Progress in dark tourism and thanatourism research. Oct 29, 2008 introduction dark tourism is the act of travel and visitation to sites, attractions and exhibitions which have real or recreated death, suffering or the seemingly macabre as a main theme. Introduction dark tourism is the act of travel and visitation to sites, attractions and exhibitions which have real or recreated death, suffering or the seemingly macabre as a main theme. The idtr promotes ethical research into the social scientific understanding of tourist sites of death, disaster or the seemingly macabre. Dark tourism encompasses the mild cemetery visits to the violent viewing an active civil war. With top dark tourism sites such as the nazi extermination. However the theory of dark tourism consumption remains underdeveloped, as does the empirical interrogation of dark tourist motives. Chilling and macabre experiences arent just for halloween. The palgrave handbook of dark tourism studies will appeal to students and scholars with an interest in aspects of memorialisation and morality in sociology, death studies, history, geography, cultural studies, philosophy, psychology, business management, museology and heritage tourism studies, politics, religious studies, and anthropology. Dark tourism is thus conceived as a nonreligious mediating institution between the living and the dead, offering an opportunity of thanatopic contemplation in face of inevitable and meaningless. Dark tourism is a special type of tourism business which doesnt appeal to everyone but has an important role in delivering information and bringing the past to present. In 2011, the ukrainian government granted tourist access to a place where one of the worst nuclear disasters in history occurred chernobyl.
Aug 02, 20 the purpose of this paper is to introduce the papers in this special issue of ijcthr on dark tourism. History of dark tourism dr prem travel and tourism guide. From a nuclear lake to a haunted forest, new zealand filmmaker and journalist david farrier tickled visits unusual and often macabre tourism spots around the world. This site is like a library, use search box in the widget to get ebook that you want.
More recently, it was suggested that the concept should also include reasons tourists visit that site, since the sites attributes alone may not make a visitor a dark tourist. Dark tourism, understood as the type of tourism that involves a visit to real or recreated places associated with death, suffering, misfortune, or the seemingly macabre, is not a new concept, even from a touristic point of view. Death, dying and dark tourism in contemporary society. The institute for dark tourism research idtr, based at the university of central lancashire, england, is a worldleading academic centre for dark tourism scholarship, research and teaching. The study included analysis of the definition of dark tourism, tourist motivations for this type of tourism, stone s typology of dark destination offers, and a portion is devoted to the role of dark tourism in contemporary society. From a nuclear lake to a haunted forest, journalist david farrier visits unusual and often macabre tourism spots around the world. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext. The palgrave handbook of dark tourism studies philip r. According to the quantitative survey in the house of terror, the strongest motivat. Especially in the last decades, dark tourism has become seemingly more popular and has received more attention stone, 2009. Indeed, tourism consumption is suggested to be socially influenced and culturally framed sharpley 1999.
Despite increasing academic attention paid to dark tourism, understanding of the concept remains limited, particularly from a consumption perspective. They narrow the definition to exclusively include exhibits and attractions solely associated with the gruesome or morbid historical events or exhibits that strongly appeal to the darker, curious side of human nature. Dark tourism definition of dark tourism by the free dictionary. Along with an indepth commentary on the key influencing factors, market statistics in terms of revenues, segmentwise data, regionwise data, and countrywise data are offered in the full study. Through our blog, we shall highlight some of the sites that have been categorized under this term and bring you their history and some relevant stories. Thanatourism, as dark tourism is known in academia, derives from the ancient greek word thanatos, or the personification of death. Dark tourism started to gain academic attention in the early 90s, but it is only recently that it has sparked the interest of the media and the general public. Mar 29, 2020 other academics make a clear distinction between dark tourism and other types of adjectival tourism.
Finding of this paper also witnessed that there is a need to expend the boundary or dark tourism beyond traditional disciplinary borders. That is, the literature focuses primarily on the supply of dark tourism. I thought it might also be useful to provide a glossary pertaining to dark tourism offering explanatory entries for a number of technical terms, people, historical events, etc. Dark tourism also black tourism or grief tourism is tourism involving travel to sites associated with death and tragedy. When the respondents view on history is linked to their motivation to visit dark tourism. The full range of motivations of dark tourist is a popular object of academic study, but there isnt a single straightforward answer. The term dark tourism describes travel to places which are associated with tragedy, suffering or death some of the more notorious dark tourism sites worldwide include the auschwitz concentration camp, or the chernobyl exclusion zone. Dark tourism, or tourism centered around historically significant death or tragedy, is a relatively new field of study though its practice goes back as long as people have travelled. Dark tourism describes a niche type of tourism which covers the visitation of places where tragedies or historically noteworthy deaths have occurred of institutions dealing with the heritage of humanity tarlow, 2005. While the definition is pretty straight forward, there remains some debate on the details of that definition. In the broader sense, dark tourism can be considered as the oldest form of tourism and also a recent development. For many years now dark tourism has been part of our fascination, dating back to the pilgrims. Later, he witnesses an exorcism in mexico and participates in a faux illegal border crossing.
Dark tourism and the kitschification of 911 tracey j. Dark tourism definition, tourist travel to areas affected by or associated with disasters or other public tragedies. Thus to date, the dimensions of dark tourism consumption have not been extracted only assumed. Thanatourism, 1 derived from the ancient greek word thanatos for the personification of death, is associated with dark tourism but refers more specifically to violent death. The topic has caught the attention of the media lennon, 2010, seaton and lennon, 2004 in a way few other forms of tourism have achieved, and is a regular subject for newspapermagazine articles and television programmes.
Pdf development of dark tourism in the contemporary. This study is one of the most comprehensive documentation that captures all the facets of the evolving dark tourism sector overview market. In kazakhstan, david and a fellow dark tourist swim in a lake formed by a nuclear blast. Recreational travel to view the sites of former atrocities. Generally, it seems to be easier to define what dark tourism is not than to give a clearcut definition of what it is for more on that see the concept of dark tourism and its overlap with other forms of tourism. Earlier pilgrimages that constituted the only form of travel included various sites of death, burial grounds or assassination sites. Within the past few decades, debate over dark tourism has emerged over its value commercially, educationally and culturally. The types of sites are broad, and the motivations are broader, but this paper reaches past the current understandings in the field in an attempt to apply marketing knowledge to the unique dark tourism industry. Institute for dark tourism research research university. Some include ghost tours and visitation of haunted sites in dark tourism while others dont. Dark tourism also black tourism, morbid tourism or grief tourism has been defined as tourism involving travel to places historically associated with death and tragedy.
Stone a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment for the requirements of the degree of doctor of philosophy at the university of central lancashire october 2010. Theres an increasing demand from tourists to visit the locations. Mar 12, 2020 a series of films made between 1927 and 1952 shone a light on the convict ruins of port arthur and helped develop dark tourism in australia. A series of films made between 1927 and 1952 shone a light on the convict ruins of port arthur and helped develop dark tourism in australia. Theres nothing inherently wrong with visiting chernobyls fallout zone or other sites of past tragedy. Dark tourism, definition, concept typology, relevance. This article aims to interrogate the framing of new yorks ground zero as a dark tourist destination, with particular reference to the entanglement of notions of kitsch in academic discussions of. Dark tourismintroductiondark tourism can be defined in many ways, both from a supply and a demand perspective.
Motivations behind traveling to dark tourism destinations. Dark tourism download ebook pdf, epub, tuebl, mobi. By definition dark tourism is tourism with the special interest being in death and anything associated with death. Towards a typology of death and macabre related tourist sites, attractions and exhibitions deaths, disasters and atrocities in touristic form are becoming an increasingly pervasive feature within the contemporary tourism landscape, and as such, are ever more providing. Other academics make a clear distinction between dark tourism and other types of adjectival tourism. The dark tourism institute was founded in 2012 to chronicle voyeurism at all sorts of macabre locations. The tour is one a growing body of experiences known as dark tourism. Of course, tourists fascination with death is nothing new. Issues associated with the definition and the evolution of. Click download or read online button to get dark tourism book now. Dark tourism although not thanatourism also enjoys a high profile outside the academic environment. Stone and his team have just launched a fiveyear project to.
Specifically, the roles of the key marketing factors of awareness and message appeal are studied and applied to dark tourism. Neil robinson salford business school college of business and law university of salford, salford, uk submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of doctor of philosophy, september 2015. The idtr promotes ethical research into the social scientific understanding of. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the papers in this special issue of ijcthr on dark tourism. Since then, chernobyl became the hottest dark tourism destination, attracting those who want to see the abandoned ghosttown of pripyat, a place that 40,000 people used to call home. This article aims to interrogate the framing of new yorks ground zero as a dark tourist destination, with particular reference to the entanglement of. The study included analysis of the definition of dark tourism, tourist motivations for this type of tourism, stone s typology of dark destination offers, and a. Lesser known dark tourism attractions might include cemeteries, zombiethemed events or historical museums. Dark tourism is the act of travel and visitation to sites, attractions and exhibitions which have real or.