Andreas Hofer – a Hero of Tourism?!
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Andreas Hofer – a hero of tourism?! Conference at the Touriseum, Trauttmansdorff Castle (5-6 September 2008) “No-one will be able to avoid the figure of Andreas Hofer in 2009: this conference has proved through its results as well as by the large number of participants that there is a lively interest in Andreas Hofer. A great many people now know that he was fundamentally a figure that can be reinterpreted over and over again. The most important result of this conference is that the participants will leave with the realisation that they, too, are part of the interpretation process surrounding Andreas Hofer. Everyone has contributed to this new image of Andreas Hofer”, stated conference scientific director Konrad Köstlin at the conclusion of the conference entitled “Andreas Hofer – a hero of tourism?!”. Andreas Hofer was and is a figure who has been appropriated on numerous occasions for tourism advertising purposes. The conference at Trauttmansdorff Castle, organised by the Touriseum, therefore wished to avoid showing Andreas Hofer as a classical, historical hero, but rather to examine the “advertising figure” of Andreas Hofer and to determine the effect that this has had – and continues to have – on local tourism. The thirteen topics presented and discussed ranged over areas such as the image of Andreas Hofer in travel guides, Hofer in film and theatre, Hofer as a souvenir, battlefield tourism regarding the year 1809 and the current role of Andreas Hofer as a tourist attraction. The conference itself, together with a special exhibition due to run from 1 April to 15 November 2009 and the conference record (to appear as Volume 3 in the series of studies being produced by the Touriseum), will be the contribution by the South Tyrol Museum for Tourism to the commemorative year of 2009. What knowledge – if any – do visitors to South Tyrol have of Andreas Hofer? The degree of awareness is amazingly high: 94% and 86% of all those visiting from Germany and Austria knew of Andreas Hofer, with nearly two thirds of all tourists in South Tyrol claiming some knowledge. A survey was subsequently conducted by Brigitte Strauss and Thomas Ohnewein in St. Leonhard in Passeier, Hafling, Brixen and in the Ahrn valley. Altogether they interviewed 167 visitors regarding Andreas Hofer. The degree of awareness differed widely depending on the place of interview and the origin, age and sex of the visitor. In St. Leonhard in Passeier three quarters of those questioned knew of Andreas Hofer; as expected, this is considerably more than in the other locations. In Hafling, a mountain village near Meran and only a half day’s trip from St. Leonhard, 57% had some knowledge of Hofer, while in Brixen and the Ahrn valley the figure was still around 50%. Where visitors actually come from plays rather more of a role than where they are staying: while Hofer is well-known among holidaymakers from German-speaking countries, only 16% of Italians have ever heard of him. According to those asked, particularly older South Tyroleans, their knowledge of Hofer goes back to their schooldays. Particularly in Austria, Hofer seems even today to be a permanent feature of the school curriculum, with 88.3% of the Austrian visitors questioned having 1 learnt of this hero of Tyrolean freedom from school. Only in St. Leonhard (23.8%) and in the Ahrntal (as many as 36%) did visitors say that they had first heard of Andreas Hofer while on holiday. In general, it can be stated that middle-aged visitors are more aware of Hofer than younger or older holidaymakers, while there is a clear difference as regards male and female: scarcely half of the women asked knew of Hofer, while for men the figure is 70%. The visitors’ image of Andreas Hofer is on the whole shaped by the well-established myth of the Tyrolean freedom fighter. Thus 60% of those who knew of Hofer cited “liberation struggle” as a key concept. Hofer is very positively viewed in a historical context, with 52.4% of German speakers and 66.4% of Italian speakers with some knowledge of Hofer rating him as a positive figure. As regards his character, too, opinion is mainly positive: terms such as freedom-loving, just, courageous and devout are the most frequently mentioned attributes. It is both interesting and significant that none of the 167 people asked regarded Andreas Hofer as an essentially negative historical figure. Frieda Raich’s contribution on the recognition of Hofer among tourists in South Tyrol showed that he is still an amazingly well-known character. Thus all efforts should be made to ensure that the hero of 1809 can also assist in the promotion of tourism. Her case study concluded that Hofer still has enormous appeal with regard to tourism. She however cautioned that the name of Hofer would work as an advertising vehicle only in his homeland, the Passeier valley, and not throughout South Tyrol. He would act as an “ambassador” for his valley, representing a unique selling point that could differentiate the Passeier valley from other holiday destinations. The case study of Monika Mader showed how the tourist marketing of Andreas Hofer had proceeded in the Passeier valley. Even in the first half of the 19th century, the Sandhof inn appears in travel reports as the first foreigners visited it. But it is not just Hofer who is mentioned in travel literature prior to 1850. After 1809, Castle Tyrol the “second family seat of the Habsburgs” also becomes a patriotic monument. Siegfried de Rachewiltz explained that several of the old warhorses who formed Andreas Hofer’s “old guard” were found employment as “castle officers” or porters at Castle Tyrol. At the same time, Meran developed from a rural backwater into a health resort: for any patriotically-minded (or simply curious) visitors to the spa, a visit to the two national shrines of the Sandhof Inn in the Passeier Valley and Castle Tyrol was a must. The visitors’ books of Castle Tyrol, which officially date back to 1832, reflect the history of the “Pre-March Era”, the blossoming Andreas Hofer myth and of “liberation struggle tourism” with a pertinence that one looks for in vain in other sources. In addition, these visits become a fixed image in the travel literature of the time, which substantially contributes to the strengthening of the resonance of the Hofer myth. Tourism in the Passeier valley was, according to Mader, at first limited as the appropriate structures were lacking. There was no marketing of Andreas Hofer to tourists. Tourist initiatives only commenced at the beginning the 20th century, supported by the creation of infrastructure such as roads and hotels; one decisive event was the Emperor’s 1899 visit to the Sandhof. In the 1950s an economic upswing began, closely linked to the growth in tourism. Despite this development, there was still no aggressive marketing of Andreas Hofer in the Passeier valley. Today there are new initiatives intended to exploit the name of Andreas Hofer for tourist purposes, with the MuseumPasseier playing an important role which is recognised as such by the local population. The 2 museum authorities have given priority to a critical viewpoint of the events of 1809, but the museum itself basically takes a conservative stance that perpetuates the memory of those times. The people of the Passeier valley have, according to Frieda Raich’s study, recognised the potential of Andreas Hofer. Apart from the extension of the MuseumPasseier next to the Sandhof, the name of Andreas Hofer also recurs frequently in the village of St. Leonhard. Somewhat further down the valley, the first five-star hotel in the valley is currently being built, to be called the Hotel Andreus in a free association with Andreas Hofer. In order to remain in step with globalised communication, “Andreas” has now become “Andreus”. Marcus Herntrei presented a study of hotels named after Andreas Hofer: a hotel name can be a word mark or a service mark that can as such be linked with mark associations. For a mark to fulfil its functions such as orientation, trust, communication and profiling, it is vital that existing associations are positive in nature. Herntrei’s study pointed out that hotels with the name Andreas Hofer fulfil some of these functions, while other important ones are ignored. One of the reasons for this is that some hoteliers are not fully aware of the mark functions of their hotel name and the associated potential, thus leaving these unexploited. Herntrei is of the opinion that the very name of Andreas Hofer offers numerous possibilities and opportunities to live the mark in the hotel and thereby help it to develop an identity. An example of this is the commemorative year 2009, which as of today remains unimportant in the planning of most of the hoteliers asked. While the survey conducted by Strauss and Ohnewein on the allegedly forgotten freedom fighter shows unexpectedly high awareness levels among German-speaking visitors, it will be interesting to see how Andreas Hofer will be marketed in the coming year. For 2009 there are over 180 events, initiatives and projects planned for North and South Tyrol as well as in Trentino. There are thus numerous possibilities in terms of design and interpretation. For its conference the Touriseum has called Andreas Hofer a hero of tourism. From a hero of freedom to a hero of tourism: is Hofer no longer suited to the national myth, or is he a hero for all seasons, interchangeable at any time and applicable to any situation? The multilayered nature of the figure of Andreas Hofer appears in the various interpretations over the course of history: “The discovery of Andreas Hofer as a significant, identity-creating personality did not occur in South Tyrol, but rather came from outside, from Northern Europe – England, Sweden and Germany”, explained Konrad Köstlin.