South African Railways Publicity & Travel Department

Artist working on a travel poster.

The Publicity Department was founded in 1910 under A.H. Tatlow. By the 1950s it had offices in London and New York, produced colour postcards, calendars, maps, and even sponsored documentary films.

A.H. Tatlow (unidentified photographer)

In December 1958, the South African Railway News celebrated a spectacular year for the Publicity and Travel Department of the South African Railways and Harbours (SAR&H). Gross earnings hit a new record: £2,766,239 - up £142,296 from the previous year. The star performer? The Travel Bureaux, which alone brought in £1,846,722 (the highest figure in their history).

The department’s mission was simple but ambitious: sell South Africa to the world through rail, road, air, and sheer glamour.

The Travel Bureaux - The Largest Travel Organisation in Southern Africa

With branches across the Union, South-West Africa, Lourenço Marques, Bulawayo, London, and New York, they handled:

• Rail, road, sea, and air reservations (including South African Airways and foreign carriers)
• Hotel bookings worldwide
• Meals, bedding, insurance, and luggage handling
• Organised luxury tours on the Blue Train, the Orange Express, and luxury road coaches.

Tourism Development & International Collaboration

Tourist Office at Johannesburg Station.

The Tourist Development section acted as headquarters for these bureaux and worked with overseas agents, hotels, and safari companies. Couriers accompanied VIP visitors on inland tours. A new, modern tourist office had just opened at Johannesburg station.

Publicity, Design, Photography & Advertising

Enlargements being made in the photographic section.

• The Publicity Section produced press ads, window displays, posters, films, and brochures for SAA, Road Transport Services, and the entire network.
• The Design Section created exhibits for the Rand Easter Show, floats for parades, and massive window displays overseas.
• The Photographic Section maintained an astonishing ≈100,000 negatives (including colour transparencies), supplying 15,000 prints/enlargements every month. Many ended up in the famous annual Railway & Airways calendars that were sent worldwide.
• Commercial Advertising filled every station with travel posters - even swapping them with foreign railways on a reciprocal basis.

"Mr. A. H. Tatlow, the former publicity manager of the S.A.R. has been taking charge of these posters here and in Durban. It is quite true to say that it is largely due to his initiative in the past that this is only the latest of several other exhibitions and that, to some extent, the S.A.R. has helped to encourage poster-art in South Africa. In these days of depression, the lot of the poster-artist is hard because there is always a tendency in such times to regard artistic development as a luxury." (SAAR, 1932)

Journalism & Broader African Tourism

Journalists wrote copy for joint brochures. The department also served as secretariat to the South African Publicity Association (whose chairman was the General Manager of Railways himself).

1958 saw the rise of AFTOUR (African Tourist), a bold multi-country initiative involving South Africa, the Federation of Rhodesia & Nyasaland, the Belgian Congo, East Africa, Mozambique, and Angola. The goal: seamless inclusive tours across Southern and Central Africa with simplified visas and passports.

• AFTOUR was formally launched after meetings in Salisbury (1957) and Pretoria (1958). It was the first serious attempt at regional tourism cooperation south of the equator - the era when package tours and luxury rail travel were booming post-WWII.

Bookstalls - The Everyday Face of the Department

Main bookstall in Johannesburg.

118 bookstalls across the Union sold newspapers, magazines, books, cigarettes, and sweets. Turnover in 1957/58 reached £833,351 (with a modest but improved profit of £7,779). The main Johannesburg station bookstall was a traveller’s paradise.

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Sources

• South African Railway News. Dec 1958.
• The Railway Poster Exhibition. South African Architectural Record, Vol 17, No 3, March 1932.