the myth that European settlement of South Africa coincided with the arrival of black people from the north (Crais, 1991, p 256) Even in the 1960s, South African tourist films featured the myth of the empty land, ‘with blacks being described as trekking from the centre of Africa and being as much immigrants to the interior of the country as the white colonists’ (Marks, 1980, p 8; Grundlingh, 2006, p 110) John Coetzee (1988, p 177) notes that the myth of the interior of South Africa as an empty space was propagated by official historiography, and a range of discourses, including archaeology and visual culture, entrenched the notion that ‘whites “belonged” in the South African landscape’ (Marks, 1980, p 8; Foster, 2008, p 73) Foster (2008, p 224) maintains that a general shift in landscape taste was discernible in South Africa during the 1920s that favoured empty rather than inhabited or productive landscapes Segregationist and apartheid legislation such as the Natives’ Land Act (1913), Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd J van Eeden the Natives Urban Areas Act (1923), the Group Areas Act (1950) and the Separate Amenities Act (1953) methodically limited black people to ownership of only 13% of the land and deprived them of access to leisure and recreational sites (Goudie et al., 1999, pp 22–23; Grundlingh, 2006, p 118) Thus, by the mid1920s, most Africans lived either in reserves or in urban townships, and the rest of South Africa was increasingly being perceived as ‘white’ (Foster, 2008, p 34) The myth of South Africa as a ‘white man’s country’ (Beinart, 1994, p 14) was attendant upon all manner of rhetorical strategies that attempted to confirm white presence in, ownership of, and entitlement to the contested land The myth of the empty land resurfaces irredeemably in tourism, where the desirable rural landscape is, in the words of Urry (2005, p 214), ‘essentially unpeopled’ Pickles (1978, p 113) explains that a specifically South African outlook on landscape was slow to develop as landscapes were initially valued because of their nostalgic ability to remind people of Europe But the nineteenthcentury white incursion into the interior enabled people to attach themselves to new wilderness landscapes that were not reminiscent of Europe Place-based identity formation was officially encouraged from the time of Union in 1910 and was an infinitely complicated process by which white people were bound to each other and the land (Foster, 2008, p 18) This collective white identity built on the already existing foundational myths that emphasized the Afrikaner’s love of the land and the equation thereof with freedom The white identification between land and identity was mobilized by the National Party when it came to power in 1948 in a bid to rally Afrikaners and unite whites, with varying degrees of success and amid political disenchantment in subsequent decades Foster (2008, pp 1–4) discusses some of the ways in which white settler identity in South Africa in the earlier twentieth century was enacted in terms of people’s lived experience of the landscape He asserts that it is impossible to understand the process by which the emerging nationhood of white South Africans was imagined without appreciating the role of ideological territorialization or the way in Int J Tourism Res 13, 600–612 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr The ‘Empty Land’ in South African Postcards which subjectivity was expressed through the prism of nature Foster (2008, pp 2–3) believes that the ineffable power of the South African landscape led to the emergence of a collective subjectivity towards the territory that reflected how people were constructing a sense of themselves and their embodied place in the world The unique phenomenological qualities of the South African landscape thus elicited affective and subjective responses that bound white people not only to the land but also to each other (Foster, 2008, p 6) A last facet of landscape that must be touched on briefly here is the association between landscape and nationalism In his study of the role that landscape plays in the articulation of national identity, Eric Kaufmann (1998, p 690) discusses the ‘naturalisation of the nation’ that ‘refers to a dynamic whereby a nation comes to view itself as the offspring of its natural landscape.’ Accordingly, a sense of cultural identity is forged through immersion in and contemplation of landscape Discursive geographies and myths of belonging are played out in the imagery generated by, for example, tourism, which projects the hegemonic ‘official discourse of nationalism’ (Pretes, 2003, pp 127, 139) The role of tourism in creating topographies of power and exclusion should not be underestimated; the historical segregation of (leisure) space in South Africa and the construction of a privileged tourist gaze signals how colonial myths of entitlement continued to be enacted in the landscape One of the defining features of South Africa has thus been the relationship between those in possession of land and those dispossessed from it (Foster, 2008, pp 2–3) The politics of belonging to a territory is linked to the experience of being embedded in a specific landscape Those who are deemed not to belong are excluded from representation and they are silenced, omitted or marginalized — the landscape is literally emptied of their presence EMPTYING THE LANDSCAPE Even though many early South African postcards concentrated on popular representations of so-called exotic indigenous peoples, the visual discourse around ‘“white” South Africa, its thriving cities and expansive and Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 605 beautiful landscapes’ was equally important (Geary, 1998, p 148) The ability of photographic images to appear unmediated and as supposed transparent transcriptions of ‘reality’ made them one of the primary mediums through which people visualized the world, and invested them with the power to transmit ideologies such as colonialism (Albers and James, 1988, pp 136–137; Edwards, 2001, p 9) or apartheid It is important to remember that postcards are metaphoric constructions that encompass both manifest and latent meanings (Albers and James, 1988, pp 141–142) Foster (2008, p 86) reminds us that looking at images of landscapes is not the same as looking at the landscape itself, but this process of mediation was incredibly important in inscribing places with cultural meanings Hence, this discussion focuses on the selective nature of the SARPTD postcards that apparently appealed to the white middle-class traveller in a time when the national self and body politic were being concurrently established and contested This discussion concentrates on one of the most well-established tropes that was used by both European colonialism and romanticism to gaze at the land: the panoramic view Embedded in the Western landscape tradition is the notion that the point of view from which a landscape is seen is significant So-called ‘commanding views’ from hilltops, peaks or promontories were enshrined in the picturesque convention of the prospect or perspectival view in eighteenth-century aristocratic landscapes (Foster, 2008, p 45; Wallach, 2008, p 317) The so-called monarch-of-all-I-survey view, which characterized nineteenth-century travel writing and situated the (male) ‘traveller as an invisible, passive observer’, implied that the supposedly empty landscape was available for possession (Pratt, 1992, pp 204–205, 1994, pp 206–207, 213) The art historian Joseph Koerner (1985, p 151) adds that scenes look different when there is already a figure looking at them: ‘I am here not the first in this landscape, for the traveller remains spatially and temporally before me.’ Koerner (1985, p 151) refers to a number of key paintings from the romantic period such as Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer above the Sea of Mist (1818) He classifies the figure whose back is turned to the viewer and gazes out at Int J Tourism Res 13, 600–612 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr 606 a scene as a Rückenfigur It is generally agreed that the role of the Rückenfigur is to mediate the scene for the spectator and that in tourism material, tourists are meant to identify with and substitute themselves imaginatively for the anonymous viewer (Koerner, 1985, p 152; Byerly, 2007, p 163) What makes this lone wanderer figure different from the colonial traveller is that the former is not necessarily in search of new space, but rather in search of himself and an authentic experience in nature (Löfgren, 1985, p 92) Koerner (1985, p 156) concludes that the Rückenfigur is an ambivalent figure who can combine déjà vu with ‘nostalgia for a place I have never visited’ The examples selected for discussion depict iconic scenes in South African tourism: Table Mountain in Cape Town, the Drakensberg, the Natal Midlands, Oribi Gorge and the Eastern Transvaal The scenes from the interior seem to engage with the notion that South Africanness was being equated with a love of wild open, empty spaces (Pickles, 1978, pp 415–416; Foster, 2008, pp 221–232) The postcards reflect the production of images whereby specific places were being culturally valued In an investigation regarding South African landscape preferences by the geographer John Pickles (1978, p 340), he established that the most valued areas in South Africa for white middle-class travellers were the Natal Drakensberg, Garden Route, Eastern Transvaal Escarpment, Wild Coast and South West Cape The first example, a photograph by the SARPTD depicting the iconic view of Table Mountain, shows a lone sitting male figure (Figure 2, ca 1940s) An appreciation for mountains as sites for sublime experiences only dates from late eighteenth-century European romanticism (Van Sittert, 2003, p 163), and when this idea reached Cape Town soon thereafter it was possible for people to extend their vision of the aesthetic (Pickles, 1978, p 164) From that time onwards, Table Mountain ‘came to be imagined as a site of scientific and romantic pilgrimage for Cape Town’s itinerant intellectual and administrative elite’ and it was already perceived as a site of learning about the self, envisioning imaginary futures, and transcendence (Van Sittert, 2003, pp 163, 164, 166, 167) What is evident in this example is the entrenched idea of the male hero’s solitary Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd J van Eeden Figure South African Railways Publicity and Travel Department photograph from the top of Table Mountain, Cape Town, ca 1940s (Copyright: Transnet Heritage Library) excursion to the summits, the romantic gaze and the notion of the Rückenfigur From the earliest years, Table Mountain was politicized: the identification with and mystification of the mountain by the Cape bourgeoisie from the 1880s onwards sought, according to Van Sittert (2003, p 175), ‘to remake it according to its own partisan preferences and prejudices Anglo ethnic support for British imperialism [encouraged] a new prospect on the mountain’s east face — looking away from the city and towards the interior’ Van Sittert (2003, p 176) believes that this represents the desire to efface the city from sight The man in Figure seems to focus more on the interior view than on the view over the city or sea traditionally favoured, and this possibly emphasizes the inland ‘prospect’, both literally and figuratively The next three panoramic postcards deal with scenes from Natal and specifically the Drakensberg and Natal Midlands An appreciation for the Drakensberg as a recreational landscape in the twentieth century coincides with the broader international inclination towards mountain scenery, mountaineering, health resorts and nature study as forms of leisure activity (Pickles, 1978, pp 193, 213) The Durban to Witwatersrand railway line had been completed in 1895, and in 1914 a branch railway to Bergville and a rough road into the Mont-Aux-Sources area of the Drakensberg enabled tourist accessibility (Pickles, 1978, p 223) Int J Tourism Res 13, 600–612 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr The ‘Empty Land’ in South African Postcards 607 With the proclamation of the Natal National Park in 1906, the Minister of Agriculture and Lands in the Natal Government asked the Natal Government Railways to a photographic survey of the area (Pickles, 1978, p 223) The Natal Government Railways, which was incorporated in the SAR in 1910, saw the Drakensberg as a ‘potential point of interest to attract passengers on to their main line passenger routes’ (Pickles, 1978, p 214) Travel to the Drakensberg increased in the early twentieth century because of the extensive dissemination of photographs by the SARPTD that led to the visual popularization of the Drakensberg (Pickles, 1978, pp 229–230) The SARPTD maintained the perception of the Drakensberg as a wilderness area during the first half of the twentieth century, calling it a ‘place of solitude and grandeur that “soothes, stimulates and heals”‘ (SAR and Harbours, 1933, quoted by Pickles, 1978, p 225) This is seen in this SARPTD postcard of the Drakensberg, probably from about the 1930s (Figure 3) It emphasizes the austerity of the mountains, devoid of human presence In 1933, the SAR reported that ‘the effect of the fine photographic pictures, served to concentrate widespread and general attention on the Berg’ (SAR, 1933, p 8, quoted by Pickles, 1978, p 225) A less austere vision of the Drakensberg depicts the more benevolent or garden aspect of the Drakensberg foothills as opposed to the wilderness image in the previous example (Figure 4, ca 1960s) The gentle view with Giant’s Castle in the distance was one of the sites favoured by SARPTD photographs and postcards The lone male figure pauses on his hike to gaze at the scene before him Although there is a house and rough road, there are no other signs of human presence, allowing the viewer to focus on the emptiness of the landscape The figure does not necessarily take ownership of the panorama before him, but his presence invites others to participate in this subjective contemplation of nature Pickles (1978, p 334) maintains that ‘contemporary landscape preferences is seen to be indissolubly linked with the experience of landscape’ This experience is not just from visual stimulation; it is also in the embodied affective engagement with the landscape A similar kind of introspective immersion in nature seems to be depicted in a SARPTD postcard of a solitary man amid the rolling hills near Melmoth, Natal (Figure 5, ca 1970s) The lush, verdant and feminized landscape appears to offer a peaceful and prosperous ‘prospect’ to the benign lone viewer In his survey of visitors to the Drakensberg in the 1970s, Pickles (1978, pp 318–319) established a set of landscape preferences that he aligned with specific socio-economic profiles So, for example, he found that visitors to the Drakensberg were almost exclusively Englishspeaking South Africans from the Transvaal or Natal They were mainly well-educated, Figure South African Railways Publicity and Travel Department postcard of the Drakensberg, Natal, ca 1930s (Copyright: Transnet Heritage Library) Figure South African Railways Publicity and Travel Department postcard of the Drakensberg, Natal, with Giant’s Castle in the background, ca 1960s (Copyright: Transnet Heritage Library) Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd Int J Tourism Res 13, 600–612 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr 608 Figure South African Railways Publicity and Travel Department postcard of the hills near Melmoth, Natal, ca 1970s (Copyright: Transnet Heritage Library) high-income urbanites in professional occupations (Pickles, 1978, pp 318–319) What is significant is the close association alignment between class and the elite, solitary experience of nature that is typical of the romantic tourist gaze This is corroborated by Pickles’ (1978, pp 395, 397) findings that established that people went to the Drakensberg to experience the grandeur of its unspoilt nature, the peace and tranquillity of the environment, and being away from other people in a natural environment The last SARPTD postcard from Natal depicts the Oribi Gorge Nature Reserve (Figure 6) The 24-km-long Gorge is covered with dense subtropical vegetation and was a popular destination because of its proximity to the sea only about 20 km away Pickles came to the conclusion that the Natal South Coast appealed to younger, single, lower-income English- and Afrikaans-speaking holidaymakers who had less formal education and were involved in production or clerical work (Pickles, 1978, p 353) This underscores the association between landscape preference and class position already alluded to The postcard, probably from the mid-1960s, shows two young females looking out over the Gorge; as is typical of the romantic gaze, there is limited interaction between them Although the feminine presence may domesticate or familiarize the scene for the potential tourist, it may also be possible to link this specific example to the long tradition of tourism imagery that privileged the male, heterosexual gaze (Pritchard and Morgan, 2000, p 885) Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd J van Eeden Figure South African Railways Publicity and Travel Department postcard of Oribi Gorge, Natal, ca 1960s (Copyright: Transnet Heritage Library) Figure South African Railways Publicity and Travel Department postcard of The Pinnacle, Eastern Transvaal, ca 1970s (Copyright: Transnet Heritage Library) The somewhat remote Lowveld and Eastern Transvaal Escarpment areas were made accessible by the SAR by means of trains and motor coaches from the 1920s onwards, and the Eastern Transvaal was considered to be one of the most beautiful natural landscapes of South Africa (Pickles, 1978, p 340) The next SARPTD postcard, circa 1970s, depicts the Pinnacle in the Eastern Transvaal with a lone observer (Figure 7) The plantations in the background signal human intervention, but this is the only example from the sample that could be aligned with the georgic literary convention that celebrated images of rural labour and a cultivated countryside (Andrews, 1989, pp 8, 9); Coetzee (1988, pp 3–4) identifies this pastoral vision with the garden myth as the embodiment of Int J Tourism Res 13, 600–612 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr The ‘Empty Land’ in South African Postcards simplicity and peace The panoramic gaze in this postcard could thus be read as confirmation of the ‘prospect’ achieved in the earlier (white) conquest and development of the empty land The Eastern Transvaal primarily attracted tourists who wanted to experience the beauty of the Blyde River Canyon, which was also the setting for the government-sponsored Aventura Blydepoort resort offering mass, affordable accommodation for lower-middle-class white holiday makers (Grundlingh, 2006, p 118) This postcard of the Blyde River Canyon from around the early 1960s (Figure 8) shows two women who confidently take in the empty land laid out like a panorama for their evaluative gaze The views in these postcards have become so naturalized and taken for granted that it is only by pointing out who is not represented in them that their constructedness can be interrogated Clifton Crais (1991, p 257) observes that the myth of the empty or vacant land encapsulated both geographical emptiness or the notion of unused land in addition to the literal emptying of the land so that its indigenous people are rendered invisible This resonates not only with the rhetorical strategies of colonial discourse but also with the landscape vision of contemporary South African painters such as Jacob Hendrik Pierneef (1886–1957) Figure South African Railways Publicity and Travel Department postcard of The Blyde River Canyon, Eastern Transvaal, ca 1960s (Copyright: Transnet Heritage Library) Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 609 Pierneef’s 30 large landscape panels for Park Station in Johannesburg, completed in 1930, totally erase black people from the South African landscape (Coetzee, 1992, p 30), and the postcards referred to here deliver the same kind of one-sided view of the land According to Coetzee (1992, p 24), ‘landscape was the bare geological phenomenon regarded by the Afrikaner as the Africa God sent them This notion of the landscape is the only clear basis upon which to premise an explanation of the grootsheid [expansiveness] of Africa as articulated by Pierneef The empty land, denuded of the human ecology and presence, as represented in Pierneef’s landscapes, clearly and pictorially expresses this’ Foster (2008, pp 68–69, 256) believes this place-myth of the empty landscape served two functions in that it promised white people the opportunity for direct and immersive experience and confirmed the right of white South Africans to exist in Africa CONCLUDING REMARKS This paper has suggested that a body of SARPTD landscape postcards reveals a psychogeography that reflects the importance of establishing white self-identification with land during a decisive period in South African history White identification with and entitlement to the land was rehearsed in a number of mythic geographies from colonial times onwards that engaged with the notions of belonging and not-belonging White national identity came to be inextricably bound up with a romanticized view of nature that was not just predicated on a visual familiarity with the land but also with the need for a bodily experience of the spacious South African landscape The need for emotional place-making and symbolic possession can be read as a subtext in these postcards Contemporary phenomenological and hermeneutic approaches acknowledge the social constructedness of meaning and foreground embodied experiences of the world (Foster, 2008, p 12) As is evident in the examples discussed, the bodily inhabitation and performative place-making of landscape was just as important as visual representation in creating identity, ownership and entitlement (Foster, 2008, p 81) Int J Tourism Res 13, 600–612 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr 610 In order to function as a type of binding social myth, the postcards discussed here had to appeal to a reasonably uniform middle-class position A class experience of nature has already been established; the luxury of communing with ‘unproductive’ nature generally belongs to the classes that not have to work on the land Leisure activities mimic broader social structures, and accordingly, tourism produces images that reassure ‘middle and uppermiddle class tourists’ (Mamiya, 1992, p 89) Thus, the racist solidarity established between white South Africans alluded to previously was also, according to Bunn (1993, p 49), to a large extent a class solidarity formed around the fashionable appeal of areas such as the Lowveld It can thus be argued that the growth of middle-class domestic tourism during the 1960s coincided with the production and distribution of postcards that reflected the tastes and interests of this market This paper has suggested that 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