Elite Exoticism: Sea-rail Cruise Tourism to South Africa, 1926–1939

Abstract

South Africa's railway and harbours operator (SAR&H) was the arch promoter of overseas tourism to South Africa for thirty years after Union in 1910. To its package tours for independent inbound tourists, the SAR&H added exclusive port-to-port rail trips across South Africa by partnering with overseas cruise ship operators. Whereas the European market was a mainstay, the more distant North American market only became accessible in relation to lengthy round-the-world cruises. Between 1926 and 1939 approximately fifty long-distance luxury trains met thirty-one cruise liners to transport some 5,000 wealthy tourists through various inland scenic, cultural and wildlife attractions in southern Africa. Port calls by visiting cruise liners created their own spectacle and stir. Eventually more cruise passengers elected to stay on board ship at the end of long ocean voyages, elite visitors took cross-country flights to increase the novelty of travel, and this first period of South African sea-rail tourism came to a close.