Jim Crow and Racialized Tourism Landscapes Under Apartheid

Racialized landscapes of tourism have garnered a growing scholarship. In the United States during the past decade the origins, dynamics, workings and impacts of the Jim Crow era of segregation upon tourism and hospitality have generated a rich literature. Arguably, certain parallels can be drawn with the record of apartheid South Africa and its racialized tourism economy. This paper contributes to the limited South African literature by highlighting aspects of the racialized landscape of apartheid tourism and especially the challenges that confronted ‘non-Whites’ as leisure travellers. Analysis and review is undertaken of one significant guidebook produced to assist these travellers by the South African Institute of Race Relations. This national guidebook opens a window into the racialized landscape of tourism that existed in the 1960s. Key themes that it documents are the minimal accommodation infrastructure for the leisure travel of ‘non-White’ South Africans, the impress of petty apartheid legislation on restaurant services, and restrictions imposed on visitors to certain tourism attractions.