Description
The purpose of this paper is to present the results of tests for the development of literary trails
for domestic visitors and tourists in Brisbane, Queensland, and to situate these findings in the context of
recent state government policy changes in relation to culture, community engagement and the
environment.
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Practices of literary tourism: an Australian case study
Susan Carson Lesley Hawkes Kari Gislason Samuel Martin
Article information:
To cite this document:
Susan Carson Lesley Hawkes Kari Gislason Samuel Martin, (2013),"Practices of literary tourism: an Australian case study", International
J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 7 Iss 1 pp. 42 - 50
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Practices of literary tourism: an Australian
case study
Susan Carson, Lesley Hawkes, Kari Gislason and Samuel Martin
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the results of tests for the development of literary trails
for domestic visitors and tourists in Brisbane, Queensland, and to situate these ?ndings in the context of
recent state government policy changes in relation to culture, community engagement and the
environment.
Design/methodology/approach – Broadly cultural studies: the article analyses changes in
international and national cultural tourism and Queensland-based issues before presenting the
research ?ndings.
Findings – A gap in tourist and cultural development models exists for the implementation of a network
of sustainable literary trails in Brisbane – this model can be extended to regions around the state to meet
the demands of the new tourist.
Research limitations/implications – The paper highlights Queensland weather and Australian
distance, which will require a regional approach that networks with transport and community hubs.
Practical implications – The research has produced new software for the use of self-guided walks; the
locations for two speci?c area trails; and the involvement of the State Library of Queensland as a ‘‘hub’’
for the trails. Substantial support exists for further development in advanced locative media and gaming.
Social implications – The research demonstrates the importance of developing a sense of place that
relates to culture, literary history and community for tourists, as well as the potential for community
engagement.
Originality/value – Currently no paper-based or new media literary trail exists in Brisbane. The
proliferation of online delivered, self-guided trails in other parts of the world re?ects a demand for this
type of cultural and environmental experience.
Keywords Tourism, Walking, Literary trails, Australia, Brisbane, Community, Government policy,
Tourism development
Paper type Case study
1. Introduction
In September 2009, Premier Anna Bligh launched a program to foster reading and writing
across Queensland. Called ‘‘A State of Writing’’, the program will ‘‘pool the talents of the
Queensland Writers Centre; Book Links; Queensland Poetry Festival and the Children’s Book
Council of Australia’’ to form a ‘‘writing hub’’ at the State Library of Queensland’’. The
program follows the State Government’s $400,000 investment in relocating the Queensland
Writers Centre to the State Library of Queensland building at South Bank’s Cultural Centre
which will be completed in 2010.
‘‘State of Writing’’ marks an interesting moment in the history of cultural politics at state level.
Whereas reading and writing are unlikely to ever displace sun and sport as a priority for most
Queenslanders, Bligh’s announcement signals recognition of two key changes to the cultural
climate:
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VOL. 7 NO. 1 2013, pp. 42-50, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1750-6182 DOI 10.1108/17506181311301345
Susan Carson,
Lesley Hawkes,
Kari Gislason and
Samuel Martin are based in
the Creative Industries
Faculty, Queensland
University of Technology,
Queensland, Australia.
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1. the need to invest in diverse community and environmentally conscious activities for
locals; and
2. ‘‘tourists’’, whether domestic or international, are looking for new ways of engaging with
the city or state.
One way of meeting these aims in a way that re?ects the speci?c objectives of ‘‘State of
Writing’’ is to develop walking trails that introduce residents and visitors to the state’s literary
history and current literary culture. The timing for this kind of innovation could not be better.
Literary trails can now be organised and delivered via phone and GPS applications that are
easily accessible and that can be provided at lowcost. Digital-based literary trails can be set
up in ways that provide maps and, through the delivery of text and other media, encourage
walkers to engage with the community and urban space around them.
The early testing of this technology also suggests that literary tourism of this kind is very well
placed to meet broader goals set by all levels of government relating to environmentally
sustainable development that encourages people to conceive of their local environments in
new and sustainable ways.
2. Literary tourism
Traditionally, ‘‘literary tourism’’ is located within the broader framework of cultural tourism,
itself placed within the area of cultural studies. Raymond Williams de?nes culture as
‘‘ordinary: that is the ?rst fact. Every human society has its own shape, its own purposes, and
its own meanings. Every society expresses these, in institutions, and in arts and learning’’
(Williams, 1958, p. 4). Williams’s observation of culture as ‘‘ordinary’’ is important: it indicates
that culture is not simply a term used to describe the educated or artistic, but rather one
which encompasses the ‘‘lives and interests of ordinary people, both urban and rural
dwellers, indigenous and immigrant communities, artists and artisans’’ (Smith, 2003, p. 10).
Literary tourism, then, can be considered as the process of experiencing these cultures in a
way that focuses attention on places ‘‘celebrated for associations with books or authors’’
(Squire, 1994, p. 104).
3. The ‘‘new tourist’’
Erve Chambers identi?es the ‘‘new tourist’’ as a professional and comparatively
well-educated traveller. He/she is likely to demand individualised experiences that reject
mass in favour of self-education and is characterised by an aspiration to actively engage
with a wider range of people and places. The newtourist is diverse. He/she may be in search
of a health service, a study abroad experience, volunteer work, or the opportunity to explore
inaccessible places.
Chambers (2009, p. 353) paints a picture of a dramatically different global tourist market with
more tourists from economically emerging nations; a growing number of retirees travelling;
and a growing number of well-educated trendsetter elites who are interested in heritage
preservation, as well as environmental sustainability, and cultural diversity. Importantly,
these tourists are as likely to be domestic travellers as international visitors. Chambers
comments: ‘‘[m]uch as fusion restaurants have begun to blend culturally distinct foods and
tastes into unique servings, so might future tourism participate in the blending of cultural
attributes into the serving of new realms of experience and insight’’ (Chambers, 2009,
p. 354). These trends represent a shift to tourism that focuses on the diverse life of the city
rather than an over-concentration on one type of experience.
In this sense, the term ‘‘new tourist’’ can be thought of as a post-structuralist notion that is
useful in describing the often awkward balance of local and visitor interests. In Munich, for
example, many visitors are looking to read the city in terms of a Nazi past that local
authorities have been active to ignore or hide (Wolfel, 2008, pp. 66, 72). In this context of
clashing visitor and of?cial interests, the visitor experience occurs on a number of levels: the
visitor is motivated to look beyond the intended cultural performance of the city to its hidden
layers.
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Thus, post-structural approaches have come to bring with them increasing acceptance of a
subtle, less focussed tourist discourse – ‘‘far from tourism being simply a one-way process
as suggested by the phrase ‘the tourist gaze,’ something far more nuanced happens’’
(Knudsen et al., 2008, p. 5). In some cases, for example, the experience becomes uncertain
or dif?cult to de?ne, consisting of a ‘‘multiplicity of insider and outsider meanings’’ (Knudsen
et al., 2008, p. 1) that can also be very hard to predict. Importantly, being part of a tourist site
is not necessarily a passive process, but rather a shared one that permits people to engage
with tourist activities in different ways.
As McWatters (2008, p. 16) notes, ‘‘place experience is a channel of illumination through
which people articulate greater ideas about their social and individual identities, as well as a
frame through which the researcher may understand his subjects’ perceptions of and values
for themselves and their surrounding world’’. For McWatters, understanding place is linked
to understanding landscape, which in turn is often processed through art: ‘‘the cultural
association between landscape and art, a relationship bridged by aesthetics, in fact points
to a fourth layer of meaning: a representational layer in which landscape is interpreted and
represented through cultural texts, such as paintings, ?lms, novels, photographs, and the
like’’ (McWatters, 2008, p. 24). Modern day tourists, says McWatters, citing Urry’s (1990)
work on the tourist gaze, practice the commodi?cation of landscapes with new technology,
collecting new signs and images (McWatters, 2008, p. 36).
4. Brisbane in context
Currently, exciting possibilities exist for Brisbane to take part in a growing ?eld of literary
tourism. ‘‘State of Writing’’ signals the state government’s interest in building infrastructure
that promotes literary life in the state. Examples from other cities suggest that trails are an
effective way of developing the literary side of new tourism. Further, the online environment
provides an innovative way of creating literary trails, and for the new tourist an economical
and effective mode of engaging with the city.
4.1 Melbourne
In August 2008 Melbourne was named a UNESCO literary city. Two other cities have been
awarded this title – Edinburgh and Iowa City (Dublin has made a current bid). The title is
awarded to cities that have ‘‘an urban environment in which literature, drama and/or poetry
play an integral role’’ and cities that have ‘‘experience in hosting literary events and festivals
aiming at promoting literature’’ (Taylor, 2009). The UNESCO Cities of Literature is part of
UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network (CCN), and the aim is to develop creative global
interaction between cities. Figures suggest that Edinburgh’s UNESCO literary title has
generated $3.3m in revenue for the city and another $3.1m in revenue for Scotland (Taylor,
2009).
The desire for Melbourne to become a UNESCO city reportedly grew from the legendary
rivalry between Melbourne and Sydney. While Melbourne has long seen itself as the cultural
capital of Australia, it was the Sydney Writers Festival that was drawing bigger crowds and
greater coverage. The support for the UNESCO bid was far-reaching, from the grass roots
level through to the media and government of?cials, since re?ected in substantial increases
in funding for the city’s literary life. The Age and Herald Sun followed the bid from start to
?nish, and the bid was accompanied by very strong community interest.
One of the successes of Melbourne’s bid was its formalising of the city’s dual obsessions
with sports and the arts. While other cities concentrate on sports tourism, leisure tourism, or
speci?c cultural events, Melbourne has been able to connect these activities, in part through
the success of the city’s logo, which spells ‘‘Melbourne’’ across book pages. For example, in
the marketing of the Australian Open, the Melbourne city logo was prominently featured on
the back of centre court, reinforcing in the viewers’ minds the connection between cultural
and sporting life in Melbourne.
In its UNESCObid Melbourne was able to drawon a wide range of cultural markers, fromthe
city’s self-identi?cation as a cultural capital to its distinguished record in book publishing,
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including the international success of the Lonely Planet guides. The bid claimed that the city
has more bookshops per head of population than any other city in the world, and that more
people borrow books from public libraries than anywhere else in Australia. The State Library
of Victoria is the oldest free library in Australia and over 1.1 million people visit the library
every year. Melbourne, it seems, also has the longest running reading circle in Australia, with
the Ivanhoe reading circle that began in the 1920s. In addition, some of Australia’s best
known authors began their careers in Melbourne: C.J. Dennis, Miles Franklin, Marcus Clarke,
Rolf Boldrewood, Dorothy Porter and Peter Carey. Melbourne has a specialised centre for
Youth Literature where it develops and encourages reading by youth, and the writing of
youth literature.
Arts Victoria, the Victorian State Government, and the State Library of Victoria are currently
working on ways to incorporate the UNESCO title with other tourist activities, including
through a literary trail. Melbourne has a great advantage in being a grid city and very
walkable. Since 1837 Melbourne has followed the grid plan of Richard Hoddle (known as the
Hoddle grid), where every major street is 30 metres wide with perpendicular side streets one
third of that width. This grid plan makes it easy to plot out travelling times and places onto
maps.
4.2 England
Australia’s recent involvement in literary tourism follows European developments, some of
which are well established, while others have appeared more recently. Unsurprisingly,
literary walks and trails have proved a great economic success in parts of England. A new
Coleridge Way Walk combines literature and the environment to draw people to the
Somerset region, and the Lake District pro?ts each year from the hordes of Wordsworth
readers ready to follow in the poet’s footsteps. The Coleridge Way was designed after the
devastating foot and mouth epidemic of 2001 almost stopped any form of tourism in the
Somerset region.
Meanwhile, London’s status as a centre of practices of literary tourism remains. The city has
long been one of the most signi?cant sites of literary production in the world, and so contains
all the elements of interest to literary tourists: it is a setting for creative works, a home to
authors, a global centre of publishing, while also playing host to numerous other creative
industries. Local publications re?ect this richness. David Tucker’s London Stories: London
Walks, for example, is a narrative-driven examination and exploration of some of London’s
literary heritage. The book is published by Random House imprint Virgin, an important
difference from other print formats promoting and directing literary tourism.
Many publications regarding sites of literary interest are produced through self-publishing or
community-based initiatives. One example is Literary Walks in Romantic Lakeland, a booklet
produced by The Wordsworth Trust for tourists wanting to take literary walks in the Lake
District. This small booklet is funded by Rural Regeneration Cumbria and the European
Regional Development Fund, and is available at tourist centres in Lakes District villages.
While traditional print-form guides have dominated in literary tourism, possibilities for
innovation now exist through online platforms that have the potential to combine knowledge
from local enthusiasts, experts, and commercial publishers. Online platforms can also
enable greater dialogue between visitors and locals.
4.3 Online platforms
Online delivery of literary tourism sites allows for greater access to information for a wider
audience of people, while mobile technology means this information is both portable and
current. Literary tourism websites are varied in standard, and comprise a variety of different
media. The ‘‘London Walks’’ website is a blog-style site, with the capacity to display short
segments of video footage. Other sites, such as the ‘‘West Sussex Literary Trail’’, are set up
as companions to print guidebooks, and include extra and at times interactive material not in
the print version. ‘‘Dublin iWalks’’, produced by Dublin Tourism, is an example of a
podcast-based literary trail. It provides a variety of free downloadable MP3 ?les for
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self-guided walking tours. This format allows tourists to interact with the literary city without
needing to hire a tour guide, and without needing to carry a map.
The online map is perhaps the most popular online format of delivering literary tourism
content. The rise of Google Maps as a ubiquitous mapping tool has led to the creation of
numerous literary maps. These maps have been created by a mixture of literary
stakeholders: private companies, tourism boards, community organisations, media, and
individuals. In the USA, the ‘‘Literary Map of Maine’’ is produced and run by a state
newspaper and a number of libraries and humanities groups. It plots the homes of authors
and sites referred to in local stories. The site features a ‘‘how to get here’’ function in order to
make it easier for tourists to come to the region and explore its literary heritage. The NewYork
Times runs an interactive ‘‘Literary Map of Manhattan’’ that focuses on ?ction set in New York
City.
4.4 Implications for Brisbane
While cities like Melbourne and London have strong reputations for literary tourism, it is
important to remember that Brisbane has a rich literary history, even if it is often overlooked.
The Brisbane Writers Festival continues to grow year by year and the redevelopment of the
State Library of Queensland in 2006 has created a vibrant hub of cultural activity around
texts and writing. This goes some way to matching the Melbourne methodology. Melbourne
as a city has always been con?dent in its ability as a cultural centre. The public, the
government, the writers, and the media all ?rmly believe in the city’s ability to produce and
support great literature. Literature is incorporated into everyday life, and this helps relate
developments in literary life to the city’s growth more generally.
Part of the challenge for Brisbane is to overcome a historical perception of it as a culturally
impoverished and unattractive city. For example, Marzano et al. (2009, p. 247) state that it
was not until 1987 that the Brisbane River was seen as a tourist resource, and even then no
consensus was reached. The River was seen by some as an ‘‘eyesore’’ (Marzano et al.,
2009, p. 248). Marzano et al. reveal a patchy approach to marketing Brisbane in the past, but
note that this trend has been somewhat reversed with efforts since 2007. Recent campaigns
give more attention to the city, challenging the dominance of the established areas of the
Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast. Tourism in Brisbane contributes 3.8 per cent as a share
of gross regional product, which is important but well below the contribution of the Gold
Coast (14.5 per cent) and the Sunshine Coast (16.0 per cent). Yet tourism-related
employment is nearly the reverse: in 2007 Brisbane had 30,200 full time equivalents, the
Gold Coast 27,700, and the Sunshine Coast 14,500.
The heightened focus on Brisbane was advocated as far back as 1992 (Tourism
Queensland, 1992). In addition to the expected calls for better transport infrastructure, the
survey showed that the largest proportion of visitors to Brisbane’s tourist attractions were in
fact Brisbane residents (Marzano et al., 2009, p. 168). In general tourists criticised the ‘‘lack
of things to do’’ (Marzano et al., 2009, p. 168), and the lack of cheap or free tourist activities
(Marzano et al., 2009, p. 120). Suggestions were made to promote heritage trails in the city
and outlying areas such as Ipswich (Marzano et al., 2009, p. 150).
Brisbane, as the third largest city in Australia, has an opportunity to develop long-neglected
aspects of cultural history to meet the complex demands of the new tourist, in particular
through the greater highlighting of Brisbane’s literary life. The following section outlines how
that might be achieved.
5. Literary trails
This study includes two trials of online literary trails. These literary trails have the potential to
meet the demands of new tourists and the strategic goals of state government relating to
environmentally sustainable development.
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5.1 Literary trails and the new tourist
The new tourist (incorporating visitors and locals) is dif?cult to categorise. She or he has
interests in a range of activities, and does not want to be con?ned to a particular schedule.
Literary tourism offers ?exibility, convenience, as well as different possible levels of
engagement: while some will want to visit literary sites out of historical curiosity, others will
seek to challenge and expand the way they conceive of Brisbane’s literature.
5.2 Literary trails and sustainable communities
In order for literary trails to represent sustainable development, leisure walking must relate in
a meaningful and inspiring way to everyday walking, and a literary tourism that does not
speak to locals about the way they move around their immediate surroundings will, in
environmental terms, be a lost opportunity. That is, an increase in the amount of leisure
walking from literary tourism activities should not come at the expense of other walking, but
rather at the expense of car use. This poses a major challenge for the design of individual
literary trails within Brisbane, but one that must be addressed. A ?rst step is to design routes
that take in both literary sites and key points in suburban transport, commuter, retail, and
employment networks as a way of joining the touristic and the everyday.
Leisure walking or walking for health reasons are commonplace, but research suggests that
it is dif?cult to convert leisure walking into everyday walking, for example, to and fromwork or
to shops and recreational activities. In Brisbane, as in other large cities, suburban spread is
a major factor: people live too far from their workplaces to be able to walk. No doubt,
prevailing notions of commuter comfort and the Brisbane summer heat are others.
Giving genuine consideration to the environmental concerns that frame literary tourism
within Brisbane opens up a range of questions about the nature of tourism more generally,
particularly matters around the relative agency of its various participants. In tourism studies,
participants are often divided into three types – visitors, locals, and intermediaries – and in
attempting to understand their relation, the ?eld has seen an expansive debate around the
theoretical concepts of ‘‘gaze’’, ‘‘performance’’, and ‘‘reading’’, terms that re?ect the impact
of post-structuralist studies that were mentioned earlier.
The best literary works tend to interrogate and add complexity to our understanding of
everyday life, and in doing so encourage a diversity of views of the local landscape and its
meaning. For a project that seeks to operate within a sustainable framework, this is of great
bene?t: the best possible outcome of literary tourism would be that it encourages a dialogue
among local and non-local walkers about the meaning of the Brisbane landscape, while at
the same time providing an opportunity for the re-imagining of how to exist, at an everyday
level, within that landscape.
5.3 Brisbane trial 1: Kelvin Grove
In May 2009 a Kelvin Grove trail was designed to follow the events of a short story written
speci?cally for the test by a QUT Creative Writing student. An integrated iPhone application
was developed to enable the concept. This consisted of a server to store data for different
locations on the walk. For each location, a chapter and a GPS position were speci?ed. The
integrated GPS ensured that when the reader reached a key geographical marker, the
relevant section of the story was released to them.
The narrative was set in Brisbane during Second World War, when the site was a busy
military base for Australian forces. The story explores tensions between Australian civilians
and troops and American forces based in Brisbane during this period. Divided into four
chapters, the narrative centres on four different locations in Kelvin Grove. The story follows a
young Brisbane woman who becomes pregnant to an American serviceman. Realising her
predicament, an Australian soldier asks her to marry him so that she might avoid social
disgrace. ‘‘Shotgum Wedding’’ (sic), a descriptive account of the realities of wartime life for
young women in Brisbane’s suburb of Kelvin Grove.
After the trial, participants were asked to take a survey that focussed on the relationship of
the narrative to place. Participants answered questions addressing their prior knowledge of
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the Kelvin Grove area, and their post-survey understanding of the site. They were also asked
to discuss the role of place and landscape in the narrative, and whether they felt immersed in
the story as their walk progressed. At the end of the survey were questions focussed on prior
knowledge of electronic reading devices and participants’ familiarity with mobile phone
technology.
Participants reported that they enjoyed feeling part of the story, one stating that ‘‘Being at the
place where the action takes place was an enhancing and exciting feature of reading the
story’’. Another felt the aspects of ‘‘place’’ could have been strengthened. Participants
enjoyed reading the story on the iPhone because they could easily scroll down, although
they said this was only enjoyable in reasonably short periods of time. In general, feeling that
they were part of the story was important – for example, ‘‘I was in the story world’’. One
interesting aspect of the reported experience was the cross-over between ?ctional and
material worlds. Participants noted a tendency to move in and out of ‘‘current’’ time. One
respondent said it was remarkable that just as she was reading the chapter in which the
protagonist tells the soldier that she is pregnant she overhead a similar conversation
between two young women seated nearby. This movement in-and-out of ?ction appears to
fascinate some readers, who enjoy the ‘‘secret’’ aspect of the knowledge conveyed in the
reading and walking experience. Some respondents would have liked more references to
local sites, but all reported a sensation of being ‘‘immersed’’ in the story, one stating ‘‘I don’t
think the outside world, the traf?c, came in on you or anything. No, I got immersed, because I
do in a book or story’’.
5.2 Brisbane trial 2: West End
In June 2009 a second trial was conducted in West End. The trial took place in a triangle
formed by Boundary, Vulture, Franklin and Edmonstone Streets. Whereas the Kelvin Grove
trial had asked participants to follow, and respond to, a purposely written narrative, the West
End trial was designed for those interested in published literature, as well as to test interest in
a trail that incorporated local business and entertainment landmarks, such as bookshops
and well-known clubs. In this way, the second trial expanded on the ?rst.
As with the Kelvin Grove trial, the project was enabled by the development of an iPhone
application and server to store GPS co-ordinates and a range of texts. In this trial, if the
reader wanted to read a text associated with a location, he/she sent a request, including
current position, to the server. The server compared the reader’s position with the speci?ed
location, and returned the text if the reader was within range of the site.
The walk covered seven locations: bookstores, a park, a pool, an author’s house, and several
places mentioned in noteworthy Brisbane writing. Care was taken to include a diverse range
of writing (extracts fromDavid Malouf’s Johnno, Indigenous poetry, Estelle Pinney’s house at
21 Franklin Street). The trail began at Avid Reader and included Bent Books. Participants
were asked to respond to questions about the bookshops as well as to the literary texts
relating to landmarks. The authors walked the route prior to asking for participants and noted
the location of street crossings, shade, and restaurants. The authors felt that a one-hour walk
was suf?cient for an early trial.
The survey data show that the majority of participants enjoyed reading the story on mobile
phones as a new, easy and comfortable way of reading. However, this enjoyment is for short
segments of texts only. The following comment is one of the most interesting responses: ‘‘Not
only did I get literature from it, but also I got an idea of West End better. I haven’t been here
for years’’. Favourite locations were Estelle Pinney’s house and the Greek Club. Although the
latter has changed signi?cantly since its appearance in Malouf’s Johnno, participants
seemed to ?nd a site interesting even if the site no longer resembled its ?ctional
representation. One walker said: ‘‘I especially like any part that does have a bit of story, like
the story in Musgrave Park’’. An important comment for the purposes of cultural tourism is
the statement that ‘‘It really does make you stop and think like a tourist in your home town’’. In
general, the survey seemed to generate a sense of excitement and enquiry about West End
and the associated literary sites, as well as a desire to ?nd out more about an area that had
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not been visited for a long time, or visited frequently without thinking about issues of place
and literature.
6. Concluding remarks
The research and trials contained in this contained indicate to us that there is strong potential
for a network of literary trails in Brisbane. While this article has focused on Brisbane, there is
also potential for the regionalisation of programs such as this one. Literary trails have the
capacity to support local and non-local tourist activities in a sustainable way and in ways that
meet the demands of the new tourist.
Harnessing government and industry support for the project is the next step. The Melbourne
experience demonstrates that co-operation at all levels of community and government is
helpful. Literary tourism works best if the community has a sense of ownership of the trails
and the texts they explore.
References
Chambers, E. (2009), ‘‘From authenticity to signi?cance: tourism on the frontier of culture and place’’,
Futures, Vol. 41 No. 6, p. 353.
Knudsen, D.C., Metro-Roland, M.M. and Soper, A.K. (2008), ‘‘Landscape, tourism and meaning: an
introduction’’, in Greer, C., Knudsen, D., Metro-Roland, M. and Soper, A. (Eds), Landscape, Tourismand
Meaning, Ashgate, Aldershot, pp. 1-7.
McWatters, M.R. (2008), Understanding Residential Tourism, Multilingual Matters, Bristol.
Marzano, G., Laws, E. and Scott, N. (2009), ‘‘The River City? Con?icts in the development of a tourism
destination brand for Brisbane’’, in Pideaux, B. and Cooper, M. (Eds), River Tourism, CAB International,
Wallingford, pp. 239-56.
Smith, M. (2003), Issues in Cultural Tourism Studies, Routledge, London.
Squire, S. (1994), ‘‘The cultural values of literary tourism’’, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 21,
pp. 103-20.
Taylor, C. (2009), ‘‘Unesco City of Literature status sought for Dublin’’, Irish Times, 6 March.
Tourism Queensland (1992), ‘‘Regional summary, Tourism Development Strategy Plan for the Brisbane
metropolitan region’’, Planning Collaborative Australia in association with TourismResearch, Information
and Planning (TRIP), Centre for Hospitality Management and Tourism, The University of Queensland,
St Lucia.
Urry, J. (1990), The Tourist Gaze: Leisure and Travel in Contemporary Society, Sage Publications,
London.
Williams, R. (1958), Culture and Society 1780-1950, Penguin, Harmondsworth.
Wolfel, R. (2008), ‘‘Slicing the Dobish Torte: the three layers of tourism in Munich’’, in Greer, C.,
Knudsen, D., Metro-Roland, M. and Soper, A. (Eds), Landscape, Tourism and Meaning, Ashgate,
Aldershot, pp. 65-74.
Further reading
Barr, T. and Sullivan, R. (2007), ‘‘An unlikely city: the making of literary Brisbane, 1975-2000’’,
in Buckridge, P. and McKay, B. (Eds), By The Book: A Literary History of Queensland, University of
Queensland Press, St Lucia.
Carson, S. (2008), ‘‘Dripping sweat: subtropical spaces in recent Brisbane ?ction’’, paper presented at
the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand Annual Conference, December, Brisbane.
Connell, J. and Page, S. (2008), Sustainable Tourism. Volume 1: Evolution and Context of Sustainable
Tourism, Routledge, London.
Daly, M. and Malone, P. (1996), ‘‘Sydney: the economic and political roots of Darling Harbour’’,
in Malone, P. (Ed.), City, Capital and Water, Routledge, London, p. 92.
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de Certeau, M. (2007), ‘‘Walking the city’’, in Lock, M. and Farquhar, J. (Eds), Beyond the Body Proper:
Reading the Anthropology of Material Life, Duke University Press, Durham, NC, pp. 249-58.
Flatley, C. (2007), ‘‘iPods and didgeridoos newlures to woo buisness tourism’’, AAP General News Wire,
12 February.
Hatherell, W. (2007), The Third Metropolis: Imagining Brisbane through Art and Literature 1940-1970,
University of Queensland Press, St Lucia.
Newman, P. (2003), ‘‘Walking in a historical, international, and contemporary context’’, in Tolley, R. (Ed.),
Sustainable Transport: Planning for Walking and Cycling in Urban Environments, Woodhead,
Cambridge, pp. 48-58.
Patterson, I. (2006), Growing Older: Tourism and Leisure Behaviour of Older Adults, CAB International,
Wallingford.
Sullivan, J.A. (1999), ‘‘A literary portrait of Brisbane: parallels between Brisbane’s contemporaneous
literature and architecture’’, MA thesis, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane.
Tolley, R. (2003), ‘‘Introduction: talking the talk but not walking the walk’’, in Tolley, R. (Ed.), Sustainable
Transport: Planning for Walking and Cycling in Urban Environments, Woodhead, Cambridge, pp. xv-xxi.
Toma, L. (2009), ‘‘Shotgum wedding’’, unpublished manuscript, Queensland University of Technology,
Brisbane.
Corresponding author
Susan Carson is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: [email protected]
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This article has been cited by:
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Tourism and Cultural Change 12, 1-17. [CrossRef]
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Recreation Research 39, 321-342. [CrossRef]
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doc_384235767.pdf
The purpose of this paper is to present the results of tests for the development of literary trails
for domestic visitors and tourists in Brisbane, Queensland, and to situate these findings in the context of
recent state government policy changes in relation to culture, community engagement and the
environment.
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Practices of literary tourism: an Australian case study
Susan Carson Lesley Hawkes Kari Gislason Samuel Martin
Article information:
To cite this document:
Susan Carson Lesley Hawkes Kari Gislason Samuel Martin, (2013),"Practices of literary tourism: an Australian case study", International
J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 7 Iss 1 pp. 42 - 50
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Practices of literary tourism: an Australian
case study
Susan Carson, Lesley Hawkes, Kari Gislason and Samuel Martin
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the results of tests for the development of literary trails
for domestic visitors and tourists in Brisbane, Queensland, and to situate these ?ndings in the context of
recent state government policy changes in relation to culture, community engagement and the
environment.
Design/methodology/approach – Broadly cultural studies: the article analyses changes in
international and national cultural tourism and Queensland-based issues before presenting the
research ?ndings.
Findings – A gap in tourist and cultural development models exists for the implementation of a network
of sustainable literary trails in Brisbane – this model can be extended to regions around the state to meet
the demands of the new tourist.
Research limitations/implications – The paper highlights Queensland weather and Australian
distance, which will require a regional approach that networks with transport and community hubs.
Practical implications – The research has produced new software for the use of self-guided walks; the
locations for two speci?c area trails; and the involvement of the State Library of Queensland as a ‘‘hub’’
for the trails. Substantial support exists for further development in advanced locative media and gaming.
Social implications – The research demonstrates the importance of developing a sense of place that
relates to culture, literary history and community for tourists, as well as the potential for community
engagement.
Originality/value – Currently no paper-based or new media literary trail exists in Brisbane. The
proliferation of online delivered, self-guided trails in other parts of the world re?ects a demand for this
type of cultural and environmental experience.
Keywords Tourism, Walking, Literary trails, Australia, Brisbane, Community, Government policy,
Tourism development
Paper type Case study
1. Introduction
In September 2009, Premier Anna Bligh launched a program to foster reading and writing
across Queensland. Called ‘‘A State of Writing’’, the program will ‘‘pool the talents of the
Queensland Writers Centre; Book Links; Queensland Poetry Festival and the Children’s Book
Council of Australia’’ to form a ‘‘writing hub’’ at the State Library of Queensland’’. The
program follows the State Government’s $400,000 investment in relocating the Queensland
Writers Centre to the State Library of Queensland building at South Bank’s Cultural Centre
which will be completed in 2010.
‘‘State of Writing’’ marks an interesting moment in the history of cultural politics at state level.
Whereas reading and writing are unlikely to ever displace sun and sport as a priority for most
Queenslanders, Bligh’s announcement signals recognition of two key changes to the cultural
climate:
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VOL. 7 NO. 1 2013, pp. 42-50, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1750-6182 DOI 10.1108/17506181311301345
Susan Carson,
Lesley Hawkes,
Kari Gislason and
Samuel Martin are based in
the Creative Industries
Faculty, Queensland
University of Technology,
Queensland, Australia.
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1. the need to invest in diverse community and environmentally conscious activities for
locals; and
2. ‘‘tourists’’, whether domestic or international, are looking for new ways of engaging with
the city or state.
One way of meeting these aims in a way that re?ects the speci?c objectives of ‘‘State of
Writing’’ is to develop walking trails that introduce residents and visitors to the state’s literary
history and current literary culture. The timing for this kind of innovation could not be better.
Literary trails can now be organised and delivered via phone and GPS applications that are
easily accessible and that can be provided at lowcost. Digital-based literary trails can be set
up in ways that provide maps and, through the delivery of text and other media, encourage
walkers to engage with the community and urban space around them.
The early testing of this technology also suggests that literary tourism of this kind is very well
placed to meet broader goals set by all levels of government relating to environmentally
sustainable development that encourages people to conceive of their local environments in
new and sustainable ways.
2. Literary tourism
Traditionally, ‘‘literary tourism’’ is located within the broader framework of cultural tourism,
itself placed within the area of cultural studies. Raymond Williams de?nes culture as
‘‘ordinary: that is the ?rst fact. Every human society has its own shape, its own purposes, and
its own meanings. Every society expresses these, in institutions, and in arts and learning’’
(Williams, 1958, p. 4). Williams’s observation of culture as ‘‘ordinary’’ is important: it indicates
that culture is not simply a term used to describe the educated or artistic, but rather one
which encompasses the ‘‘lives and interests of ordinary people, both urban and rural
dwellers, indigenous and immigrant communities, artists and artisans’’ (Smith, 2003, p. 10).
Literary tourism, then, can be considered as the process of experiencing these cultures in a
way that focuses attention on places ‘‘celebrated for associations with books or authors’’
(Squire, 1994, p. 104).
3. The ‘‘new tourist’’
Erve Chambers identi?es the ‘‘new tourist’’ as a professional and comparatively
well-educated traveller. He/she is likely to demand individualised experiences that reject
mass in favour of self-education and is characterised by an aspiration to actively engage
with a wider range of people and places. The newtourist is diverse. He/she may be in search
of a health service, a study abroad experience, volunteer work, or the opportunity to explore
inaccessible places.
Chambers (2009, p. 353) paints a picture of a dramatically different global tourist market with
more tourists from economically emerging nations; a growing number of retirees travelling;
and a growing number of well-educated trendsetter elites who are interested in heritage
preservation, as well as environmental sustainability, and cultural diversity. Importantly,
these tourists are as likely to be domestic travellers as international visitors. Chambers
comments: ‘‘[m]uch as fusion restaurants have begun to blend culturally distinct foods and
tastes into unique servings, so might future tourism participate in the blending of cultural
attributes into the serving of new realms of experience and insight’’ (Chambers, 2009,
p. 354). These trends represent a shift to tourism that focuses on the diverse life of the city
rather than an over-concentration on one type of experience.
In this sense, the term ‘‘new tourist’’ can be thought of as a post-structuralist notion that is
useful in describing the often awkward balance of local and visitor interests. In Munich, for
example, many visitors are looking to read the city in terms of a Nazi past that local
authorities have been active to ignore or hide (Wolfel, 2008, pp. 66, 72). In this context of
clashing visitor and of?cial interests, the visitor experience occurs on a number of levels: the
visitor is motivated to look beyond the intended cultural performance of the city to its hidden
layers.
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Thus, post-structural approaches have come to bring with them increasing acceptance of a
subtle, less focussed tourist discourse – ‘‘far from tourism being simply a one-way process
as suggested by the phrase ‘the tourist gaze,’ something far more nuanced happens’’
(Knudsen et al., 2008, p. 5). In some cases, for example, the experience becomes uncertain
or dif?cult to de?ne, consisting of a ‘‘multiplicity of insider and outsider meanings’’ (Knudsen
et al., 2008, p. 1) that can also be very hard to predict. Importantly, being part of a tourist site
is not necessarily a passive process, but rather a shared one that permits people to engage
with tourist activities in different ways.
As McWatters (2008, p. 16) notes, ‘‘place experience is a channel of illumination through
which people articulate greater ideas about their social and individual identities, as well as a
frame through which the researcher may understand his subjects’ perceptions of and values
for themselves and their surrounding world’’. For McWatters, understanding place is linked
to understanding landscape, which in turn is often processed through art: ‘‘the cultural
association between landscape and art, a relationship bridged by aesthetics, in fact points
to a fourth layer of meaning: a representational layer in which landscape is interpreted and
represented through cultural texts, such as paintings, ?lms, novels, photographs, and the
like’’ (McWatters, 2008, p. 24). Modern day tourists, says McWatters, citing Urry’s (1990)
work on the tourist gaze, practice the commodi?cation of landscapes with new technology,
collecting new signs and images (McWatters, 2008, p. 36).
4. Brisbane in context
Currently, exciting possibilities exist for Brisbane to take part in a growing ?eld of literary
tourism. ‘‘State of Writing’’ signals the state government’s interest in building infrastructure
that promotes literary life in the state. Examples from other cities suggest that trails are an
effective way of developing the literary side of new tourism. Further, the online environment
provides an innovative way of creating literary trails, and for the new tourist an economical
and effective mode of engaging with the city.
4.1 Melbourne
In August 2008 Melbourne was named a UNESCO literary city. Two other cities have been
awarded this title – Edinburgh and Iowa City (Dublin has made a current bid). The title is
awarded to cities that have ‘‘an urban environment in which literature, drama and/or poetry
play an integral role’’ and cities that have ‘‘experience in hosting literary events and festivals
aiming at promoting literature’’ (Taylor, 2009). The UNESCO Cities of Literature is part of
UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network (CCN), and the aim is to develop creative global
interaction between cities. Figures suggest that Edinburgh’s UNESCO literary title has
generated $3.3m in revenue for the city and another $3.1m in revenue for Scotland (Taylor,
2009).
The desire for Melbourne to become a UNESCO city reportedly grew from the legendary
rivalry between Melbourne and Sydney. While Melbourne has long seen itself as the cultural
capital of Australia, it was the Sydney Writers Festival that was drawing bigger crowds and
greater coverage. The support for the UNESCO bid was far-reaching, from the grass roots
level through to the media and government of?cials, since re?ected in substantial increases
in funding for the city’s literary life. The Age and Herald Sun followed the bid from start to
?nish, and the bid was accompanied by very strong community interest.
One of the successes of Melbourne’s bid was its formalising of the city’s dual obsessions
with sports and the arts. While other cities concentrate on sports tourism, leisure tourism, or
speci?c cultural events, Melbourne has been able to connect these activities, in part through
the success of the city’s logo, which spells ‘‘Melbourne’’ across book pages. For example, in
the marketing of the Australian Open, the Melbourne city logo was prominently featured on
the back of centre court, reinforcing in the viewers’ minds the connection between cultural
and sporting life in Melbourne.
In its UNESCObid Melbourne was able to drawon a wide range of cultural markers, fromthe
city’s self-identi?cation as a cultural capital to its distinguished record in book publishing,
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including the international success of the Lonely Planet guides. The bid claimed that the city
has more bookshops per head of population than any other city in the world, and that more
people borrow books from public libraries than anywhere else in Australia. The State Library
of Victoria is the oldest free library in Australia and over 1.1 million people visit the library
every year. Melbourne, it seems, also has the longest running reading circle in Australia, with
the Ivanhoe reading circle that began in the 1920s. In addition, some of Australia’s best
known authors began their careers in Melbourne: C.J. Dennis, Miles Franklin, Marcus Clarke,
Rolf Boldrewood, Dorothy Porter and Peter Carey. Melbourne has a specialised centre for
Youth Literature where it develops and encourages reading by youth, and the writing of
youth literature.
Arts Victoria, the Victorian State Government, and the State Library of Victoria are currently
working on ways to incorporate the UNESCO title with other tourist activities, including
through a literary trail. Melbourne has a great advantage in being a grid city and very
walkable. Since 1837 Melbourne has followed the grid plan of Richard Hoddle (known as the
Hoddle grid), where every major street is 30 metres wide with perpendicular side streets one
third of that width. This grid plan makes it easy to plot out travelling times and places onto
maps.
4.2 England
Australia’s recent involvement in literary tourism follows European developments, some of
which are well established, while others have appeared more recently. Unsurprisingly,
literary walks and trails have proved a great economic success in parts of England. A new
Coleridge Way Walk combines literature and the environment to draw people to the
Somerset region, and the Lake District pro?ts each year from the hordes of Wordsworth
readers ready to follow in the poet’s footsteps. The Coleridge Way was designed after the
devastating foot and mouth epidemic of 2001 almost stopped any form of tourism in the
Somerset region.
Meanwhile, London’s status as a centre of practices of literary tourism remains. The city has
long been one of the most signi?cant sites of literary production in the world, and so contains
all the elements of interest to literary tourists: it is a setting for creative works, a home to
authors, a global centre of publishing, while also playing host to numerous other creative
industries. Local publications re?ect this richness. David Tucker’s London Stories: London
Walks, for example, is a narrative-driven examination and exploration of some of London’s
literary heritage. The book is published by Random House imprint Virgin, an important
difference from other print formats promoting and directing literary tourism.
Many publications regarding sites of literary interest are produced through self-publishing or
community-based initiatives. One example is Literary Walks in Romantic Lakeland, a booklet
produced by The Wordsworth Trust for tourists wanting to take literary walks in the Lake
District. This small booklet is funded by Rural Regeneration Cumbria and the European
Regional Development Fund, and is available at tourist centres in Lakes District villages.
While traditional print-form guides have dominated in literary tourism, possibilities for
innovation now exist through online platforms that have the potential to combine knowledge
from local enthusiasts, experts, and commercial publishers. Online platforms can also
enable greater dialogue between visitors and locals.
4.3 Online platforms
Online delivery of literary tourism sites allows for greater access to information for a wider
audience of people, while mobile technology means this information is both portable and
current. Literary tourism websites are varied in standard, and comprise a variety of different
media. The ‘‘London Walks’’ website is a blog-style site, with the capacity to display short
segments of video footage. Other sites, such as the ‘‘West Sussex Literary Trail’’, are set up
as companions to print guidebooks, and include extra and at times interactive material not in
the print version. ‘‘Dublin iWalks’’, produced by Dublin Tourism, is an example of a
podcast-based literary trail. It provides a variety of free downloadable MP3 ?les for
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self-guided walking tours. This format allows tourists to interact with the literary city without
needing to hire a tour guide, and without needing to carry a map.
The online map is perhaps the most popular online format of delivering literary tourism
content. The rise of Google Maps as a ubiquitous mapping tool has led to the creation of
numerous literary maps. These maps have been created by a mixture of literary
stakeholders: private companies, tourism boards, community organisations, media, and
individuals. In the USA, the ‘‘Literary Map of Maine’’ is produced and run by a state
newspaper and a number of libraries and humanities groups. It plots the homes of authors
and sites referred to in local stories. The site features a ‘‘how to get here’’ function in order to
make it easier for tourists to come to the region and explore its literary heritage. The NewYork
Times runs an interactive ‘‘Literary Map of Manhattan’’ that focuses on ?ction set in New York
City.
4.4 Implications for Brisbane
While cities like Melbourne and London have strong reputations for literary tourism, it is
important to remember that Brisbane has a rich literary history, even if it is often overlooked.
The Brisbane Writers Festival continues to grow year by year and the redevelopment of the
State Library of Queensland in 2006 has created a vibrant hub of cultural activity around
texts and writing. This goes some way to matching the Melbourne methodology. Melbourne
as a city has always been con?dent in its ability as a cultural centre. The public, the
government, the writers, and the media all ?rmly believe in the city’s ability to produce and
support great literature. Literature is incorporated into everyday life, and this helps relate
developments in literary life to the city’s growth more generally.
Part of the challenge for Brisbane is to overcome a historical perception of it as a culturally
impoverished and unattractive city. For example, Marzano et al. (2009, p. 247) state that it
was not until 1987 that the Brisbane River was seen as a tourist resource, and even then no
consensus was reached. The River was seen by some as an ‘‘eyesore’’ (Marzano et al.,
2009, p. 248). Marzano et al. reveal a patchy approach to marketing Brisbane in the past, but
note that this trend has been somewhat reversed with efforts since 2007. Recent campaigns
give more attention to the city, challenging the dominance of the established areas of the
Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast. Tourism in Brisbane contributes 3.8 per cent as a share
of gross regional product, which is important but well below the contribution of the Gold
Coast (14.5 per cent) and the Sunshine Coast (16.0 per cent). Yet tourism-related
employment is nearly the reverse: in 2007 Brisbane had 30,200 full time equivalents, the
Gold Coast 27,700, and the Sunshine Coast 14,500.
The heightened focus on Brisbane was advocated as far back as 1992 (Tourism
Queensland, 1992). In addition to the expected calls for better transport infrastructure, the
survey showed that the largest proportion of visitors to Brisbane’s tourist attractions were in
fact Brisbane residents (Marzano et al., 2009, p. 168). In general tourists criticised the ‘‘lack
of things to do’’ (Marzano et al., 2009, p. 168), and the lack of cheap or free tourist activities
(Marzano et al., 2009, p. 120). Suggestions were made to promote heritage trails in the city
and outlying areas such as Ipswich (Marzano et al., 2009, p. 150).
Brisbane, as the third largest city in Australia, has an opportunity to develop long-neglected
aspects of cultural history to meet the complex demands of the new tourist, in particular
through the greater highlighting of Brisbane’s literary life. The following section outlines how
that might be achieved.
5. Literary trails
This study includes two trials of online literary trails. These literary trails have the potential to
meet the demands of new tourists and the strategic goals of state government relating to
environmentally sustainable development.
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5.1 Literary trails and the new tourist
The new tourist (incorporating visitors and locals) is dif?cult to categorise. She or he has
interests in a range of activities, and does not want to be con?ned to a particular schedule.
Literary tourism offers ?exibility, convenience, as well as different possible levels of
engagement: while some will want to visit literary sites out of historical curiosity, others will
seek to challenge and expand the way they conceive of Brisbane’s literature.
5.2 Literary trails and sustainable communities
In order for literary trails to represent sustainable development, leisure walking must relate in
a meaningful and inspiring way to everyday walking, and a literary tourism that does not
speak to locals about the way they move around their immediate surroundings will, in
environmental terms, be a lost opportunity. That is, an increase in the amount of leisure
walking from literary tourism activities should not come at the expense of other walking, but
rather at the expense of car use. This poses a major challenge for the design of individual
literary trails within Brisbane, but one that must be addressed. A ?rst step is to design routes
that take in both literary sites and key points in suburban transport, commuter, retail, and
employment networks as a way of joining the touristic and the everyday.
Leisure walking or walking for health reasons are commonplace, but research suggests that
it is dif?cult to convert leisure walking into everyday walking, for example, to and fromwork or
to shops and recreational activities. In Brisbane, as in other large cities, suburban spread is
a major factor: people live too far from their workplaces to be able to walk. No doubt,
prevailing notions of commuter comfort and the Brisbane summer heat are others.
Giving genuine consideration to the environmental concerns that frame literary tourism
within Brisbane opens up a range of questions about the nature of tourism more generally,
particularly matters around the relative agency of its various participants. In tourism studies,
participants are often divided into three types – visitors, locals, and intermediaries – and in
attempting to understand their relation, the ?eld has seen an expansive debate around the
theoretical concepts of ‘‘gaze’’, ‘‘performance’’, and ‘‘reading’’, terms that re?ect the impact
of post-structuralist studies that were mentioned earlier.
The best literary works tend to interrogate and add complexity to our understanding of
everyday life, and in doing so encourage a diversity of views of the local landscape and its
meaning. For a project that seeks to operate within a sustainable framework, this is of great
bene?t: the best possible outcome of literary tourism would be that it encourages a dialogue
among local and non-local walkers about the meaning of the Brisbane landscape, while at
the same time providing an opportunity for the re-imagining of how to exist, at an everyday
level, within that landscape.
5.3 Brisbane trial 1: Kelvin Grove
In May 2009 a Kelvin Grove trail was designed to follow the events of a short story written
speci?cally for the test by a QUT Creative Writing student. An integrated iPhone application
was developed to enable the concept. This consisted of a server to store data for different
locations on the walk. For each location, a chapter and a GPS position were speci?ed. The
integrated GPS ensured that when the reader reached a key geographical marker, the
relevant section of the story was released to them.
The narrative was set in Brisbane during Second World War, when the site was a busy
military base for Australian forces. The story explores tensions between Australian civilians
and troops and American forces based in Brisbane during this period. Divided into four
chapters, the narrative centres on four different locations in Kelvin Grove. The story follows a
young Brisbane woman who becomes pregnant to an American serviceman. Realising her
predicament, an Australian soldier asks her to marry him so that she might avoid social
disgrace. ‘‘Shotgum Wedding’’ (sic), a descriptive account of the realities of wartime life for
young women in Brisbane’s suburb of Kelvin Grove.
After the trial, participants were asked to take a survey that focussed on the relationship of
the narrative to place. Participants answered questions addressing their prior knowledge of
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the Kelvin Grove area, and their post-survey understanding of the site. They were also asked
to discuss the role of place and landscape in the narrative, and whether they felt immersed in
the story as their walk progressed. At the end of the survey were questions focussed on prior
knowledge of electronic reading devices and participants’ familiarity with mobile phone
technology.
Participants reported that they enjoyed feeling part of the story, one stating that ‘‘Being at the
place where the action takes place was an enhancing and exciting feature of reading the
story’’. Another felt the aspects of ‘‘place’’ could have been strengthened. Participants
enjoyed reading the story on the iPhone because they could easily scroll down, although
they said this was only enjoyable in reasonably short periods of time. In general, feeling that
they were part of the story was important – for example, ‘‘I was in the story world’’. One
interesting aspect of the reported experience was the cross-over between ?ctional and
material worlds. Participants noted a tendency to move in and out of ‘‘current’’ time. One
respondent said it was remarkable that just as she was reading the chapter in which the
protagonist tells the soldier that she is pregnant she overhead a similar conversation
between two young women seated nearby. This movement in-and-out of ?ction appears to
fascinate some readers, who enjoy the ‘‘secret’’ aspect of the knowledge conveyed in the
reading and walking experience. Some respondents would have liked more references to
local sites, but all reported a sensation of being ‘‘immersed’’ in the story, one stating ‘‘I don’t
think the outside world, the traf?c, came in on you or anything. No, I got immersed, because I
do in a book or story’’.
5.2 Brisbane trial 2: West End
In June 2009 a second trial was conducted in West End. The trial took place in a triangle
formed by Boundary, Vulture, Franklin and Edmonstone Streets. Whereas the Kelvin Grove
trial had asked participants to follow, and respond to, a purposely written narrative, the West
End trial was designed for those interested in published literature, as well as to test interest in
a trail that incorporated local business and entertainment landmarks, such as bookshops
and well-known clubs. In this way, the second trial expanded on the ?rst.
As with the Kelvin Grove trial, the project was enabled by the development of an iPhone
application and server to store GPS co-ordinates and a range of texts. In this trial, if the
reader wanted to read a text associated with a location, he/she sent a request, including
current position, to the server. The server compared the reader’s position with the speci?ed
location, and returned the text if the reader was within range of the site.
The walk covered seven locations: bookstores, a park, a pool, an author’s house, and several
places mentioned in noteworthy Brisbane writing. Care was taken to include a diverse range
of writing (extracts fromDavid Malouf’s Johnno, Indigenous poetry, Estelle Pinney’s house at
21 Franklin Street). The trail began at Avid Reader and included Bent Books. Participants
were asked to respond to questions about the bookshops as well as to the literary texts
relating to landmarks. The authors walked the route prior to asking for participants and noted
the location of street crossings, shade, and restaurants. The authors felt that a one-hour walk
was suf?cient for an early trial.
The survey data show that the majority of participants enjoyed reading the story on mobile
phones as a new, easy and comfortable way of reading. However, this enjoyment is for short
segments of texts only. The following comment is one of the most interesting responses: ‘‘Not
only did I get literature from it, but also I got an idea of West End better. I haven’t been here
for years’’. Favourite locations were Estelle Pinney’s house and the Greek Club. Although the
latter has changed signi?cantly since its appearance in Malouf’s Johnno, participants
seemed to ?nd a site interesting even if the site no longer resembled its ?ctional
representation. One walker said: ‘‘I especially like any part that does have a bit of story, like
the story in Musgrave Park’’. An important comment for the purposes of cultural tourism is
the statement that ‘‘It really does make you stop and think like a tourist in your home town’’. In
general, the survey seemed to generate a sense of excitement and enquiry about West End
and the associated literary sites, as well as a desire to ?nd out more about an area that had
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not been visited for a long time, or visited frequently without thinking about issues of place
and literature.
6. Concluding remarks
The research and trials contained in this contained indicate to us that there is strong potential
for a network of literary trails in Brisbane. While this article has focused on Brisbane, there is
also potential for the regionalisation of programs such as this one. Literary trails have the
capacity to support local and non-local tourist activities in a sustainable way and in ways that
meet the demands of the new tourist.
Harnessing government and industry support for the project is the next step. The Melbourne
experience demonstrates that co-operation at all levels of community and government is
helpful. Literary tourism works best if the community has a sense of ownership of the trails
and the texts they explore.
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Further reading
Barr, T. and Sullivan, R. (2007), ‘‘An unlikely city: the making of literary Brisbane, 1975-2000’’,
in Buckridge, P. and McKay, B. (Eds), By The Book: A Literary History of Queensland, University of
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Carson, S. (2008), ‘‘Dripping sweat: subtropical spaces in recent Brisbane ?ction’’, paper presented at
the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand Annual Conference, December, Brisbane.
Connell, J. and Page, S. (2008), Sustainable Tourism. Volume 1: Evolution and Context of Sustainable
Tourism, Routledge, London.
Daly, M. and Malone, P. (1996), ‘‘Sydney: the economic and political roots of Darling Harbour’’,
in Malone, P. (Ed.), City, Capital and Water, Routledge, London, p. 92.
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de Certeau, M. (2007), ‘‘Walking the city’’, in Lock, M. and Farquhar, J. (Eds), Beyond the Body Proper:
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Flatley, C. (2007), ‘‘iPods and didgeridoos newlures to woo buisness tourism’’, AAP General News Wire,
12 February.
Hatherell, W. (2007), The Third Metropolis: Imagining Brisbane through Art and Literature 1940-1970,
University of Queensland Press, St Lucia.
Newman, P. (2003), ‘‘Walking in a historical, international, and contemporary context’’, in Tolley, R. (Ed.),
Sustainable Transport: Planning for Walking and Cycling in Urban Environments, Woodhead,
Cambridge, pp. 48-58.
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Toma, L. (2009), ‘‘Shotgum wedding’’, unpublished manuscript, Queensland University of Technology,
Brisbane.
Corresponding author
Susan Carson is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: [email protected]
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Recreation Research 39, 321-342. [CrossRef]
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