Andreas Hofer - a hero of tourism?

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.