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Dark tourism: when tragedy meets tourism

The likes of Auschwitz, Ground Zero and Chernobyl are seeing increasing numbers of visitors, sparking the term 'dark tourism'. But is it voyeuristic or educational?

Days after 71 people died in a London tower block fire last June, something strange started to happen in the streets around it. Posters, hastily drawn by members of the grieving community of Grenfell Tower, appeared on fences and lamp posts in view of the building's blackened husk.

'Grenfell: A Tragedy Not A Tourist Attraction,' one read, adding — sarcastically — a hashtag and the word 'selfies'. As families still searched for missing inhabitants of the 24-storey block, and the political shock waves were being felt through the capital, people had started to arrive in North Kensington to take photos. Some were posing in selfie mode.

"It's not the Eiffel Tower," one resident told the BBC after the posters attracted the attention of the press. "You don't take a picture." Weeks later, local people were dismayed when a coachload of Chinese tourists pulled up nearby so that its occupants could get out and take photos.

Grenfell Tower, which still dominates the surrounding skyline (it's due to be demolished in late 2018), had become a site for 'dark tourism', a loose label for any sort of tourism that involves visiting places that owe their notoriety to death, disaster, an atrocity or what can also loosely be termed 'difficult heritage'.

It's a phenomenon that's on the rise as established sites such as Auschwitz and the September 11 museum in Manhattan enjoy record visitor numbers. Meanwhile, demand is rising among those more intrepid dark tourists who want to venture to the fallout zones of Chernobyl and Fukushima, as well as North Korea and Rwanda. In Sulawesi, Indonesia, Western tourists wielding GoPros pay to watch elaborate funeral ceremonies in the Toraja region, swapping notes afterwards on TripAdvisor.

Along the increasingly crowded dark-tourist trail, academics, tour operators and the residents of many destinations are asking searching questions about the ethics of modern tourism in an age of the selfie and the Instagram hashtag. When Pompeii, a dark tourist site long before the phrase existed, found itself on the Grand Tour of young European nobility in the 18th century, dozens of visitors scratched their names into its excavated walls. Now we leave our mark in different ways, but where should we draw the boundaries?

Questions like these have become the life's work of Dr Philip Stone , perhaps the world's leading academic expert on dark tourism. He has a background in business and marketing, and once managed a holiday camp in Scotland. But a fascination with societal attitudes to mortality led to a PhD in thanatology, the study of death, and a focus on tourism.

"I'm not even a person who enjoys going to these places," Stone says from the University of Central Lancashire, where he runs the Institute for Dark Tourism Research. "But what I am interested in is the way people face their own mortality by looking at other deaths of significance. Because we've become quite divorced from death yet we have this kind of packaging up of mortality in the visit economy which combines business, sociology, psychology under the banner of dark tourism. It's really fascinating to shine a light on that."

Historical roots

The term 'dark tourism' is far newer than the practice, which long predates Pompeii's emergence as a morbid attraction. Stone considers the Roman Colosseum to be one of the first dark tourist sites, where people travelled long distances to watch death as sport. Later, until the late 18th century, the appeal was starker still in central London, where people paid money to sit in grandstands to watch mass executions. Hawkers would sell pies at the site, which was roughly where Marble Arch   stands today.

It was only in 1996 that 'dark tourism' entered the scholarly lexicon when two academics in Glasgow applied it while looking at sites associated with the assassination of JFK. Those who study dark tourism identify plenty of reasons for the growing phenomenon, including raised awareness of it as an identifiable thing. Access to sites has also improved with the advent of cheap air travel. It's hard to imagine that the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial and museum would now welcome more than two million visitors a year (an average of almost 5,500 a day, more than two-thirds of whom travel to the Polish site from other countries in Europe) were it not for its proximity to Krakow's international airport.

Peter Hohenhaus, a widely travelled dark tourist based in Vienna, also points to the broader rise in off-the-beaten track tourism, beyond the territory of popular guidebooks and TripAdvisor rankings. "A lot of people don't want mainstream tourism and that often means engaging with places that have a more recent history than, say, a Roman ruin," he says. "You go to Sarajevo and most people remember the war being in the news so it feels closer to one's own biography."

Hohenhaus is also a fan of 'beauty in decay', the contemporary cultural movement in which urban ruins have become subject matter for expensive coffee-table books and a thousand Instagram accounts. The crossover with death is clear. "I've always been drawn to derelict things," the 54-year-old says. As a child in Hamburg, he would wonder at the destruction of war still visible around the city's harbour.

That childhood interest has developed into an obsession; Hohenhaus has visited 650 dark tourist sites in 90 countries, logging them all and more besides on his website . He has plans to put together the first dark tourism guidebook. His favourite holiday destination today is Chernobyl and its 'photogenic' ghost town. "You get to time travel back into the Soviet era but also into an apocalyptic future," he says. He also enjoys being emotionally challenged by these places. "I went to Treblinka in 2008 and heard the story of a teacher at an orphanage in Warsaw who was offered a chance to escape but refused and went with his children to the gas chambers. Stories like that are not everyday, you mull over them. Would you have done that?"

But while, like any tourism, dark tourism at its best is thought-provoking and educational, the example of Grenfell Tower hints at the unease felt at some sites about what can look like macabre voyeurism. "I remember the Lonely Planet Bluelist book had a chapter about dark tourism a while ago and one of the rules was 'don't go back too early'," Hohenhaus says. "But that's easier said than calculated. You have to be very aware of reactions and be discreet when you're not in a place with an entrance fee and a booklet." Hohenhaus said he had already thought about Grenfell Tower and admits he would be interested to see it up close. "It's big, it's dramatic, it's black and it's a story you've followed in the news," he says. "I can see the attraction. But I would not stand in the street taking a selfie."

A mirror to mortality

An urge to see and feel a place that has been reduced to disaster shorthand by months of media coverage is perhaps understandable, but Stone is most interested in the draw — conscious or otherwise — of destinations that hold up a mirror to our own mortality. "When we touch the memory of people who've gone what we're looking at is ourselves," he says. "That could have been us in that bombing or atrocity. We make relevant our own mortality." That process looks different across cultures — and generations — and Stone says we should take this into account before despairing of selfie takers at Grenfell Tower or Auschwitz.

"I've heard residents at Grenfell welcoming visitors because it keeps the disaster in the public realm, but they didn't like people taking photos because it's a visual reminder that you're a tourist and therefore somehow defunct of morality," he explains. "We're starting to look at selfies now. Are they selfish?" Stone argues that the language of social media means we no longer say "I was here", but "I am here — see me". He adds: "We live in a secular society where morality guidelines are increasingly blurred. It's easy for us to say that's right or wrong, but for many people it's not as simple as that."

"Travel itself is innately voyeuristic," argues Simon Cockerel, the general manager of Koryo Tours , a North Korea specialist based in Beijing. Cockerel, who has lived in China for 17 years and joined Koryo in 2002, says demand has grown dramatically for trips to Pyongyang and beyond, from 200 people a year in the mid 1990s, when the company started, to more than 5,000 more recently. He has visited the country more than 165 times and says some clients join his tours simply to bag another country, and some for bragging rights. But the majority have a genuine interest in discovering a country — and a people — beyond the headlines.

"I've found everyone who goes there to be sensitive and aware of the issues," he says. "The restrictions do create a framework for it to be a bit like a theme park visit but we work hard to blur those boundaries. More than 25 million people live in North Korea, and 24.99 million of them have nothing to do with what we read in the news and deserve to be seen as people not as zoo animals or lazy caricatures."

More challenging recently has been the US ban on its citizens going to North Korea, imposed last summer after the mysterious death of Otto Warmbier. The American student had been arrested in Pyongyang after being accused of trying to steal a propaganda poster. Americans made up about 20% of Koryo's business, but Cockerel argues the greater loss is to mutual perception in the countries. "The North Korean government represent Americans as literal wolves with sharpened nails," he says. "At least a few hundred Americans going there was a kind of bridgehead against that. Now that's gone."

At Grenfell Tower, responsible tourism may yet serve to keep alive the memory of the disaster, just as it does, after a dignified moratorium, at Auschwitz and the former Ground Zero. Hohenhaus says he will resist the urge to go until some sort of memorial is placed at the site of the tower. At around the time of a commemorative service at St Paul's Cathedral six months after the fire, there were calls for the site eventually to be turned into a memorial garden. The extent to which Hohenhaus and other dark tourists are welcomed will be decided by the people still living there.

Five of the world's dark tourism sites

1. North Korea Opened to visitors in the late 1980s, North Korea now attracts thousands of tourists each year for a peek behind the headlines.

2. Auschwitz-Birkenau The former Nazi death camp became a memorial in 1947 and a museum in 1955. It's grown since and in 2016 attracted a record two million visitors.

3. 9/11 Memorial and Museum Built in the crater left by the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the museum, opened in 2014, has won plaudits for its portrayal of a disaster and its impact.

4. Rwanda Visitor numbers to genocide memorials have grown in Cambodia and Bosnia as well as in Rwanda, where there are several sites dedicated to the 1994 massacre of up to a million people. The skulls of victims are displayed.

5. Chernobyl & Pripyat, Ukraine Several tour companies exist to send visitors to the exclusion zone and ghost town left otherwise empty after the nuclear accident in 1986. All are scanned for radiation as they leave.

Published in the March 2018 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK)

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Ground Zero & the phenomena of ‘Dark Tourism

History facts.

Where:  Manhattan, New York, USA When:  2001 History:  Site of the former World Trade Center, destroyed in a terrorist attack, now attracting twice as many visitors as a memorial space in construction

Born from a ‘Day of Terror’

In 2002, the ruins of the World Trade Center in New York attracted 3.6 million visitors; the observation deck from the intact towers used to pull in an average of 1.8 million tourists per year. ‘Ground Zero’ as the site became known in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11 2001 appears to be the newest, most unlikely tourist attraction in the Big Apple.

Within months of the attacks the area became the latest home of sightseers and hawkers; around the site’s perimeter all manner of souvenirs, from Ground Zero NYC T-shirts and baseball caps to ‘Day of Terror’ commemorative books and DVD montages of the disaster are available. There’s even a big line in Osama bin Laden printed toilet paper feeding into people’s anger against the supposed terrorist mastermind. Tour guides lead groups around the site, pointing out places like the spot where fire fighters erected the American flag in rubble.

Photo of the 9/11 memorial taken from the World Financial Center, as it appeared in June 2012, photo by Cadiomals

Other ‘dark tourism’ sites

But is this really such a surprising phenomenon? Across the world there are lots of sites of human depravity which attract visitors.  Auschwitz  in Poland was listed a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979; it’s mandatory for all German schoolchildren to visit during their education and it’s virtually an Israeli right-of-passage to visit this Nazi extermination camp. The  Killing Fields  of Pol Pot’s genocidal regime in Cambodia are drawing more and more tourists and  Hiroshima  in Japan (where the Allies dropped the atomic bomb that ended World War II in the east) is also on the tourist trail.

Within the United States itself there are already several tourist destinations defined by tragedy. The  Sixth Floor Museum  in Dallas’ former Texas Book Repository is one such place. It opened 26 years after gunman Lee Harvey Oswald shot President Kennedy from a sixth-floor window there – it has since become the city’s biggest attraction, with 450,000 people a year.  Ford’s Theater , where President Lincoln was assassinated, the museum in the  Lorraine Motel  in Memphis where Dr Martin Luther King was shot and  Pearl Harbour  are all historic memorial sites.

Therapy or morbid obsession?

Because of the cataclysmic effect 9/11 had on the American psyche and the shockwaves it had across the world, this latest manifestation of disaster tourism has brought the whole issue into sharp relief. Papers in the States have been full of articles debating its moral validity and the New York tourist board has found it hard to approach its newest attraction, conscious of the need not to appear to be capitalising on the tragedy. Opinions differ radically; for some it’s like slowing down to look at a crash site – like  September’s Mission  (a victims’ families advocacy group) who called the vendors near the site and their customers ‘unbelievably sick’. Residents near the site, finding it hard to recover from the trauma anyway, feel that the throngs of tourists are intruding on their community. Others however, see it as a legitimate part of the national grieving process – a form of therapy. Others still, see it as the ultimate example of the American habit of commodification at work – like the authors of ‘Dark Tourism’ who suggest that it’s a typically westernised response to horror.

The question of its legitimacy are tied up in questions of memory, trauma and politics. In fact, it’s something that hasn’t really been seriously addressed until now. What is certain is that ‘dark tourism’ isn’t a new phenomenon – the violent death of the British Archbishop of Canterbury in the town’s cathedral in the twelfth century attracted throngs of people to the site. Perhaps they were pilgrims or perhaps it was morbid curiosity. With such a long history, it’s safe to say, whether you like it or not, dark tourism is here to stay.

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Beaches? Cruises? ‘Dark’ Tourists Prefer the Gloomy and Macabre

Travelers who use their off time to visit places like the Chernobyl nuclear plant or current conflict zones say they no longer want a sanitized version of a troubled world.

By Maria Cramer

North Korea. East Timor. Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous enclave that for decades has been a tinderbox for ethnic conflict between Armenians and Azerbaijanis.

They’re not your typical top tourist destinations.

But don’t tell that to Erik Faarlund, the editor of a photography website from Norway, who has visited all three. His next “dream” trip is to tour San Fernando in the Philippines around Easter , when people volunteer to be nailed to a cross to commemorate the suffering of Jesus Christ, a practice discouraged by the Catholic Church.

Mr. Faarlund, whose wife prefers sunning on Mediterranean beaches, said he often travels alone.

“She wonders why on earth I want to go to these places, and I wonder why on earth she goes to the places she goes to,” he said.

Mr. Faarlund, 52, has visited places that fall under a category of travel known as dark tourism , an all-encompassing term that boils down to visiting places associated with death, tragedy and the macabre.

As travel opens up, most people are using their vacation time for the typical goals: to escape reality, relax and recharge. Not so dark tourists, who use their vacation time to plunge deeper into the bleak, even violent corners of the world.

They say going to abandoned nuclear plants or countries where genocides took place is a way to understand the harsh realities of current political turmoil, climate calamities, war and the growing threat of authoritarianism.

“When the whole world is on fire and flooded and no one can afford their energy bills, lying on a beach at a five-star resort feels embarrassing,” said Jodie Joyce, who handles contracts for a genome sequencing company in England and has visited Chernobyl and North Korea .

Mr. Faarlund, who does not see his travels as dark tourism, said he wants to visit places “that function totally differently from the way things are run at home.”

Whatever their motivations, Mr. Faarlund and Ms. Joyce are hardly alone.

Eighty-two percent of American travelers said they have visited at least one dark tourism destination in their lifetime, according to a study published in September by Passport-photo.online, which surveyed more than 900 people. More than half of those surveyed said they preferred visiting “active” or former war zones. About 30 percent said that once the war in Ukraine ends, they wanted to visit the Azovstal steel plant, where Ukrainian soldiers resisted Russian forces for months .

The growing popularity of dark tourism suggests more and more people are resisting vacations that promise escapism, choosing instead to witness firsthand the sites of suffering they have only read about, said Gareth Johnson, a founder of Young Pioneer Tours , which organized trips for Ms. Joyce and Mr. Faarlund.

Tourists, he said, are tired of “getting a sanitized version of the world.”

A pastime that goes back to Gladiator Days

The term “dark tourism” was coined in 1996, by two academics from Scotland, J. John Lennon and Malcolm Foley, who wrote “Dark Tourism: The Attraction to Death and Disaster.”

But people have used their leisure time to witness horror for hundreds of years, said Craig Wight, associate professor of tourism management at Edinburgh Napier University.

“It goes back to the gladiator battles” of ancient Rome, he said. “People coming to watch public hangings. You had tourists sitting comfortably in carriages watching the Battle of Waterloo.”

Professor Wight said the modern dark tourist usually goes to a site defined by tragedy to make a connection to the place, a feeling that is difficult to achieve by just reading about it.

By that definition, anyone can be a dark tourist. A tourist who takes a weekend trip to New York City may visit Ground Zero. Visitors to Boston may drive north to Salem to learn more about the persecution of people accused of witchcraft in the 17th century. Travelers to Germany or Poland might visit a concentration camp. They might have any number of motivations, from honoring victims of genocide to getting a better understanding of history. But in general, a dark tourist is someone who makes a habit of seeking out places that are either tragic, morbid or even dangerous, whether the destinations are local or as far away as Chernobyl.

In recent years, as tour operators have sprung up worldwide promising deep dives into places known for recent tragedy, media attention has followed and so have questions about the intentions of visitors, said Dorina-Maria Buda, a professor of tourism studies at Nottingham Trent University .

Stories of people gawking at neighborhoods in New Orleans destroyed by Hurricane Katrina or posing for selfies at Dachau led to disgust and outrage .

Were people driven to visit these sites out of a “sense of voyeurism or is it a sense of sharing in the pain and showing support?” Professor Buda said.

Most dark tourists are not voyeurs who pose for photos at Auschwitz, said Sian Staudinger, who runs the Austria-based Dark Tourist Trips , which organizes itineraries in the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe and instructs travelers to follow rules like “NO SELFIES!”

“Dark tourists in general ask meaningful questions,” Ms. Staudinger said. “They don’t talk too loud. They don’t laugh. They’re not taking photos at a concentration camp.”

‘Ethically murky territory’

David Farrier , a journalist from New Zealand, spent a year documenting travels to places like Aokigahara , the so-called suicide forest in Japan, the luxury prison Pablo Escobar built for himself in Colombia and McKamey Manor in Tennessee, a notorious haunted house tour where people sign up to be buried alive, submerged in cold water until they feel like they will drown and beaten.

The journey was turned into a show, “Dark Tourist,” that streamed on Netflix in 2018 and was derided by some critics as ghoulish and “sordid.”

Mr. Farrier, 39, said he often questioned the moral implications of his trips.

“It’s very ethically murky territory,” Mr. Farrier said.

But it felt worthwhile to “roll the cameras” on places and rituals that most people want to know about but will never experience, he said.

Visiting places where terrible events unfolded was humbling and helped him confront his fear of death.

He said he felt privileged to have visited most of the places he saw, except McKamey Manor.

“That was deranged,” Mr. Farrier said.

Professor Buda said dark tourists she has interviewed have described feelings of shock and fear at seeing armed soldiers on streets of countries where there is ongoing conflict or that are run by dictatorships.

“When you’re part of a society that is by and large stable and you’ve gotten into an established routine, travel to these places leads you to sort of feel alive,” she said.

But that travel can present real danger.

In 2015, Otto Warmbier , a 21-year-old student from Ohio who traveled with Young Pioneer Tours, was arrested in North Korea after he was accused of stealing a poster off a hotel wall. He was detained for 17 months and was comatose when he was released. He died in 2017, six days after he was brought back to the United States.

The North Korean government said Mr. Warmbier died of botulism but his family said his brain was damaged after he was tortured.

Americans can no longer travel to North Korea unless their passports are validated by the State Department.

A chance to reflect

Even ghost tours — the lighter side of dark tourism — can present dilemmas for tour operators, said Andrea Janes, the owner and founder of Boroughs of the Dead: Macabre New York City Walking Tours.

In 2021, she and her staff questioned whether to restart tours so soon after the pandemic in a city where refrigerated trucks serving as makeshift morgues sat in a marine terminal for months.

They reopened and were surprised when tours booked up fast. People were particularly eager to hear the ghost stories of Roosevelt Island, the site of a shuttered 19th-century hospital where smallpox patients were treated .

“We should have seen as historians that people would want to talk about death in a time of plague,” Ms. Janes said.

Kathy Biehl, who lives in Jefferson Township, N.J., and has gone on a dozen ghost tours with Ms. Janes’s company, recalled taking the tour “Ghosts of the Titanic” along the Hudson River. It was around 2017, when headlines were dominated by President Trump’s tough stance on refugees and immigrants coming into the United States.

Those stories seemed to dovetail with the 100-year-old tales of immigrants trying to make it to New York on a doomed ship, Ms. Biehl said.

It led to “a catharsis” for many on the tour, she said. “People were on the verge of tears over immigration.”

Part of the appeal of dark tourism is its ability to help people process what is happening “as the world gets darker and gloomier,” said Jeffrey S. Podoshen , a professor of marketing at Franklin and Marshall College, who specializes in dark tourism.

“People are trying to understand dark things, trying to understand things like the realities of death, dying and violence,” he said. “They look at this type of tourism as a way to prepare themselves.”

Mr. Faarlund, the photo editor, recalled one trip with his wife and twin sons: a private tour of Cambodia that included a visit to the Killing Fields , where between 1975 and 1979 more than 2 million Cambodians were killed or died of starvation and disease under the Khmer Rouge regime.

His boys, then 14, listened intently to unsparing and brutal stories of the torture center run by the Khmer Rouge. At one point, the boys had to go outside, where they sat quietly for a long time.

“They needed a break,” Mr. Faarlund said. “It was quite mature of them.”

Afterward, they met two of the survivors of the Khmer Rouge, fragile men in their 80s and 90s. The teenagers asked if they could hug them and the men obliged, Mr. Faarlund said.

It was a moving trip that also included visits to temples, among them Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, and meals of frog, oysters and squid at a roadside restaurant.

“They loved it,” Mr. Faarlund said of his family.

Still, he can’t see them coming with him to see people re-enact the crucifixion in the Philippines.

“I don’t think they want to go with me on that one,” Mr. Faarlund said.

52 Places for a Changed World

The 2022 list highlights places around the globe where travelers can be part of the solution.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram , Twitter and Facebook . And sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to receive expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places for a Changed World for 2022.

Maria Cramer is a reporter on the Travel desk. Please send her tips, questions and complaints about traveling, especially on cruises. More about Maria Cramer

Open Up Your World

Considering a trip, or just some armchair traveling here are some ideas..

52 Places:  Why do we travel? For food, culture, adventure, natural beauty? Our 2024 list has all those elements, and more .

Ljubljana, Slovenia:  Stroll along the river, explore a contemporary art scene and admire panoramic views in this scenic Central European capital .

Cities With Great Beaches:  Already been to Miami, Honolulu and Sydney? These five other coastal destinations  are vibrant on land and on the water.

Southern France:  The Canal du Midi traverses the Occitanie region and gives cyclists of all skill levels  access to parts of France that are rich in lore .

Port Antonio, Jamaica:  The D.J. and music producer Diplo recommends spots in a city he loves  on Jamaica’s northeast coast. A dance party makes the cut.

New Mexico:  Visiting the vast and remote Gila Wilderness, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary, is both inspiring and demanding .

Dark Tourism In New York: 12 Sad, Strange & Macabre Destinations

T he state of New York, celebrated for its dazzling lights and landmarks, conceals a mysterious and alluring other side, inviting the brave to explore its dark side.

At the heart lies New York City, an epitome of cosmopolitan life, with a hidden history rich in obscure tales. And beyond the glimmer of Times Square and Broadway, spine-chilling waypoints lurk, from haunted mansions to global tragedies.

As an intrepid traveler, delving into the mysteries and secrets becomes a thrilling pursuit, one, we highly encourage. In a city known for glamour and fashion, dark tourism has a fairly strong hold and plenty of hidden secrets waiting to be discovered!

So join us, as we seek out some of New York’s must-see dark tourism destinations.

The Macabre, Strange & Interesting Dark Tourism Destinations of New York

1. ground zero.

September 11th 2001, is a date that often spikes hairs on the backs of necks. It’s a day where many can recall fearing nothing but fear, terror, and shock as they watched multiple planes slam into American landmarks across the country.

However, it was the attack on the Twin Towers (aka. World Trade Centre) that had the world aghast. Most can remember being glued to their screens, watching as the buildings caught ablaze and crumbled. Unfortunately, thousands of people lost their lives at the hands of the Al Queda terrorist group, and it’s left a notable scar on Modern day society.

The reflecting pools were dedicated to the families of those who lost loved ones to the tragedy of 9/11 and were designed by Michael Arad, an Israeli-American Architect. His vision was clear in he wanted visitors to empathise with the feeling of loss and emptiness the victims’ families felt.

As visitors come together here in silence, they also leave with a renewed sense of unity and a reminder that, in the face of darkness, the human spirit shines brightest.

Location: Greenwich St, New York, NY

Tags: Dark History; Disaster Tourism

2. Amityville Horror House

Horror fanatics will know the Amityville Horror and all its renditions all too well! But while we were once mistaken to think it was just a work of fiction, we were unpleasantly surprised to discover the truth. There’s no mystery behind it,

In 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. brutally murdered six members of his family in cold blood, converting this stereotypical Dutch-style suburban home into a house of horrors within the space of a few hours. Obviously, this tragic and senseless act of violence left behind a few restless spirits…

It was only a year later that the Lutz family hoped to call this address home, only to be chased out screaming in the night by the ghosts that haunt its halls. Their accounts of paranormal phenomena were so vivid and unbelievable that several books were written about it, and later on, a few creative renditions were turned into a film franchise.

While paying these ghostly apparitions a visit might sound like a great idea when you’re bragging to your friends about your die-hard brevity, we’d recommend some caution. Braver souls than you have entered the house and reported strange noises, visions and inexplicable cold spots.

Those who are just mindlessly brazen enough to spend the night have even woken up with a few battle scars, but everyone who has visited has made the same statement. The Amityville Horror House has a very strange aura.

Even Ed and Lorraine Warren spent a stint investigating the house. Their verdict? Definitely haunted. Oh well, it belongs to an Amityville local now, and while you can’t necessarily go wandering through for a tour (it’s called Trespassing), people still claim to get an eerie feeling just from passing by…

Location: Ocean Avenue, Amityville, NY

Tags: Paranormal; Supernatural; Dark History

3. Roosevelt Island

Located in the East River, Roosevelt Island is a serene and tranquil place that housed a rather morbid past. Don’t let the beauty fool you, there’s plenty of tragic and morbid stories that come to mind when this location is mentioned.

In the 19th century, it served as a quarantine zone to help prevent the spread of smallpox around the densely populated city.

Home to the Renwick Smallpox Hospital, now a shell of what it used to be, the island was a line of defence against a terrible pandemic that swiftly killed hundreds of men, women and children before a vaccine was discovered.

Now, the ruins of that period in New York’s history are a poignant reminder of the world’s lacklustre medical system back in the day. We say it often, but we’d hate to have come down with the sniffles in the 19th century, because the doctor probably would have prescribed a lobotomy and a dose of radium to soothe our stuffy sinuses.

 All jokes aside, though, Roosevelt Island had a significant role to play in New York’s history. And while the topic of death by smallpox isn’t entirely pleasant, we’ll remind you that it was the work done on islands like this that helped our medicines evolve into what they are today.

Besides, out of all of the dark tourism locations in New York we mention here, this is probably one of the prettiest. Plus you gain the company of the local feral cat colony to help you on your quest through the dilapidated hospital! If you’re brave enough.

Location: Roosevelt Island, New York

Tags: Paranormal; Dark History

4. Coney Island Creek

Coney Island is as much a part of New York’s travel brochure as the Empire State Building, but with a little twist. It boasts nearly 10 acres of water wonderland in the form of Coney Island Creek!

It’s the pure definition of something being engineered for failure after elaborate plans to turn the creek into a canal ran aground. Literally.

Ships were invited to sail through, but not all of them found their way back out. Cue the wrecks, the abandoned ships, and the mysterious yellow submarine! Yes, you heard it right – a yellow submarine right in the heart of Brooklyn!

Legend has it that a local shipyard worker named Jerry Bianco started building the sub over 40 years ago. His dream was to raise the SS Andrea Doria, a sunken ocean liner with valuable treasures onboard. Unfortunately, he couldn’t seal the deal and left the half-built sub stranded in the creek.

Today, it’s a quirky landmark and home to a peculiar mix of birds and crabs, living their best lives on this whimsical underwater perch. And if it weren’t for the beauty of nature reclaiming the wreckage, we can’t help but admit the whole scene is a bit creepy, or “creek”-y should we say?

Location: Coney Island

Tags: Alternative Tourism

5. The Ghostbusters’ Firehouse

Intrepid movie fanatics will easily be able to identify the Ghostbusters’ Firehouse! After all, this iconic New York monument was the base camp for some of the most ludacris hauntings New York has ever experienced.

Albeit fake, we can’t help but reminisce on the fiendish ghouls that the members of Ghostbusters’ came up against!

From the undeniable action to the blossoming romance undertones, the original Ghostbusters films were ingrained into the memories of anyone born before the early 2000s. To say that this firehouse has since become a mecca for movie tourism would be an understatement.

It’s a thrilling curiosity that proves not all ghosts are terrifying renditions of modern-day horror! Sometimes they’re the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

But be warned, although the movies might have been entirely fiction, some rather intuitive visitors to the Firehouse claim to get eerie vibes and have encountered some ghostly apparitions. We’re not sure we believe it, but we’re willing to slap on the proton packs! Who ya gonna call? Not us, probably.

Location: 14 North Moore Street, Manhattan, New York

Tags: Paranormal; Movie Tourism

6. Kreischer Mansion

Staten Island might have the reputation of being a luscious wonderland, but beneath the plush parks and cushy demeanor, dark secrets take hold. This tale takes place at the Kreischer Mansion, but is far from a work of fiction, and will certainly build an aura that sends tingles up your spine.

The mansion was once part of a double set, but now stands alone as a tribute to a family toiled with bad luck.

Kreischer Sr. moved to Staten Island in the early 19th century, and brought with him a thriving brickworks business that eventually earned him a town name. As a gift to his heirs, the Kreischer mansions were built but tragically, his eldest passed just a year after their completion.

It seemed the family was plagued by some curse, as shortly thereafter the very business the boys were set to inherit went up in literal flames. Granted, the family tried their best to rebuild, but eventually the stress and turmoil was too much and another of the Kreischer sons killed himself in his home.

Today, only one mansion still stands, with an unsavoury reputation keeping many owners and businesses at bay. Not to mention that the Kreischer Mansion became a horrific crime scene in 2005 courtesy of one seriously irked Mafia Boss.

Needless to say, all the toils and troubles surrounding the curse of this Mansion have conjured up some ghostly apparitions and landed Kreischer Mansion a top spot in New York’s most haunted destinations.

So if you’re looking to come face to face with paranormal entities, where better to start that on the top of the poetically named Arthur Kill Road.

Location: 4500 Arthur Kill Rd, Staten Island, NY

7. The Hangman’s Elm

Washington Square Park is yet another iconic destination in New York City, and it’s home to some rather ancient residents including the 300 year old Hangman’s Elm. As stunning as this colossal feat of nature is, it comes with a rather disturbing folklore that is both intriguing and repulsive to those who know it.

As the legend goes, this tree served as a gallows in the 18th and 19th century. The sturdy branches became the last sight for hardened criminals sentenced to a swift and justified end at the hands of the New York Judicial system.

While there’s no true record of this tree’s reputation, the local lore has been enough to leave a foul taste in anyone’s mouth as they walk below the blossoming branches. It’s spooky, yet charming and a big part of New York’s dark tourism scene.

Location: Washington Square Park, Greenwich Village, Manhattan, NY

8. The Ramble Cave

Walking through New York City’s Central Park often sits in the bucket list of most eager travellers. After all, the movies and stories have painted scenes of romance and joy amongst the luscious lawns!

Only, with such a historic reputation, we can’t say Central Park has always been squeaky clean and as ideological as Hollywood likes to paint it. In fact, to this day Central Park can be a treasure trove of horrors if you know where to look.

The Ramble Cave is amongst many of these hidden horrors which seamlessly blends in with the Central Park aesthetic.

Thanks to the vision of Central Park’s planners, you’d never suspect that under all that rustic natural allure sits a gaping cavern that had only been discovered upon excavation to create an artificial oasis. The planners, though shocked, were nothing if not innovative and decided to rather adjust their vision around the natural formation.

The Ramble Cave quickly became a beloved attraction, captivating the imaginations of both children and adults.

However, with popularity came notoriety, and the cave became a magnet for mischief and untoward incidents. Eventually, it was sealed off, leaving only the steps by the lake as a faint trace of its existence.

Location: Central Park, New York City, NY

Tags: Dark History, Alternative Tourism

9. The Dream House

On a lighter note, literally, The Dream House is an enchanting break from the dark and morbid, but rather a colorful delight that’s as strange as it is enigmatic.

Located in Tribeca, you’ll come across a notably black door, marked by a cryptic white sign. You might be expecting the ideal version of the White Picket Fence and 2.5 kids lifestyle, but we promise, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Designed in 1993, The Dream House was an innovative project taken on by a composer and artist. They aimed to create an immersive experience unlike anything seen at the time, and we’ll admit, in that regard they’ve succeeded!

Stepping through that cryptic black door won’t lead you out to Barbie’s Dream House, but rather into a setting of visual and auditory artistry.

It seamlessly blends a mesmerizing lightshow with harmonious sounds to create an environment where light and sound become one. According to the geniuses behind it, The Dream House was made to be a new form of art, and has been an inspiration to hundreds of artists to date.

So why would we consider it a form of dark tourism? Well, dark tourism serves to alter the very atmosphere you occupy, and this art piece does exactly that. It might not be grim and grotesque, but it’ll certainly steal your breath away.

Location: 275 Church St, New York, NY

10. The Bellevue Hospital

The Bellevue Hospital was a name synonymous with rot and death that spit fear into the hearts of even the bravest New Yorkers.

Established in 1736, it stands as one of America’s oldest public hospitals, and has a rap sheet to go with it! Its origins were humble, with the hospital quickly becoming a much-needed refuge for the city’s poorest.

It didn’t bode entirely well for their reputation, and while, from the outside, Bellevue Hospital seemed more like a death sentence than a haven, it was the revolutionary facilities it housed that helped it stay afloat.

Despite their game-changing steps in the medical field, the Bellevue Hospital craved more, eventually opening a psychiatric building in 1931. This ward eventually became rather notorious, and grew to be the inspiration for many horror stories over the decades to follow.

Bellevue has since evolved into a state-of-the-art medical institution, earning a reputation for progressiveness and excellence. Yet the old psychiatric building, now abandoned, remains, reminding us that success often comes with a heavy price to pay.

Location: 462 1st Ave., New York, NY

11. Houdini’s Grave

Nestled among the winding cemeteries of Queens lies the grave of the renowned escape artist and illusionist, Harry Houdini. His untimely death on Halloween in 1926 marked the end of an era for magic enthusiasts worldwide.

Of course, Houdini went out with a bang, not a fizzle, and left behind cryptic instructions that were rumored to hold messages from beyond the grave. It became a site of intrigue and on his day of death, a new tradition was created known as the Broken Wand Ceremony.

Unfortunately though, this had to be pushed into November as it attracted hoards to the cemetery around Halloween which obviously didn’t go down well with the mourning families of Houdini’s graveyard neighbours.

Unfortunately, parts of the grave have been stolen and pawned, but for the most part, it still stands as a beautiful tribute to the master of illusion!

Location: Machpelah Cemetery, New York

Tags: Grave Tourism

12. North Brother Island

North Brother Island is a place of haunting history that spans just over a century. In 1885, it became home to the Riverside Hospital which housed “Typhoid Mary”, the first asymptomatic carrier of Typhoid Fever in the US. Unfortunately, this lead to disastrous outbreaks, with many losing their lives to the disease!

But the curse of North Brother Island didn’t stop there. In 1905, it became the site of the General Slocum steamship disaster which resulted in a loss of life into the thousands.

Eventually, the hospital was transformed into a refuge for addicts and war veterans post-World War II before being closed down in 1963 and left to rot away.

Today, North Brother Island has become a serene bird sanctuary amidst the backdrop of decaying hospitals and historical significance. Oh well, if the idea of a potentially super haunted remote islands doesn’t freak you out, at least you’ll get to enjoy some sighting of the Black-Crowned Night Herons.

Location: North Brother Island

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What Is Dark Tourism And Why Is It So Popular?

Pompeii. Ground Zero. The Colosseum. Auschwitz. Civil War Trail. Chernobyl. If you've visited any of these places, you might be considered a "dark" tourist — not a voyeur or sadist. A dark tourist.

While "dark tourism" means different things to different people, let's define the cultural nuance as follows: Dark tourism is visiting places associated with death and human tragedy. Full stop. Some make distinctions regarding recency consideration, but even that is open to interpretation.

Of course, visiting Pompeii and Ground Zero is different, but philosophically, both sites are associated with death and human tragedy. However, the visitor's motivation to visit these particular sites will be different. Unless a visitor knew someone in 79 A.D., their visit to Pompeii will be motivated by history and education. For someone visiting New York's Ground Zero, their motivation could range from first-person personal to culturally reflective to experiential education.

But what about visiting the funeral pyres in Varanasi, India, where Hindus cremate on the banks of the Ganges? That's not history. And it's culturally sacred. And the ceremonies continue day and night. It's not always easy for a person trying to see the world — both the good and the bad — to know what's appropriate and ethical. So, first, in an attempt to further round out the definition of dark tourism , let's try to understand why dark tourism is so popular, and explore how to be a responsible dark tourist. 

Reasons why dark tourism is so popular

Dark tourism could most efficiently be defined as the act of visiting places associated with death and human tragedy — and that tragedy as an incident that caused or causes shared societal grief, regardless of cultural context or causality. 

So, why is dark tourism so popular? According to a 2021 study published by the International Hospitality Review, researchers described the four primary motivations of someone to visit places associated with death and tragedy as: curiosity (a need to see to believe), education, an interest in personally connecting, and the place's sheer existence as a tourist attraction.

As stated, dark tourism means different things to different people, and when tourists visit dark tourism sites such as Ground Zero, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum outside of Kraków, Poland , the Cambodian Killing Fields, the catacombs in Paris, or Hiroshima, their motivations will color their perception of the experience.

If learning is your motivation to visit these places, then a guided tour is definitely recommended. It's one thing to visit a notorious site, but if your goal is to learn, then a guide can provide essential grounding context, leading to a more engaging and thought-invoking experience. If personal connection is your goal, then a tour may still be warranted. However, most sensitive sites offer audio-guides and directed self-guided tours, allowing visitors the space and privacy for personal reflection and connection.

How to be a responsible dark tourist

Dark tourism isn't necessarily a question of morality. Just because you look at scars, doesn't mean you made them or you're happy they exist. Tragic events are historical, cultural, and societal scars. Unfortunately and realistically, these scars crisscross — and continue to crisscross — our little blue orb. Seeing these scars in person doesn't make you dark, and choosing not to see them while traveling doesn't make you naïve. 

However, when visiting a sensitive place or participating in a sensitive experience, it's incredibly important to be mindful of this sensitivity. This is especially true if you're not personally connected to the event. Many visitors at these sites will be. You don't want to be the person snapping selfies next to a family recalling personal tragedy or reliving traumatic events. 

For your own fulfillment and for respect of others, simply listening and absorbing may be the best approach. Usually, by doing these two things, your overall decorum should be in check. Being a responsible dark tourist simply means being respectful to the place, the event, and other visitors who may've been personally affected by the place and event.

Dark tourism: motivations and visit intentions of tourists

International Hospitality Review

ISSN : 2516-8142

Article publication date: 8 July 2021

Issue publication date: 14 June 2022

The overall purpose of this study is to utilize the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in combination with four dark tourism constructs (dark experience, engaging entertainment, unique learning experience, and casual interest) to gain a better understanding of behaviors and intentions of tourists who have visited or plan to visit a dark tourism location.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 1,068 useable questionnaires was collected via Qualtrics Panels for analysis purposes. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to verify satisfactory reliability and validity regarding the measurement of model fit. With adequate model fit, structural equation modeling was employed to determine positive and negative relationships between TPB and dark tourism constructs. In all, 11 hypotheses statements were tested within this study.

Results of this study indicate that tourists are curious, interested, and intrigued by dark experiences with paranormal activity, resulting in travel choices made for themselves based on personal beliefs and preferences, with minimal outside influence from others. It was determined that dark experience was the most influential of the dark tourism constructs tested in relationship to attitudes and subjective norm.

Research limitations/implications

The data collected for this study were collected using Qualtrics Panels with self-reporting participants. The actual destination visited by survey participants was also not factored into the results of this research study.

Originality/value

This study provides a new theoretical research model that merges TPB and dark tourism constructs and established that there is a relationship between TPB constructs and dark tourism.

Dark tourism

• Thanatourism
• Motivations
• Theory of planned behaviour

Lewis, H. , Schrier, T. and Xu, S. (2022), "Dark tourism: motivations and visit intentions of tourists", International Hospitality Review , Vol. 36 No. 1, pp. 107-123. https://doi.org/10.1108/IHR-01-2021-0004

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Heather Lewis, Thomas Schrier and Shuangyu Xu

Published in International Hospitality Review . Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Introduction

Dark tourism is defined as the act of tourists traveling to sites of death, tragedy, and suffering ( Foley and Lennon, 1996 ). This past decade marks a significant growth of dark tourism with increasing number of dark tourists ( Lennon and Foley, 2000 ; Martini and Buda, 2018 ). More than 2.1 million tourists visited Auschwitz Memorial in 2018 (visitor numbers, 2019), and 3.2 million tourists visited the Ground Zero 9/11 Memorial annually (a year in review, 2017). Despite of the increasing popularity, there is still limited understanding of dark tourism as a multi-faceted phenomenon ( Biran et al. , 2011 ) . Some research has looked into the motivations and experience of dark tourists ( Poria et al. , 2004 ; Poria et al. , 2006 ). However, most were based on conceptual frameworks and arguments with little empirical data, even less have examined tourist visit intentions to dark tourism sites ( Zhang et al. , 2016 ), let alone the association between dark tourists' motivations and visit intentions. Many scholars suggested the pressing needs for empirical research into dark tourism from tourist perspectives to understand their motivations and experiences ( Seaton and Lennon, 2004 ; Sharpley and Stone, 2009 ; Zhang et al. , 2016 ). Of the limited empirical dark tourism studies, most were case studies with historical battlefields and concentration camps being the hot spots ( Le and Pearce, 2011 ; Lennon and Foley, 1999 ; Miles, 2002 ). Still, a comprehensive understanding of dark tourists' motivations and their intentions to visit is lacking.

As such, this study was conducted to understand both the motivations and visit intentions of tourists to dark tourism destinations. Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) constructs ( attitudes, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control) and the four dark tourism dimensions (i.e. dark experience, engaging entertainment, unique learning experience, and casual interest ) were utilized to address the following objectives: (1) examine the motivations of dark tourists; (2) investigate the intentions of the dark tourists to visit a dark tourism destination in the next 12 months; and (3) explore the association between the motivations and visit intentions of dark tourists. The dark tourism dimensions utilized for this study were adapted supported by previous dark tourism studies ( Biran et al. , 2014 ; Bissell, 2009 ; Lam and Hsu, 2006 ; Molle and Bader, 2014 ). While many studies have utilized TPB in the past, this study will utilize the TPB to focus attention on why travelers are motivated to visit dark tourism locations specifically.

Literature review

Travels associated with death dates back for centuries ( Dale and Robinson, 2011 ). Early examples of dark tourism include Roman gladiator games, guided tours to watch hangings in England, and pilgrimages to medieval executions ( Stone, 2006 ). Even today, many tourists are fascinated with and thus visited sites of death and tragedy such as the John F. Kennedy's death site in Dallas, Texas, and the Ground Zero 9/11 Memorial in New York ( Foley and Lennon, 1996 ; Strange and Kempa, 2003 ). Abandoned prisons and sites of punishment and incarcerations are also popular attractions among dark tourists (e.g., Pentridge in Melbourne, Australia; Foley and Lennon, 1996 ). However, the term dark tourism did not get introduced to the research community until 1996 which ignited many later research efforts on this topic ( Light, 2017 ).

Dark tourism is defined as the act of tourists traveling to sites of death, tragedy, and suffering ( Foley and Lennon, 1996 ). Many scholars also came up with other terms and labels to describe such phenomenon including thanatourism ( Seaton, 1996 ), disaster tourism ( Rojek, 1993 ), black spot tourism ( Rojek, 1993 ), morbid tourism ( Blom, 2000 ) and even phoenix tourism ( Powell et al. , 2018 ). Mowatt and Chancellor (2011) suggested that despite of different names, at the heart of the concept is travel to places of death that are often linked to violence ( Robb, 2009 ). Many researchers use the term dark tourism and thanatourism interchangeably, while more tend to use dark tourism as an umbrella term for any form of tourism that is somehow related to death, suffering, atrocity, tragedy or crime ( Light, 2017 ). Given the standard use of the term dark tourism in the practice and scholarship of tourism, such a term will be used throughout this manuscript.

Dark tourism research in this past two decades mainly covers six themes including the discussion on definition, concepts, and typologies; the associated ethical issues; the political and ideological dimensions; the nature of demand for dark tourism locations; site management; and the methods used for research ( Light, 2017 ). The area of terminology and definitions undoubtedly dominates in the dark tourism literature ( Zhang et al. , 2016 ). While in the area of exploring the nature of demand for dark tourism locations, the relatively limited research concentrated in four aspects – both the motivations and experiences of dark tourists, the relationship between visiting and sense of identity, and new approaches to theorizing the consumption of dark tourism ( Light, 2017 ).

Research addressing dark tourists' motivations were relatively slow. Many early studies simply postulate and propose tourists' motivations to visit dark tourism sites, with a lack of empirical research to support ( Light, 2017 ). As such, many studies in the past decade examined dark tourists' motivations through different case studies, with concentration camps or historical battlefields being the hot spots ( Lennon and Foley, 1999 ; Miles, 2002 ). Research reveals that tourists visit dark tourism destinations for a wide variety of reasons, such as curiosity ( Biran et al. , 2014 ; Isaac and Cakmak, 2014 ), desire for education and learning about what happened at the site ( Kamber et al. , 2016 ; Yan et al. , 2016 ), interest in history or death ( Yankholmes and McKercher, 2015 ; Raine, 2013 ), connecting with one's personal or family heritage ( Mowatt and Chancellor, 2011 ; Le and Pearce, 2011 ). Drawing from literature, four common themes (i.e. dark experience, engaging entertainment, unique learning experience, casual interest) emerged, served as the foundational pillars for this study, and were discussed below.

The motivation construct

Dark experience.

Raine's (2013) dark tourist spectrum study of tourists visiting burial grounds and graveyards concluded that mourners and pilgrims had personal and spiritual connections to the different sites being studied. Mourners visited specific gravesites and usually would perform meditations for the dead. Pilgrims had a personal connection to specific burial sites in some way, whether it is a religious connection to the individual or they served as a personal hero ( Raine, 2013 ). Death rites are often performed as a ritual not necessarily to mark the passing of the deceased but rather to heal the wounds of families, communities, societies, and/or nations by the deceased's passing ( Bowman and Pezzullo, 2009 ).

Additionally, Raine's (2013) study discovered another subset of tourists—the morbidly curious and thrill seekers. Those classified as morbidly curious or thrill seekers were visiting burial sites to confront and experience death. Whether a mourner or pilgrim or the morbidly curious thrill seeker, the tourists had a strong connection to the dead they were there to visit which could categorize them as seeking a dark experience.

To take dark tourism to the extreme, Miller and Gonzalez (2013) completed a study on death tourism. Death tourism occurs when individuals travel to a location to end their lives, often through a means of assisted medical suicide. It was determined that this is still a taboo topic for some countries where it is not legalized, however it is gaining more publicity. It was determined that death tourism is typically the result of one of four reasons; the primary reason death tourism is planned is because of assisted suicide being illegal in the traveler's home country ( Miller and Gonzalez, 2013 ). While death tourism does not directly apply to this particular study, it is an offspring of dark tourism and is a tourist activity that is related to dark experience.

Dark Experience will have a positive relationship with Attitudes

Dark Experience will have a positive relationship with Subjective Norm

Engaging Entertainment

Engaging Entertainment will have a positive relationship with Attitudes

Engaging Entertainment will have a positive relationship with Subjective Norm

Unique learning experience

Unique Learning Experience will have a positive relationship with Attitudes

Unique Learning Experience will have a positive relationship with Subjective Norm

Casual interest

Casual Interest will have a positive relationship with Attitudes

Casual Interest will have a positive relationship with Subjective Norm

The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)

Behavioral intention, defined as an individual's anticipated or planned future behavior ( Swan, 1981 ), has been suggested as a central factor that correlates strongly with observed behavior ( Baloglu, 2000 ). Many believed that intentions serve as an immediate antecedent to actual behavior ( Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975 ; Konu and Laukkanen, 2010 ). Fishbein and Ajzen developed the Theory of planned behavior (TPB) base on three constructs: attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) has been widely used in tourism research ( Ajzen and Driver, 1992 ; Han et al. , 2010 ; Han and Kim, 2010 ; Lam and Hsu, 2004 , 2006 ). TPB suggests that individuals are more likely to engage in behaviors that are believed to be achievable ( Armitage and Conner, 2001 ). Ajzen (1991) suggested that attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control are important to predict intention. Perceived behavioral control is what influences the tourists' intentions and their perception of their ability to perform a specific behavior.

Lam and Hsu (2004) utilized the TPB to examine motivations of travelers from mainland China to Hong Kong and found that attitude, perceived behavioral control, and past behaviors were directly related to travel intentions. In another study examining the visit intentions of Taiwanese travelers to Hong Kong, Lam and Hsu (2006) found that a positive association between visit frequency and re-visit intention.

Cheng et al. (2006) used the TPB to examine the negative word-of-mouth communication on visit intentions of Chinese consumers to high-class Chinese restaurants. It was determined from their study that the TPB constructs were positively impacted by negative word-of-mouth indicating that the TPB effectively measured consumer communication intention. Similarly, Han and Kim (2010) modified the TPB in the investigation of customers' intention to revisit environmentally friendly hotels and found that past behavior was a significant predictor of intention–the more customers stay at a green hotel, the more likely they intend to revisit. It can be concluded from previous research efforts that the TPB can be utilized to effectively measure behavioral intentions of tourists successfully.

Motivation and intentions

Attitudes will have a positive relationship with Intention

Subjective Norm will have a negative relationship with Intention

Perceived Behavioral Control will have a positive relationship with Intention

Methodology

Survey instrument.

A survey questionnaire was developed to collect information on the socio-demographic background, motivation construct, and planned behavior construct from tourists. Socio-demographic data queried were age in years (continuous), gender (3 categories, male, female and prefer not to answer), level of education (9 categories, from less than high school degree to doctoral degree), marital status (5 categories, from single to widow/widower), personal annual income (12 categories, from less than $20,000 to more than $200,000). Tourists' home residence state and country were also collected.

A dark tourism motivation construct was developed based on previous studies ( Biran et al. , 2014 ; Bissell, 2009 ; Lam and Hsu, 2006 ; Molle and Bader, 2014 ), and used to query previous visit and potential visit separately using a five-point Likert scale (“1 = extremely unimportant”; “5 = extremely important”). This motivation construct consists of 33 item statements from four dimensions ( Table 1 ) which include engaging entertainment, dark experience , unique learning experience , and casual interest . Dark experience consisted of nine statements, related to death, fascination with abnormal and/or bizarre events and destinations, and emotional experiences with a connection to death (e.g., “to travel”, “to have some entertainment”). Engaging entertainment was measured using ten statements that inquire about the personal or emotional connection to the destination they have visited or wish to visit in the future (e.g., “to witness the act of death and dying”, “to experience paranormal activity”). Unique learning experience focused on learning about the history of the destination being visited or trying something that is different and out of the ordinary (eight items, e.g., “to try something new”, “to increase knowledge”). Casual interest focuses on individuals who want to visit a dark tourism destination for the entertainment value but want to have a relaxing time while doing so (six items, “special tour promotions”, “natural scenery”).

The planned behavior construct queried on four dimensions (i.e., attitudes , subjective norms , perceived behavioral control , and behavioral intentions ) associated with visiting dark tourism destinations, with a total of 16 item statements ( Table 2 ). Five item statements were used to measure dark tourists' attitudes (e.g., “visiting a dark tourism destination is enjoyable”, “visiting a dark tourism destination is pleasant”) and behavioral intentions (e.g., “I will visit a dark tourism destination in the next 12 months”, “I would revisit the most recent dark tourism destination I visited again in the future”) respectively, using a five-point Likert scale (“1 = Strongly disagree”; “5 = Strongly agree”). Dark tourists' perceived behavioral control was measured by three item statements (e.g., “I am in control of whether or not I visit a dark tourism destination”, “If wanted, I could easily afford to visit a dark tourism destination”), using the same five-point Likert scale (“1 = Strongly disagree”; “5 = Strongly agree”). For subjective norms dimension, each of the three item statements was measured by a different five-point Likert scale. The statement that “most people I know would choose a dark tourism destination for vacation purposes” uses the scale in which “1 = strongly disagree”, “5 = strongly agree”. One item statement asks individuals to rate on whether “people who are important to me think I ____ choose a dark tourism destination to visit” “1 = definitely should not”, “5 = definitely should”). Another statement asks individuals to rate whether “people who are important to me would ___ of my visit to a dark tourism destination” “1 = definitely disapprove”, “5 = definitely approve”).

Sampling and procedure

To increase the reliability and validity of the survey, a pilot study was conducted. A small group of industry professionals from all over the country currently working at dark tourism destinations and other academic researchers were invited to critique the initial draft of the survey. Forty-one individuals took the survey instrument and provided feedback (e.g., some wording issues). After revisions from the pilot study were completed, the survey was launched, and data was collected.

Qualtrics, a web-based survey software company with access to an electronic database of survey candidates, was used to administer this questionnaire to participants. A total of 44,270 invitations were randomly sent to Qualtrics panel participants requesting participation in this study. Qualification of participants was completed by requesting all survey recipients answer the following questions: (1) Have you visited a dark tourism location within the past 24 months? and (2) Do you plan to visit a dark tourism location within the next 12 months? A statement was provided to all participants explaining what consisted of a dark tourism location to ensure participants were not taking the survey based on experiences of activities like haunted houses or haunted hayrides. Only 3,907 individuals were eligible to complete the survey, and a total of 1,068 participants did complete the survey, which yields a response rate of 27.3%. Altogether 651 out of 1,068 individuals had previously visited a dark tourism destination within the last 24 months while the remaining 417 individuals plan to visit a dark tourism destination within the next 12 months.

Data analysis included descriptive statistics, reliability tests, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and structural equation modeling (SEM). Descriptive statistics were used to outline respondents' characteristics (e.g., demographic composition). CFA was utilized to evaluate the measurement model, demonstrate adequate model fit, and ensure satisfactory levels of reliability and validity of underlying variables and their respective factors. Factor loadings greater than 0.70 indicated that the constructs are appropriately represented and considered acceptable ( Hair et al. , 2010 ). Cronbach's alphas were computed to test the internal reliability of items comprising each dimension of the dark tourism motivation construct ( dark experience , engaging entertainment , unique learning experience , casual interest ) and the planned behavior construct ( attitudes , subjective norm , perceived behavioral control ), respectively. A cutoff value of 0.7 was utilized to determine “good” reliability ( Peterson, 1994 , p. 381).

To confirm measurement model validity, the chi-squared ( x 2 ) statistic, Root-Mean-Square-Error of Approximation (RMSEA), Comparative Fit Index (CFI), and the Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) values were reviewed. Cutoff criteria used to determine “good fit” were RMSEA score < 0.08 ( Byrne, 1998 ), CFI scores > 0.90 ( Kline, 2005 ), SRMR < 0.08 to indicate a good fit ( Hu and Bentler, 1999 ).

Overwhelmingly, many tourists who had either visited a dark tourism location or plan to visit a dark tourism destination were female (65.4%). Additionally, the majority of participants were 25–34 years of age (44.2%) with the next largest age groups being 35–44 years (21%) and 18–24 years (20.9%). Most had either a 4-years Bachelor's degree from college (30.5%) or at least some college education but did not finish their degree (25.3%). 54.5% of the survey participants were married and 37.6% were single. As for income, the largest percentage (19.5%) had an individual annual income ranging from $20,001-$40,000. A full table of demographic characteristics of the participants can be seen in Table 3 .

Partial disaggregation of measurement model

SEM was utilized to investigate the relationships among dark tourism construct, the planned behavior construct and behavioral intentions. Like the CFA testing, the SEM also uses the chi-squared ( x 2 ) , RMSEA, SRMR, and CFI to determine overall model fit and relationships for this study. After further testing for convergent and discriminant validity, it was determined that all constructs met the composite reliability 0.70 or greater standard regarding the 3-parcel hypothesized model ( Table 4 ) ( Hair et al. , 2010 ).

There are several ways to parcel variables into groupings. For purposes of this study, the variables were parceled using the item-to-construct method since the SEM model was large in size and the goal was to have parcels balanced in terms of difficulty and discrimination ( Little et al. , 2002 ). To develop the parcels, standardized regression weights were evaluated, and the three highest scores served as anchors to each of the three parcels with the highest values associated to parcel 1, next highest to parcel 2, and then the next highest to parcel 3. The remainder of variables were placed into the parcels continuing with the 4th highest value placed into the 3rd parcel and repeating the process in inverted order until all variables were assigned into parcels. Once the variables for each construct were placed into appropriate parcel groupings, averages of the questions associated to the new parceled variables were calculated prior to the CFA and SEM analysis. The attitude and behavioral intention constructs had five variable questions, while subjective norm and perceived behavioral control only had three questions. In those situations, one individual variable question served as the parcel item. Table 2 shows the variables and the parcels in which they were grouped.

Additionally, the average variance extracted was calculated and proved to be less than the composite reliability for each construct indicating convergent reliability of the constructs. The average variance extracted was greater than the 0.50 standard for Dark Experience, Engaging Entertainment, Unique Learning Experience, Attitude, and Subjective Norm constructs. Behavioral Intention (0.49) and Casual Interest (0.48) had values that were borderline acceptable regarding convergent validity. The only construct that did not meet the standards of convergent validity testing was Perceived Behavioral Control (0.23). When testing for divergent validity, all square-root of average variance extracted calculations were greater than the inter-construct correlations indicating divergent validity was present in this study. Partial disaggregation of the variables resulted in a much stronger overall model fit. The RMSEA value was 0.08 indicating a strong model fit and the CFI (0.891) value was acceptable indicating a good model fit. The SRMR value (0.06, Table 4 ) also showed a strong model fit.

Hypothesis testing

Overall, most of the relationships between the dark tourism construct and the TPB constructs were significant. Results show that dark experience has a positive significant relationship with both attitudes (0.434) regarding tourists visiting a dark tourism destination and subjective norms (0.242, Table 5 ). Casual interest has a positive significant relationship with both attitudes (0.404) and subjective norm (0.330). Both engaging entertainment (−0.080; −0.217) and unique learning experience (0.152; −0.247) are not significantly associated with neither attitudes nor subjective norms . Results show that both attitudes (0.396) and perceived behavioral control (0.716) have a significant positive relationship with behavioral intention .

SEM testing was completed on the data. In addition to the significant and insignificant relationships indicated by the SEM testing, to answer some of the specific research questions asked by this study one must review the distinct question factor loadings to get those answers. A full set of the factor loadings of survey questions asked regarding dark tourism and TPB constructs are in Table 1 . A visualization of all hypothesis testing results is in Table 5 as well as on Figure 1 .

It can be concluded from the findings of this research that dark experience has a positive relationship with attitudes regarding tourists visiting a dark tourism location, indicating that Hypothesis 1 was fully supported. Tourists seek specific characteristics when choosing to visit a dark tourism destination. Akin to findings from Bissell (2009) , the reasons for visiting: I want to try something new and out of the ordinary as well as I am fascinated with abnormal and bizarre events were strong. Alone these two variables do not constitute wanting to experience dark tourism but suggest a curiosity about dark tourism and a desire for new experiences ( Seaton and Lennon, 2004 ). Individuals answered favorably to all questions related to interest in experiencing paranormal activity. Although Sharpley (2005) suggested “fascination with death” as a potential motive for tourists to visit dark tourism destinations, questions specifically related to death (i.e., to witness the act of death and dying , to satisfy personal curiosity about how the victims died ) , reveal that fascination with death and dying was not a strong motivating factor for the tourists' who participated in this research study. The positive relationships of dark experience with attitudes ( H1 ) and subjective norm ( H2 ) , respectively, implies that tourists are seeking experiences that satisfy curiosity or they are seeking interaction with the paranormal. Tourists seek a fun and enjoyable tourist experience by visiting dark tourism destinations, and do not feel pressured by societal norms of their friends and family, which may prevent them from visiting dark tourism destinations.

The engaging entertainment dimension regarding both attitude ( H3 ) and subjective ( H4 ) was not supported in this study, which is interesting considering the questions in this dimension were developed to determine the importance of the tourists connecting with the information presented at the destination while still having an enjoyable experience.

Like Raine (2013) , this study considered the unique learning experience dimension to include individuals who are hobbyists and are typically visiting these destinations solely for educational purposes and to not engage with the destination as a dark tourism site. To present an alternative consideration to the construct of unique learning experience, Seaton (1996) determined that the more attached a person was to a destination, the less likely they would be fascinated with death, resulting in the tourists not viewing the dark tourism destination as being “dark”. This thought process may be a possibility of explanation for why the relationships were negative between unique learning experience and the TPB constructs, resulting in both Hypothesis 5 and 6 not being supported. Farmaki (2013) strengthens this argument by determining that many tourists visit museums for the purpose of education, but museums will incorporate the concept of death to enhance the tourist experience.

Results from this study also indicate that participants of this study were not traveling to dark tourism destinations for educational purposes. Additionally, results indicate that individuals who were perhaps traveling for the purposes of unique learning experience had negative feelings or experiences with subjective norms, lending to the belief that their family and friends were not supportive of their choice to visit a dark tourism destination.

Raine (2013) discovered a group of tourists she classified as sightseers and passive recreationalists. These tourists can be themed as “incidental” as they were likely not seeking a dark tourism destination related to death and burials, but instead were looking for a destination to escape from everyday life. These statements can easily be supported by this research study as Hypotheses 7 and 8 were both positively supported in relationship to casual interest and attitudes ( H7 ) and subjective norm ( H8 ). The questions asked in this study specifically relate to value of tours, special promotions, and enjoying time with friends and family.

Individuals were seeking attitudinal experiences through their visits to dark tourism destinations, supporting Hypothesis 9 . Unlike the results from Lam and Hsu (2004) , subjective norms do play a role in behavioral intentions. This study found that the influence of societal norms and pressures do influence tourists' intention to visit dark tourism destinations, lending to Hypothesis 10 not being supported as expected. Regarding perceived behavioral control, when tourists feel capable and in control of their tourism choices, it will positively impact their behavioral intention or likelihood of visiting a dark tourism destination, supporting Hypothesis 11 .

Practical implications

Practitioners working in tourism industries and communities of dark tourism destinations can greatly benefit from the results of this study. Managers of dark tourism destinations must realize that visitors are attracted to these locations for many different reasons ( Bissell, 2009 ) and not just for fascination of death or paranormal activity. While this research does not focus specifically on individual motivating factors that influence behavior to visit, overarching attributes were determined to influence behavioral intentions more than others. The significant positive relationships found in this study between dark experience, unique learning experience, and casual interest suggest dark tourism destination managers offer a variety of tours and services to visitors and should be sensitive in how they display or present information so it does not come across as being offensive to tourists in the event they have strong emotional ties to the destination or individual(s) who may have been a victim at the destination.

Due to the broad nature of this study and its data collection efforts, the dark tourism locations visited by participants varied greatly. It can be concluded from the data that the use of television and contemporary media featuring dark tourism locations does positively influence tourists' behavioral intention to visit. Variables related to dark tourism destinations featured on television shows were more strongly favored in relationship to the dark experience construct than engaging entertainment. This indicates that tourists are curious about what they have seen on television or mass media and want to experience similar. Managers of dark tourism destinations featured on television shows should effectively market their locations as such to increase interest and tourism traffic to their destination. If paranormal tours are not currently being offered this would be a recommendation (if applicable) to generate more tourism interest.

Additionally, due to the increased popularity and reliance on websites and social media platforms for information, practitioners should register their location on dark tourism websites and registries so more curious travelers can easily locate them. Utilizing TripAdvisor.com and other similar travel websites is another option for practitioners to generate tourism interest to their destination. Making information readily available and easy to locate for tourists will continue to strengthen the relationship between perceived behavioral control and behavioral intention. Additionally, considering societal norms had a positive relationship with dark tourism constructs within this study, practitioners could market their destination as being taboo to tourists wanting to satisfy their rebellious curiosity.

Limitations and future research

This study has several limitations. Since the data was collected using Qualtrics Panels, potential participants are asked to self-report and assess whether they are eligible dark tourists for this study, based on given definition of dark tourism. Such self-assessment may not always be precise. If adopting this survey method, future research may consider asking participations to provide the specific dark tourism destination type that they have visited in the past 24 months, to help further confirm their eligibility for study participation. It is also recommended that if time and resources permit, future research consider collecting data on-site at dark tourism destinations. Also, this research study did not take into consideration the type of dark tourism destination visited by the respondents. Dark tourism destinations vary in the levels of violence and death that are associated with them ( Seaton, 1996 ; Stone, 2006 ). Future research can investigate additional motivational factors of tourists to visit dark tourism destinations with varying levels of darkness associated to them.

Most of the previous studies are case studies with historical battlefields and concentration camps being the hot spot for tourist activity. It is important and yet lacking to explore the general pattern of the association between motivations and visit intentions to dark tourism sites in general. Ryan and Kohli (2006) suggested there are differences between dark tourism destinations created by natural disasters (e.g., earthquakes in Sichuan, China; Biran et al. , 2014 ) and those that were sites of death at the hand of man (e.g., Auschwitz concentration camp). Moreover, Zhang et al. (2016) were among the few that explored the associated between motivation and association, but only on college students at one specific site. Although this study is inclusive of different dark tourist groups and dark tourism sites, future research may consider factoring in such difference in dark tourism destinations while exploring dark tourist motivations and visit intensions.

Conclusions

This study serves as exploratory research examining the association between tourist motivations and visit intentions and paves the way for future research in dark tourism. This study contributes to the dark tourism literature by proposing a new theoretical framework linking and extending dark tourism motivation construct with the Planned Behavior Construct. Study results can also benefit practitioners in dark tourism sector.

Graphic representation of theoretical framework and hypothesis testing results

Factor loadings for dark tourism variables

Partial disaggregation parcel groupings of TPB variables

Demographic characteristics of survey participants

CFAs of nested models

Full-data set hypothesis testing results

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The growing trend of Dark Tourism

After reading ‘ The Dark Tourist ‘ by Dom Joly, as he ventured to sightsee the world’s most unlikely destinations, I decided to find out more about this bizarre and unorthodox travel trend.

According to Wikipedia , Dark Tourism (also referred to as black tourism or grief tourism) has been defined as “tourism involving travel to places historically associated with death and tragedy. More recently, it was suggested that the concept should also include reasons tourists visit that site, since the site’s attributes alone may not make a visitor a “dark tourist”. The main attraction to dark locations is their historical value rather than their associations with death and suffering.”

The term ‘dark tourism’ was first coined in 1996 by Dr. John Lennon and Professor Malcolm Foley, two faculty members of the Department of Hospitality, Tourism & Leisure Management at Glasgow Caledonian University, as they published an academic paper in 2000 called Dark Tourism: The Attraction of Death and Disaster .

“Dark (or ‘tragic’) tourism was defined as the presentation and consumption (by visitors) of real and commodified death and disaster sites” Lennon & Foley

Similarly, the term ‘thanatourism’ (or grief tourism) was first mentioned by A. V. Seaton in 1996, then Professor of Tourism Marketing at the University of Strathclyde.

Needless to say, there has been an increasing amount of academic and ethical debate since the original papers were released, challenging the very definition as well as other aspects related to dark tourism.

According to Dom Joly on the Epilogue section of his book, the definition by academic Philip Stone of Dark Tourism:

“Dark Tourism is the act of travel, whether intentional or otherwise, to sites of death, destruction or the seemingly macabre”

This applied to some of the sites visited by Dom Joly such as Cambodia, US assassination sites and Chernobyl, whilst others were about experiencing life under ‘dark’ regimes (such as North Korea and Iran) whilst Lebanon was chosen as the author lived there during ‘dark’ times. Ultimately he admitted that the reasons for travelling to some of these locations can be very personal.

“To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries” Aldous Huxley

Examples of ‘dark’ locations visited by Dom Joly:

Iran – Iran’s biggest secret: the skiing’s great (The Guardian)

US assassination sites – JFK and the day I took one quick shot in Dallas … (The Independent)

Cambodia genocide – Chilling eyes in the land of the killing fields (The Independent)

Chernobyl nuclear disaster – Chernobyl & dash; where better to slake a tourist’s thirst? (The Independent)

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) or simply North Korea – My Travels: Dom Joly in North Korea (The Guardian)

Beirut, Lebanon – Dom Joly’s Beirut (Daily Telegraph)

For reference – Inside the Cask blog post: 24 Hours in the Phoenicia Beirut Hotel

Other examples of Dark Tourism sites include:

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, Japan : Dedicated to the memories of the 140,000 direct and indirect victims of the nuclear attack on Japan, the memorial park includes the skeletal ruins of the building now known as the A-Bomb Dome – the closest building to the centre of the explosion to remain standing.

Auschwitz Birkenau, Poland:  The concentration and extermination camp where approximately one million European Jews were murdered by the Nazis. Each year over a million people visit the site, to reflect upon and learn about the events of the holocaust.

Hoi An, Vietnam:  Tourists visiting the city of Hoi An can book tours to the nearby site of the My Lai Massacre, where hundreds of women and children were brutally murdered by US soldiers during the Vietnam war.

Robben Island Prison Museum, South Africa:  For over three centuries, Robben Island, just off the coast of Cape Town, was used to hold political prisoners. It was here where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 of the 27 years he served behind bars and the site is now considered a symbol of triumph over repression and racism.

For Reference and further reading:

• Progress in dark tourism and thanatourism research: An uneasy relationship with heritage tourism – Tourism Management
• Dark-Tourism.com
• Eerie Photos of ‘Dark Tourism’ Sites Around the World – National Geographic
• Dark Tourist (TV series) – Netflix

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What is Dark Tourism?

Last Updated on July 23, 2023

What is dark tourism? Can dark tourism be good? And why is there controversy around this type of travel?

The idea of dark tourism has been talked about more and more in recent years, probably in part thanks to shows like Dark Tourist, and Chernobyl. I’ve been a dark tourist myself. When I lived in The Netherlands , I visited a few concentration camp sites, including Auschwitz.

I’ve visited Ground Zero in New York City, and I’ve been to the Killing Fields in Cambodia. All of these places have a history of human suffering, which is why visiting them is considered dark tourism. 

I didn’t hear the term dark tourism until long after I’d been a dark tourist myself. Hearing it got me thinking about those experiences in a different way. It made me wonder if there was something wrong about having visited Auschwitz, or the Killing Fields.

It made me think about how I had approached those experiences, and what the point of them had been. Personally, I think that dark tourism is an important type of tourism – but it has to be approached in the right way. Let’s dig in.

Dark tourism destinations

Is dark tourism ethical, consider your intention before going., be respectful of the space while you’re there., aim to make your visit an educational one..

The term dark tourism was coined in 1996 by J. John Lennon and Malcolm Foley, two faculty members at Glasgow Caledonian University. Today, the term is generally used to describe travel to places that are historically associated with death and tragedy. It’s also sometimes called black tourism, thanatourism, or grief tourism. 

In a 2017 paper , Lennon explained, “For many years humans have been attracted to sites and events that are associated with death, disaster, suffering, violence and killing.”

He emphasizes that dark tourism isn’t a new phenomenon: “From ancient Rome and gladiatorial combat to attendance at public executions in London and other major cities of the world, death has held an appeal.”

Dark tourism sites are all associated with tragic history. They are sites of atrocities, accidents, genocide, natural disasters or infamous death. It seems grim that people visit these places, but the reality is that these places represent important human history. 

According to Lennon, “Tourism and death enjoy a curious relationship. Death and acts of mass killing are a major deterrent for the development of certain destinations and yet such acts can become the primary purpose of visitation in others.”

Chernobyl, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster which resulted in thousands of deaths, is an example of this dichotomy.

After the disaster in 1986, the site was left almost entirely untouched. But in 2002 tourists began showing interest, and then in 2019 it was announced that Chernobyl would become an official tourist attraction in Ukraine. Now, tourists can book official guided tours of the site. 

In the USA, tourists can visit the childhood home of Jeffrey Dahmer, a serial killer, in Bath, Ohio. In Dallas, Texas it’s possible to take a JFK assasination tour. And in New York City, Ground Zero tours bring visitors to where the World Trade Centre towers fell in 2001. 

When I traveled in South East Asia I visited two dark tourism sites: the Choeung Ek Killing Fields in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.

I hadn’t learned very much about the events associated with these sites growing up: the rule of the Khmer Rouge regime, or the Vietnam War. And so learning about these events, as told by the communities who survived them, was educational and thought-provoking.

It helped me to understand both Cambodia and Vietnam in a way that I certainly wouldn’t have had I not visited these sites. 

There are dark tourism destinations all around the world. Because the term has a provocative sound to it, I think many people associate it with extreme or controversial examples of it.

But in reality, most of us have engaged in dark tourism without even realizing it. Many highly-trafficked tourist sites are historically associated with death and tragedy.

For example, Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi concentration camp, receives over 1 million visitors per year. Much of human history is dark, and so it makes sense that many historical locations that tourists visit have dark pasts associated with them. 

There’s no straight answer to the question of whether or not dark tourism is ethical. For some, dark tourism feels inappropriate. It can come off as voyeuristic, or exploitative of human suffering.

The alternative view is that dark tourism is a tool for education. It can provide an opportunity to engage with history and reflect on tragedy. Often, visiting dark tourism sites makes tragic events feel more “real” which can be humanizing.

I remember when I visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi concentration camp where over 1million people were systemically killed. It was a difficult and emotional day, but I felt that it was important.

I had grown up hearing stories of the Second World War from my Dutch grandparents, I had studied the war in university, and I had read many books authored by Holocaust survivors. I knew what Auschwitz was intellectually, but visiting the place in all it’s realness was a different experience. 

At the Dedication Ceremonies for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1993, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel said , “For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.”

He explained, “a museum is a place, I believe, that should bring people together, a place that should not set people apart. People who come from different horizons, who belong to different spheres, who speak different languages? They should feel united in memory. And, if possible at all, with some measure of grace, we should, in a way, be capable of reconciling ourselves with the dead. To bring the living and the dead together in a spirit of reconciliation is part of that vision.”

Wiesel’s idea that a museum (like Auschwitz) should bring the living and the dead together in reconciliation is why I lean toward believing that dark tourism can be ethical. I think that the key, though, is the way in which dark tourism sites are presented to the public and the way in which visitors approach it.

Auschwitz, and many other dark tourism sites, are presented as educational museums. If visitors can embrace the educational experience and visit with care and respect, I don’t think dark tourism is unethical.

Tips to Use Dark Tourism For Good

Here are a couple tips to keep in mind when visiting a dark tourism site, so that you can be respectful and get the most out of your visit. 

Take some time to self-reflect on why you’d like to visit this particular place. Making sure your intention is to heighten your understanding of the site, and the events that happened there is a good place to start. It’s also good to consider how it might affect you. Dark tourism experiences can be emotionally difficult, so make sure you’re comfortable with where you’re going.

This goes for traveling anywhere I’d say, but it’s especially important when visiting dark tourism sites. It’s always a good call to research in advance local customs and norms so that you know how to show respect. And, be careful with photo taking. Avoid any photography or videography that could come off as exploitative or sensationalizing. 

Doing some research before your visit is a good starting point, because it enables you to go into the experience with some base knowledge. If hiring a guide or educational tour is an option, it’s worth investing in so you can get the most out of your visit.

More from Pina Travels:

• 10 Ways to Be a More Responsible Tourist
• Responsible Travel: Cultural Appropriation vs. Appreciation
• 12 Tips for Managing Mental Health and Travel

Erin has been traveling for over a decade, both solo, and with her partner. She’s now traveled to countries across 6 continents, and has lived in 2 countries abroad. Erin also hosts the travel podcast, Curious Tourism , where she interviews travel industry thought leaders and experts about responsible tourism. Learn more about Erin, and get in touch with her, here .

Related Posts

Your guide to responsible budget travel, avoid overtourism: visit these underrated places instead, your guide to unpacking travel privilege, how to avoid contributing to overtourism, 8 thoughts on “what is dark tourism”.

I think dark tourism is very important. I have a whole "never forget" series on visiting WWII sites in Europe, including the concentration camps. I’m really glad that you shared this post. Thank you.

I’ve never heard of this concept but it totally makes sense to call it dark tourism. I think if we don’t learn from our history we’re doomed to repeat it so these places should absolutely be visited. We are Jehovah’s Witnesses and some of our family were also imprisoned/tortured during the Holocuast. Not many people know that – but some of these same things are happening to JW’s in Russia today. If more people visited these places the world would be a better place.

Never heard of this. Interesting. Thanks for sharing!!!

This was a really thoughtful and interesting take on a complicated subject. I appreciated reading this!

Very interesting article, I always wanted to visit Chernobyl and Ukraine in general, so that was a great read. Thank you for sharing!

Guess I never knew that I liked to be a dark tourist. I have visited a number of memorial sites, holocaust museums, and Dachau. I still would love to visit more. I believe it gives a great respect for our past and never forgetting.

This is very interesting. I had never actually heard the term "dark tourism" before, but of course it makes sense. This is definitely a complicated topic and one that you explained very well.

I’ve visited a few places associated with painful history but didn’t know there was a term for it. Sometimes It’s hard to know how can it effect you emotionally.

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Dark Tourists: Profile, Practices, Motivations and Wellbeing

José magano.

1 Research Center in Business and Economics (CICEE), Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa, Rua Sta. Marta 47, 5.º Andar, 1150-293 Lisboa, Portugal

2 ISCET-Higher Institute of Business Sciences and Tourism, Rua de Cedofeita, 285, 4050-180 Porto, Portugal

José A. Fraiz-Brea

3 Department of Business Organization, Business Administration and Tourism Faculty, University of Vigo, 32004 Ourense, Spain

Ângela Leite

4 Center for Philosophical and Humanistic Studies, Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Portuguese Catholic University, Rua de Camões 60, 4710-362 Braga, Portugal

Associated Data

Datasets are available upon request to the authors.

This work aims to address whether knowing what dark tourism is (or not) impacts rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, psychological vulnerability, and tourist wellbeing, as well as practices and motivations for dark tourism. A quantitative approach, based on a survey of 993 respondents, reveals that women and more educated participants know more about dark tourism; people who know what dark tourism is have visited more Holocaust museums, sites of human tragedy and natural disasters, concentration camps, and prisons; show more curiosity, need to learn and understand, and need to see morbid things. A model was found showing that gender, age, know/do not know dark tourism, and motivations (curiosity, the need to learn, the need to understand, and pleasure) explained 38.1% of a dark tourism practice index. Most findings also indicate that rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, and psychological vulnerability are associated with darker practices. Greater wellbeing was not found in participants who knew in advance what dark tourism was. Interestingly, participants who visit tragic human sites present higher values in hostility and tourist wellbeing than those who do not. In summary, people who visit more dark places and score higher on negative personality characteristics have higher values of tourist wellbeing.

1. Introduction

Many people are increasingly looking for new and unique touristic experiences to satisfy a wide range of motivations. That has driven the segmentation and the emergence of increasingly specific typologies, such as dark tourism, that, in contrast with mass tourism, are characterized by a high degree of diversification and individualization. Dark tourism comprises visiting real or recreated places related with death, suffering, disgrace, or the macabre [ 1 , 2 ]. From the perspective of dark tourism places, it is important to understand what drives people to visit them to design satisfying experiences. We may think of death as an obvious motivation, often part of the site’s history, but it is not always the primary or explicitly recognized motivation for a visit. Sharpley and Stone [ 3 ] admitted that the field of motivation to visit dark tourism destinations remains an understudied area, although recent literature has provided an increasing number of empirical studies about the reasons for visiting those sites [ 4 , 5 ].

This research intends to contribute to the dark tourism literature by seeking to understand whether people know what dark tourism is and identify a differentiated sociodemographic, motivational, and tourist practice profile between people who know and do not know what dark tourism is. In addition, it aims to understand if dark tourists’ motivations for visiting dark tourism destinations explain their practices. The research approach relies on empirically exploring the motivations, practices, and sociodemographic characteristics of a sample of 933 people that participated in a survey held in Portugal.

The remainder of the text is organized as follows: firstly, a brief theoretical background is put forward, focused on the dark tourism concept and dark tourists’ motivations and practices; then, the quantitative study’s applied methods and obtained results are described; finally, the results are discussed, and conclusions and implications are drawn.

2. Theoretical Background

Despite the fact that some authors consider it one of the older forms of tourism, it has gained great popularity amongst academics from the 1990s onwards [ 3 ], confirmed by the significant volume of literature published ever since [ 4 , 5 , 6 ]. However, understanding the demand for this type of tourism persists as poorly defined and theoretically fragile [ 3 , 4 , 7 , 8 ]. For a long time, places that have been the scene of wars, disasters, deaths, and atrocities have always fascinated people, motivating them to travel [ 3 , 9 ]. Sharpley and Stone [ 3 ] often use the term dark tourism as the type of tourism that encompasses traveling to sites related to death, suffering, and macabre—a globally accepted definition. However, Tarlow [ 10 ] implies the phenomenon is complex by describing it as “visits to places where noteworthy historical tragedies or deaths have occurred that continue to impact our lives”, which raises the question about the inherent motives to consume dark tourism.

2.1. Dark Tourists and Their Motivation to Dark Tourism Consumption

Stone’s (2006) idea of dark tourism goes far beyond related attractions. From this standpoint, diverse well-visited tourist sites may become places of dark tourism due to their history linked with death—e.g., suicides in the Eiffel Tower, tombs in the pyramids of Egypt, the Valley of the Kings, and the Taj Mahal, funeral art at the Cairo Museum, and terrorist attacks in Ground Zero [ 11 ]. Ashworth and Isaac [ 12 ] also suggest that all tourist places have a greater or lesser potential of being perceived as “dark.” Accordingly, the same dark tourism place can evoke different experiences in different visitors (i.e., a site one visitor sees as “dark” may not be for another); thus, the authors argue that no site is intrinsically, automatically, and universally “dark,” as, even they may be labeled as dark, they are not always perceived as such by all visitors.

Walter [ 13 ] states that most dark tourism is not specifically motivated, comprising only parallel visits inserted in a trip of a wider reach. Nonetheless, the literature indicates that tourists who visit dark places are not a homogeneous group, and neither the factors inherent to the visitation are the same. Moreover, the “darker” motivation can undertake distinctive levels of intensity. Consequently, in addition to the fascination and interest in death [ 12 , 14 , 15 ], the visit to this type of place is also motivated by personal, cultural, and psychological reasons [ 4 ] or driven by entertainment purposes [ 7 , 16 ].

The literature indicates numerous reasons to visit dark tourism sites: educational experience, desire to learn and understand past events, and historical interest [ 7 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ], as self-discovery purposes [ 17 ], identity [ 7 ], memory, remembrance, celebration, nostalgia, empathy, contemplation, and homage [ 10 , 17 , 20 ], curiosity [ 17 , 19 , 20 , 21 ], the search for novelty, authenticity, and adventure [ 2 , 20 ], convenience when visiting other places [ 19 ], and also status, prestige, affirmation, and recognition that these visits provide [ 22 ]. To a lesser extent, the literature also mentions religious and pilgrimage reasons, feelings of guilt, a search for social responsibility, or heritage experience.

The desire to learn and understand stands out as a motive associated with sites of death and/or heritage. Whereas some visitors exhibit a considerable need for emotional experience and connection to their heritage, engaging, as Slade puts it [ 23 ], in a “profound heritage experience”, and emotionally to the “dark” space influence [ 24 ], other visitors may be knowledge-seekers, who are more interested in a knowledge-enriching experience [ 25 ] than an emotional one and look for gaining a deeper understanding. Isaac et al. [ 20 ] found that memory, gaining knowledge and awareness, and exclusivity were important motivations for dark tourists; also, “(…), consuming dark tourism may allow the individual a sense of meaning and understanding of past disaster and macabre events that have perturbed life projects” [ 2 ]. Tourists’ interest in places associated with death and tragedy may also be related to educational goals [ 9 ].

Curiosity and the need to learn and understand are entwined. Dark tourism develops curiosity and satisfies the desire for knowledge of past suffering and pain [ 26 ]. Ashworth (2004) and Ashworth and Hartmann [ 27 ] suggested three main reasons for visiting dark sites: curiosity about the unusual, attraction to horror, and a desire for empathy or identification with the victims of atrocity. Yan, Zhang, Zhang, Lu and Guo [ 24 ] refer to the curious type of dark tourist who engages cognitively by learning about the issue. From another perspective, dark tourists may feel motivated by morbid tourism [ 28 ] and show interest in specific macabre exhibitions and museums [ 29 ] and fascination with evil [ 30 ], given the morbid nature of dark tourism [ 31 ]. Other authors present yet other motives: secular pilgrimage; a desire for inner purification; schadenfreude or malicious joy; “ghoulish titillation”; a search for the otherness of death; an interest in personal genealogy and family history; a search for “authentic” places in a commodified world; and a desire to encounter the pure/impure sacred [ 18 ]. Iliev [ 4 ] concludes that although tourists visit places related to death, they may not necessarily be considered dark tourists; as already acknowledged, those sites may not be experienced as “dark” by each visitor. It is, therefore, imperative that the so-called dark tourists are considered as such based on their experience.

2.2. Dark Tourist Personality

Some authors who study dark tourism have tried to relate dark tourist practice with personality characteristics, namely with the dark triad—psychoticism, narcissism, and Machiavellianism [ 16 , 32 , 33 , 34 ]. However, the nature of dark tourism, especially that related to the Holocaust, can be so complex that the personality characteristics that motivate it may be less central, so we decided to study the following characteristics: rumination in sadness, self-hatred, hostility, and psychological vulnerability.

Rumination about sadness includes “repetitive thoughts concerning one’s present distress and the circumstances surrounding the sadness” [ 35 ]. These thoughts are related to the nature of one’s negative affect, are not goal-directed nor lead to plans for solutional action [ 36 ], and are not socially shared while the rumination occurs. Thus, rumination on sadness presents a negative content, “does not facilitate problem resolution, is a solitary activity, and is intrusive if the person is pursuing either self-or situationally imposed task-oriented goals” [ 35 ].

Nolen-Hoeksema and Morrow’s [ 36 ] measure of rumination focuses on ideation, contrary to expression or disclosure, but it also includes disclosing feelings to others and emotional expressiveness as components of rumination. According to Nolen-Hoeksema and Morrow [ 36 ], ruminative responses are different from structured problem-solving because people only think or talk about how “unmotivated, sad, and lethargic they feel” (p. 569). Despite that, Nolen-Hoeksema and Morrow’s [ 36 ] stated that ruminative responses include telling others how badly one feels. Although rumination has negative consequences, disclosure may have positive effects [ 37 ]; also, some forms of emotional expressiveness, a component of disclosure, seem beneficial [ 38 ].

Self-hatred is an “enduring dysfunctional and destructive self-evaluation, characterized by attributions of undesirable and defective qualities, and failure to meet perceived standards and values leading to feelings of inadequacy, incompetency, and worthlessness” [ 39 ]. High self-hatred is related to low self-esteem, shame, self-blame or guilt, and a mental state of agitation, raising an experience of psychological and emotional turmoil [ 39 ].

According to Derogatis and Melisaratos [ 40 ], hostility captures thoughts, feelings, and actions associated with hostile behavior. Although the hostility scale measures perceived levels of expressed hostility rather than actual levels of outwardly expressed hostility, the hostility scale is significantly associated with anger [ 41 ], and high anger is related to outward, uncontrolled, and negative expressions of anger [ 42 ].

Psychological vulnerability is the “individual’s capacity to deal with mechanisms of maintaining emotional strength, in case of a pessimistic point of view, due to the lack of social support” [ 43 ]. Psychological vulnerability is a pattern of cognitive beliefs translating to “a dependence on achievement or external sources of affirmation for one’s sense of self-worth” [ 44 ]. Psychological vulnerability is negatively associated with positive affect, self-efficacy, and social support and positively associated with negative affect, perceived powerlessness, and maladaptive coping behavior [ 43 , 44 ]. Dark tourists are subjects situated in emotionally sensitive spaces [ 45 ] that can trigger their psychological vulnerability.

2.3. Research Questions

Although research on dark tourism has increased in recent years, there are not enough studies exploring if people’s knowledge of this phenomenon and their personality traits lead to distinctive dark tourists’ motivations and behaviors. Taking into account the aforementioned motivations to visit dark tourism places, the present study intends to empirically explore if dark tourists’ personality characteristics and sociodemographic variables impact such motivations and dark tourists’ practices and wellbeing (the latter, measured as a dark tourism practice index, given the diversity of known dark tourism practices). Specifically, our research questions are: Do rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, and psychological vulnerability explain the practices and motivations for dark tourism and thus explain tourist wellbeing? Does knowing what dark tourism is (or not) impact rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, and psychological vulnerability, as well as practices and motivations for dark tourism and tourist wellbeing?

3. Materials and Methods

Given the research questions, the aims of the present study are as follows: (1) to find the sociodemographic differences in touristic practices and motivations for dark tourism according to two groups (those who knew what dark tourism is and those who did not know); (2) to assess the fit of the rumination on the sadness scale, self-hatred scale, hostility scale, psychological vulnerability scale, and tourism wellbeing scale; (3) to determine the differences in rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, psychological vulnerability, and tourism wellbeing according to two groups (those who knew what dark tourism is and those who didn’t know); (4) to find the differences in rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, psychological vulnerability, and tourism wellbeing according to practices and motivations for dark tourism; and (5) to determine variables that contribute to the dark tourism practice index. Accordingly, we hypothesize:

Participants who know what dark tourism is are younger and have more education than those who do not.

Participants who know what dark tourism is are more motivated and visit more places associated with dark tourism than those who do not.

All measures show a good fit for the sample.

Differences in rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, psychological vulnerability, and tourism wellbeing according to two groups (those who knew what dark tourism is and those who did not know) will be found.

Differences in rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, psychological vulnerability, and tourism wellbeing according to practices and motivations for dark tourism will be found.

Gender, age, to know/know not dark tourism, and the motivations of curiosity, need to learn, need to understand, and pleasure will contribute to explaining dark tourism practice.

3.1. Procedures

All procedures followed the Declaration of Helsinki and later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The investigation protocol included informed consent, and confidentiality and anonymity of the data were guaranteed. The research protocol was applied in person to a random sample of participants between 18 October and 17 December 2021. The participants were informed about the study’s purpose and were ensured confidentiality and anonymity of the data; they also signed informed consent. The inclusion criteria consisted of being over 18 years old, Portuguese, and having touristic experiences. The respondents were approached by two researchers and five MSc students on the University’s campuses and within their informal networks, with the questionnaire being self-administered.

3.2. Instruments

The instruments that were not validated for the Portuguese population—the Rumination on Sadness Scale (RSS) and the Self-Hatred Scale (SHS)—were first translated from English to Portuguese by two bilingual translators, one from and another not from the field of psychology. Then, a third bilingual translator from the field of psychology provided a reconciliation of the two translations. Next, a native English speaker not from the psychology field independently performed the reconciled version’s back-translation. Finally, the first translator reviewed the back-translated version of the scale and compared it with the original English version to ensure linguistic and cultural equivalence consistency.

• Sociodemographic questionnaire

The sociodemographic questionnaire included questions related to gender (feminine—0; masculine—1), age, education (no education–0; primary education—1; secondary education—2; higher education—3), marital status (no relationship-single, divorced, separated, widowed–0; in a relationship-boyfriends, married, de facto union—1), and employment status (inactive—unemployed, retired, on sick leave–0; active-student, employee, housewife, caregivers—1).

• Questionnaire about dark tourism’s practices

The questionnaire on dark tourism practices includes a question about knowledge of dark tourism (or not). In addition, it also asked participants about their tourist practices related to dark tourism (Have you ever visited…? cemeteries; holocaust museums; sites of human tragedy; concentration camps; prisons; sites of war; sites of natural disasters; stop to see accidents). All these questions are answered dichotomously (no—0; yes—1).

• Questionnaire about dark tourism´s motivations

This questionnaire includes the presentation of several reasons to visit a dark place: curiosity, the need to learn, the need to see, the need to understand, pleasure, and the need to see morbid things. All these questions are answered dichotomously (no—0; yes—1).

• Rumination on Sadness Scale (RSS)

The Rumination on Sadness Scale, an individual-difference measure of rumination on sadness, was developed by Conway et al. [ 35 ] as an alternative to the Ruminative Responses Scale of the Response Styles Questionnaire (RRRSQ; [ 36 ]). It is a unifactorial scale with 13 items. Higher ratings indicate higher levels of rumination on sadness. Cronbach’s alpha, the internal reliability coefficient, was 0.91 in the original version. Since there is no Portuguese version of this scale, it will be validated in this study.

• Self-Hatred Scale (SHS)

The Self-Hatred Scale was developed by Turnell et al. [ 39 ] to assess individuals’ levels of self-hatred. Since self-hatred is a significant predictor of suicidal ideation, this scale has the potential to be helpful in suicide risk assessment. Higher ratings indicate higher levels of self-hatred. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.95 in the original version. There is no Portuguese version of this scale, so it will also be validated in this study.

• BSI Hostility Scale (HSS)

BSI Hostility Scale (HS) is a subscale of the Brief Symptoms Inventory [BSI; [ 40 ]], whose Portuguese version is from Canavarro [ 46 ]. BSI is a 53-item measure to identify self-reported clinically relevant psychological symptoms in adolescents and adults. The BSI covers nine symptom dimensions: Somatization, Obsession-Compulsion, Interpersonal Sensitivity, Depression, Anxiety, Hostility, Phobic Anxiety, Paranoid Ideation, and Psychoticism; and three global indices of distress: Global Severity Index, Positive Symptom Distress Index, and Positive Symptom Total. The Hostility subscale includes five items, and higher ratings indicate higher levels of hostility. In the original version, the alpha coefficients for the nine dimensions of the scale ranged from 0.64 in the Psychoticism dimension to 0.81 in the Somatization dimension. In the Portuguese version, the alpha coefficients ranged from 0.71 in the Psychoticism dimension to 0.85 in the Depression dimension.

• Psychological Vulnerability Scale (PVS)

The Psychological Vulnerability Scale (PVS) was designed to obtain information about maladaptive cognitive patterns, such as dependence, perfectionism, need for external sources of approval, and generalized negative attributions. The PVS is a six-item scale with higher scores indicating greater psychological vulnerability. In the original version [ 44 ], Cronbach’s α coefficient ranged from 0.71 to 0.87 for different samples; in the Portuguese version [ 47 ], Cronbach’s α coefficient was 0.73.

• Tourism Wellbeing Scale (TWS)

The Tourism Wellbeing Scale (TWS) was developed by [ 48 ] Garcês et al. (2018 [ 49 ]); it aims to evaluate tourism wellbeing in each destination, having been built from positive psychology variables, namely, wellbeing, creativity, optimism, and spirituality. It is a unifactorial scale with eight items. Higher ratings indicate higher levels of tourism wellbeing. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.97 in the original version.

3.3. Data Analysis

Prior to analysis, the normality of items was examined by skewness (SI) and kurtosis (KI) indexes; absolute values of SI less than 3 and KI less than 10 indicate a normal distribution of the data. [ 50 ]. All the instruments were subject to a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) procedure with maximum likelihood estimation (MLE). The model fit evaluation was based on test statistics and approximate fit indexes, following the thresholds presented in Kline [ 50 ]. Thus, a non-significant model chi-square statistic, χ 2 , states that the model fits the data acceptably in the population; the higher the probability related to χ 2 , the closer the fit to the perfect fit. A value of the parsimony-corrected index Steiger–Lind root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) close to 0 represents a good fit; RMSEA ≤ 0.05 may indicate a good fit, but the upper bound of the 90% confidence interval exceeding 0.10 may indicate poor fit; also, this test should be non-significant at the 0.05 level. Values of incremental fit index (IFI), Tucker–Lewis index (TLI), and the Bentler incremental comparative fit index (CFI), close to 1 (0.95 or better), are indicators of best fit; also, the standardized root mean square residual (SRMR), a statistic related to the correlation residuals (SRMR over 0.10 suggests fit problems) was used; the smallest the values, the most parsimonious is the model.

Besides goodness-of-fit index evaluation, model re-specification involved analyzing path estimates, standardized residuals of items, and modification indices for all non-estimated parameters. The modifications indices (MI) provide information about potential cross-loadings and error term correlations not specified in the model and the expected change in the chi-square value for each fixed parameter if it were to be freed. Only modifications theoretically meaningful and MI > 11 were considered. Finally, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated to ascertain the model’s reliability.

Group differences were analyzed. The independent t-test was applied to compare the means of the two groups. In addition, chi-squared was used to compare distributions’ differences and Mann–Whitney test to compare ordinal data. Three measures of the effect size, Cohen’s d, the eta squared, phi, and rank biserial correlation were used according to the variables’ measurement level; interpretation followed Cohen’s [ 51 ] guidelines; the statistical significance level was set at 0.05. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 28 and AMOS version 28.

The sample includes 993 participants, mainly female, in a romantic relationship, with secondary or university education, and active; the mean age is around 31 years. Statistically significant differences were found concerning age and education between the sample that had already heard about dark tourism and knew what it was and the sample that had not yet heard about it. Participants who had heard about dark tourism were significantly younger and more educated than those who had not ( Table 1 ).

Sample sociodemographic characteristics.

Notes: N = frequencies; % = percentage; M = mean; SD = standard deviation; χ 2 = qui-squared test; Φ = Phi size effect; t = t -test; Cohen’s d = size effect; p = p -value. In bold: statistically significant values.

Concerning the total sample and dark tourism practices, most people have visited cemeteries, and about a third of the sample stopped to see accidents. On the other hand, about a quarter of the sample already had other practices, except for a visit to concentration camps, which was only carried out by about 14% of the total sample. The same trend remains in the sample that has not yet heard about dark tourism and the sample that has. However, there are statistically significant differences between these two samples regarding practices related to dark tourism, being that the sample that has already heard about dark tourism visits many more Holocaust museums, sites of human tragedy, concentration camps, prisons, and sites of natural disasters than the sample that has not yet heard about dark tourism ( Table 2 ).

Dark tourism practices.

Notes: N = frequencies; % = percentage; χ 2 = qui-squared test; Φ = Phi size effect; p = p -value. In bold: statistically significant values.

As for the reasons behind the desire to visit dark places, curiosity stands out in the total sample, with the least chosen reason being the need to see morbid things. The same trend can be seen in the two subsamples. However, there are statistically significant differences between these two samples regarding motives to visit dark places, being that the sample that has already heard about dark tourism presents higher values in the motives related to curiosity, the need to learn and understand, and the need to see morbid things than the sample that has not yet heard about dark tourism ( Table 3 ).

Dark tourism motives.

Table 4 shows the descriptive statistics related to the items of the instruments used in this study: the rumination on sadness, tourism wellbeing, self-hatred, hostility, and psychological vulnerability. The skewness and kurtosis values are all within the normative values, ensuring the normality of the distribution, except for item SHS3 whose values are slightly above the recommended one.

Items’ frequencies.

A confirmatory factorial analysis of the rumination on sadness scale was carried out to confirm the authors’ model [χ 2 (46) = 4.121; CFI = 0.977; TLI = 0.961; IFI = 0.977; RMSEA = 0.056; PCLOSE = 0.107: SMRM = 0.028]; however, to achieve this model fit, some correlations between errors were established ( Figure 1 ).

Model fit of Rumination on Sadness Scale.

Confirmatory factorial analysis of the self-hatred scale [χ 2 (11) = 5.118; CFI = 0.992; TLI = 0.984; IFI = 0.992; RMSEA = 0.064; PCLOSE = 0.069: SMRM = 0.015] ( Figure 2 ), hostility scale [χ 2 (2) = 4.216; CFI = 0.995; TLI = 0.976; IFI = 0.995; RMSEA = 0.057; PCLOSE = 0.317: SMRM = 0.012] ( Figure 3 ), psychological vulnerability scale [χ 2 (7) = 2.886; CFI = 0.992; TLI = 0.983; IFI = 0.992; RMSEA = 0.044; PCLOSE = 0.644; SMRM = 0.018] ( Figure 4 ), and tourism wellbeing scale [χ 2 (16) = 3.787; CFI = 0.979; TLI = 0.964; IFI = 0.980; RMSEA = 0.053; PCLOSE = 0.339: SMRM = 0.029] ( Figure 5 ) were carried out to assess the models’ adjustments. Despite finding good fits for all models, some correlations between errors were established to achieve such fits. Thus, hypothesis H3 is confirmed.

Model fit of Self-hatred Scale.

Model fit of Hostility Scale.

Model fit of Psychological Vulnerability Scale.

Model fit of Tourism Wellbeing Scale.

There are no differences in the values of rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, psychological vulnerability, and tourism wellbeing concerning knowing what dark tourism is or not ( Table 5 ).

Rumination on sadness (RSS), self-hatred (SHS), hostility (HSS), psychological vulnerability (PVS), and tourism wellbeing (TWBS) frequencies and differences between those who know dark tourism and those who do not.

Notes: α = Cronbach’s alpha; M = mean; SD = standard deviation; MR–mean rank; U = Mann–Whitney test; p = p -value; r = rank-biserial correlation.

Differences were assessed regarding the values of rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, psychological vulnerability, and tourism wellbeing according to dark tourism practices. Being that only statistically significant results are presented, it was found that participants who visit cemeteries have significantly lower values of self-hatred and psychological vulnerability than participants who report not visiting cemeteries ( Table 6 ). Furthermore, those who visit tragic human sites present higher values in hostility and tourism wellbeing than those who do not. Those who visit sites of war present higher values in self-hatred than those who did not. Those who visit site of natural tragedies also present higher values in hostility and tourism wellbeing. Lastly, those who stop to see accidents present higher values in rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, psychological vulnerability, and tourism wellbeing than those who do not stop ( Table 6 ).

Rumination on sadness (RSS), self-hatred (SHS), hostility (HSS), psychological vulnerability (PVS) and tourism wellbeing (TWBS) frequencies and differences according to dark tourism practices.

Notes: α = Cronbach’s alpha; M = mean; SD = standard deviation; MR–mean rank; U = Mann–Whitney test; p = p -value; r = rank-biserial correlation. In bold: statistically significant values.

Differences were also assessed concerning the values of rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, psychological vulnerability, and tourism wellbeing according to dark tourism motives. Those participants who identified curiosity, need to see, and need to understand as reasons to visit dark places in the context of tourism presented higher values in rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, psychological vulnerability, and tourism wellbeing than those who did not identify curiosity as a motive ( Table 7 ). Concerning the motive “need to learn”, it was found to be a statistically significant difference in tourism wellbeing, being that those who identified the need to learn as a motive to visit dark places in the context of tourism present higher values in tourism wellbeing and self-hatred than those who did not. Those participants who identified the need to see as a reason to visit dark places in the context of tourism presented higher values in rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, and psychological vulnerability than those who did not identify the need to see as a motive ( Table 7 ). Those participants who recognized the need to understand as a reason to visit dark places in the context of tourism present higher values in rumination on sadness, hostility, psychological vulnerability, and tourism wellbeing than those who did not identify the need to understand as a motive ( Table 7 ). Concerning the motive “pleasure”, it was found a statistically significant difference in tourism wellbeing; those who recognized pleasure as a motive to visit dark places presented higher values in tourism wellbeing than those who did not. Lastly, those participants who identified the need to see morbid things as a reason to visit dark places presented higher values in rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, and psychological vulnerability than those who did not identify the need to see morbid things as a motive ( Table 7 ).

Rumination on sadness (RSS), self-hatred (SHS), hostility (HSS), psychological vulnerability (PVS), and tourism wellbeing (TWBS) frequencies and differences according to dark tourism motives.

After creating a new variable, an index about practices related to dark tourism, based on the individual items, we carried out a multiple linear regression in which the dependent variable is the index, and the independent variables are the motivations, with the intent to find the variables that explain the touristic practice. It was found that gender, age, know/know not dark tourism, and motives (curiosity, need to learn, need to understand, and pleasure) explain 38% of the touristic practice ( Table 8 ).

Variables that contribute to the dark tourism practice index.

Notes: R 2 = R squared; R 2 Adj. = R squared adjusted; B = unstandardized regression coefficients; EP B = unstandardized error of B; β = standardized regression coefficients; ** p < 0.001.

5. Discussion

The aims of the present study were to find the sociodemographic differences in touristic practices and motivations for dark tourism according to two groups (those who knew what dark tourism is and those who did not know); to determine the differences in rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, psychological vulnerability, and tourism wellbeing according to two groups; to find the differences in rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, psychological vulnerability, and tourism wellbeing according to practices and motivations for dark tourism; and, at last, to determine variables that contribute to a dark tourism practice index. To this end, we carried out a cross-sectional study that included questionnaires related to sociodemographic aspects, motivations to visit dark tourism places, practices of dark tourism, the rumination on the sadness scale, the self-hatred scale, the hostility scale, the psychological vulnerability scale, and the tourism wellbeing scale.

Concerning the participants’ profiles, those who had heard about dark tourism were significantly younger and more educated than those who had not. These results confirm hypothesis H1. These results corroborate those of Millán, et al. [ 52 ] who found a profile of dark tourists in Cordoba between 26 and 40 years old and having university studies. Dark tourism is a niche market [ 53 ] and also is itself a trend [ 54 ], and young people are more available and attentive to new trends [ 55 ]. In addition, more educated people seek more information and have superior technological skills [ 56 ]. Significant differences between the two samples regarding practices related to dark tourism were found, being that the sample that has already heard about dark tourism visits much more Holocaust museums, sites of human tragedy, concentration camps, prisons, and sites of natural disasters than the sample that has not yet heard about dark tourism. These results confirm hypothesis H2. According to Iliev [ 4 ], “if tourists do not experience a site as dark, then they cannot be called dark tourists”, so the author proposed a more apparent distinction of the “dark tourists” based on experience. Ashworth and Isaac (2015) also stated that any tourist site has a greater or lesser potential of being perceived as “dark.” Besides, “darkness cannot be viewed as an objective fact because it is subjectively and socially constructed since (different) people in various (cultural or social) contexts understand and experience dark tourism in different ways” [ 57 ]. In fact, we may ask “who makes the association of ‘darkness’ to a place? Is the label ‘dark tourism’ applied by those offering (and commoditizing) the visitor experience? Alternatively, is any “dark” significance to be evaluated and decided upon by the tourists themselves?” [ 58 ]. “Dark tourism consumption can no longer be derived as an ordinary activity where humans might engage in for “fun”, but rather as part of a quest for a deeper experience, especially in our inherent fear of death” [ 4 ].

The subsample that has already heard about dark tourism presents higher values in the curiosity, the need to learn and understand, and the need to see morbid things motives than the sample that has not yet heard about dark tourism. These results also confirm hypothesis H2. In fact, dark tourists are very interested in understanding historical events; they are psychologically moved by the need to be in contact with authentic experiences by looking at the other’s death as if it were their own death [ 59 ]. One of the motivations that drive dark tourists is the possibility of re-creating the same emotions victims experienced, followed by the authenticity issue [ 60 ]. “Many dark tourists are motivated by the desire and interest in cultural heritage, learning, education, understanding about what happened at the dark site” [ 4 ].

There are no differences in the values of rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, psychological vulnerability, and tourism wellbeing concerning knowing what dark tourism is or not. Therefore, hypothesis H4 cannot be confirmed. These results apparently seem to contradict the relationship between the dark triad of the personality (narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy) and the practice of dark tourism [ 16 , 32 , 33 , 34 ]. That relationship, studied by those authors, reflects the practice of dark tourism and not the knowledge about it (which is the subject of our study), although there is hardly any knowledge without practice. Concerning tourism wellbeing, these results may question Kidron [ 61 ] who said that dark tourism generates wellbeing and thus assume that dark tourists show wellbeing despite dark practices. However, our results do not show greater wellbeing in the participants who knew in advance what dark tourism was in relation to the others.

Participants who visit cemeteries have significantly lower values of self-hatred and psychological vulnerability than participants who report not visiting cemeteries. Visiting a cemetery can fulfill different functions, such as visiting a dark place or the social and cultural function of honoring the dead. Probably, our results reflect this last function to the detriment of the first and this conformity to cultural and social practices is in accordance with lower values of psychopathology [ 62 ], namely rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, and psychological vulnerability. This result partially confirms hypothesis 5.

Those who visit sites of war present higher levels of self-hatred than those who did not. Furthermore, those who visit natural tragedies sites present higher values in hostility and tourism wellbeing than those who do not. This result reflects the relationship of this tourist practice with the above-mentioned dark triad [ 16 , 32 , 33 , 34 ] and is in line with Kidron [ 61 ], who suggested wellbeing in dark tourists. At last, those who stop to see accidents present higher values in rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, psychological vulnerability, and tourism wellbeing than those who do not stop. Again, this result reveals the relationship between psychopathology and tourist wellbeing that needs to be further explained, although some authors suggest that psychopathology leads to less tourism wellbeing [ 63 ]. This result partially confirms hypothesis 5.

Participants who identified curiosity as a reason to visit dark places in the context of tourism presented higher values in rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, psychological vulnerability, and tourism wellbeing than those who did not identify curiosity as a motive. Curiosity has been a central reason pointed out in the literature for tourism in general [ 64 ] and, specifically, for dark tourism [ 15 , 17 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 65 , 66 ]. Curiosity is a complex construct, which can be seen as something positive, but it can also contain darker aspects of the personality, namely morbid curiosity, and this fact explains its relationship with, on the one hand, wellbeing, and, on the other hand, with rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, and psychological vulnerability. This result partially confirms hypothesis 5.

The participants who identified the need to learn, the need to understand as motives to visit dark places in the context of tourism present higher values in tourism wellbeing and self-hatred than those who did not. The need to learn and understand are also central reasons for tourism in general and their relationship with wellbeing does not seem specific to dark tourism [ 67 ]. This result partially confirms hypothesis 5.

The participants who identified the need to see as a reason to visit dark places in the context of tourism presented higher values in rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, psychological vulnerability, and tourism wellbeing. This result partially confirms hypothesis 5. Similarly to the need to learn, the need to see correlates with wellbeing but with psychopathology. Perhaps this need to learn motivation is correlated with the touristic practice of seeing morbid things [ 68 ].

The participants who recognized pleasure as a motive to visit dark places presented higher values in tourism wellbeing than those who did not. This result partially confirms hypothesis 5. Dark tourism conforms with the pleasure of tourism in general (Yanjun et al., 2015); wellbeing derives from the emotional experience of dark tourism as a motor for transforming the self [ 69 ].

The participants who identified the need to see morbid things as a drive to visit dark places presented higher values in rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, and psychological vulnerability. The need to see morbid things may be a specific motivation for dark tourism [ 1 , 70 ] and not tourism in general. To that extent, the relationship between this motivation and rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, and psychological vulnerability is justified. This result partially confirms Hypothesis 5.

The reasons to visit dark places-curiosity, the need to see, the need to understand, and pleasure are positively and significantly correlated with all places associated with dark tourism. Gender, age, know/know not dark tourism, and motives (curiosity, the need to learn, the need to understand, and pleasure) explained 38.1% of the practice index variance, thus confirming H6. These results mean that motivations to visit dark places are associated with the touristic activity itself and may contradict those of Buda [ 71 ], that claims more emotional and psychoanalytical explorations through the concepts of the death drive [ 71 ], desire [ 72 ], and unconsciousness and voyeurism [ 73 ]. In fact, dark tourists are not altruistic persons [ 14 , 60 ]. Moreover, Jovanovic, Mijatov, and Šuligoj [ 32 ] found that Machiavellianism was related to the preference for dark exhibitions, psychopathy to the preference for visiting conflict/battle sites, and sadism was negatively related to the preference for fun factories and dark tourism sites. However, the “darker” motivation may present different levels of intensity; besides the fascination and interest in death [ 15 ], these visits are also motivated by personal, cultural, and psychological reasons [ 4 ] and/or by entertainment purposes such as entertainment-based museums of torture [ 7 , 16 ]. One of the most curious outcomes of this study is the association of motivations to visit dark tourist sites and self-hatred; the fact that the authors have not found any study that could explain such a result suggests this association exists in the context of dark tourism and not of tourism in general. The dark nature of this type of tourism can be attractive to tourists with less positive personality traits such as self-hatred.

6. Conclusions

The results of this study add new knowledge to this area of expertise as it allows us to understand the association between motivations and practices related to dark tourism. This study also identified the main motivations to visit dark places-curiosity, the need to see, the need to understand, and pleasure, being, interestingly, all internal motivations and, thus, contradicting the literature that, in addition to these motivations, also identifies external motivations. Most findings also indicate that the rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, and psychological vulnerability personality dimensions are associated with dark practices (e.g., the need to see morbid things). Lastly, people who visit more dark places and score higher on negative personality characteristics have higher values of tourism wellbeing. These findings are in line with the literature, which suggests that dark tourism generates negative and positive wellbeing (or even ambivalence). As such, dark tourists, even presenting negative personality characteristics, and also because of them, show tourism wellbeing in their practices and motivations.

The fact that this study was held in a specific sample in Portugal may be considered a limitation; future lines of research could extend it to other countries and age segments.

Funding Statement

This research received no external funding.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, J.M., J.A.F.-B. and Â.L.; methodology, J.M.; formal analysis, J.M. and Â.L.; writing—original draft preparation, J.M.; writing—review and editing, J.M., J.A.F.-B. and Â.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Ethical review and approval were waived for this study, as no medical research involving human subjects has been carried out, including research on identifiable human material and data, as indicated by the terms of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Data Availability Statement

Conflicts of interest.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Dark Tourism: Meet The People Who Holiday At The Sites Of The World’s Most Tragic Events

From ground zero to auschwitz, chernobyl to fukushima, why do some people choose to travel to the world's darkest placesphotos by rebecca bathory.


Tell anyone you’re writing a feature on dark tourism and two things will inevitably happen. First they’ll enquire what it is, and you’ll reply something like, 'Welllllll, dark tourists are people that go to places that have seen significant human death and suffering.' Then they’ll look at you searchingly, perhaps a little accusingly, and ask if you’re okay and how things are at home.

'Dark tourism is simply a name given, or even imposed on, the production and consumption of visitor sites that represent death and dying and, which in turn, have difficult or contested heritage,' says Dr Phillip Stone, Executive Director of the Institute for Dark Tourism Research .

Stone - a business management and sociology lecturer by day, and gold-plated clever chap - has done more than anyone to educate the world about dark tourism. Perhaps unsurprisingly, much of his efforts are consumed with trying to convince people that it’s the opposite of what they might think. 'The media will probably remain focused on dark tourism and death and dying, whilst academia will continue to examine dark tourism and its role in life and living.'

When you consider the world’s five most popular dark tourism sites - Ground Zero, Alcatraz, Auschwitz, Pearl Harbour, Pompeii - academia’s standpoint certainly sounds prescient. You wouldn’t consider a desire to visit any of these rooted in any kind of grisly voyeurism, and certainly not something any average, bumbag-welding tourist wouldn’t do. Visits to these sites are reflective; by putting some context on the vagaries of the world, they hopefully enable you to feel a little better about your place in it.

There is, however, a burgeoning online culture of enthusiasts searching out sites well off the beaten track. Who don't mind traveling for a day a night or a week to gaze a little further into the well of human suffering. 

One of these is Rebecca Bathory , a photographer studying a PHD in dark tourism photography. Rebecca has visited Chernobyl (three times), churches of the dead in Italy and abandoned mental asylums in West Virginia. She’s currently on a tour of the planet’s most far-flung dark tourism sites taking pictures for an upcoming book, and has just been in Fukishima; the now-deserted 2011 site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

'For some there’s definitely an attraction/repulsion thing. It’s like a car crash. Some people it doesn’t interested them at all, others it does. I think everyone has different reasons to go there. Obviously I’m a photographer so I’m there to take photos. I think a lot of people are there for the history, then you’re attracted to things you wouldn’t normally see. Because death’s hidden from society.'



Throughout our conversation Bathory rather sweetly says, 'You think this is weird don’t you?' My stock reply is, 'It’s not for me.' And it isn’t, but that doesn’t mean her point isn’t sound. In our world, violence as a currency has never been higher: we’ll gleefully watch families murder each other on Game Of Thrones ; we’ll sit by and snigger when our friends run over innocent bystanders in Grand Theft Auto; we’ll guiltily watch NFSW videos through the cracks in our fingers.



But Western culture has never been so immunized against the reality of death.

'Different cultures have such a better way of dealing with death,' says Bathory. 'In India, for example, you could walk down the road see a skull and no none would bat an eye lid. If it was in America there would be a forensic examination.' It’s something she’s going to examine in her PHD- whether the more people partake in dark tourism and they more the see photos, the more accepting they become of death.

‘It would certainly be better for it to be more in the open. It’s one of the last taboos,' she says. 

Interestingly, she thinks last year’s picture of the drowned Syrian boy on a Kos beach took it too far. It might have helped bring the world’s attention to the terrible immigrant problem, but that’s not a justification. 'That was someone’s child and they’d just died. I think there’s a line.'



It’s something I touch on with Stone. In light of recent terrorist atrocities and with smartphones and 24 hour news meaning the time between tragedy and worldwide exposure is the time it takes to upload a video, how soon is too soon?



'There is a now fine blurred line between commemoration and commercialisation. And, contemporary ‘dark tourism’ often exposes this tension. In doing so, dark tourism and difficult heritage highlights broader (Western) interrelationships of how the cultural condition of society deals with its Significant Other Dead. Even so, the idea of "chronological distance" – that is, the time taken from an act of atrocity, disaster or tragedy to independent visitors visiting the site – is, arguably, becoming increasingly shorter.”
'

As with all aspects of dark tourism, its a controversial, emotive issue that challenges our pre-conceived notions regarding things we don’t yet fully understand.

And maybe that’s okay.

You might also be interested in:

BBC Three's Life On Death Row: Love Triangle Is Your New True Crime Obsession

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The Unsexy Side Of Solo Travelling

Follow David on Twitter @Gobshout

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.

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Dark tourism booms as more travellers gravitate towards the macabre

THE tourism industry is cashing in on history’s darkest moments as travellers flock to places like Alcatraz, Auschwitz and Ground Zero.

‘Traumatised’: Aussie couple’s Bali hell

Missing teen’s dad breaks silence

Couple drown in front of their six kids

IT is the strangest travel trend yet.

A global fascination with tragedy has turned some of history’s darkest moments into popular tourist attractions.

Places like Ground Zero, Auschwitz and Alcatraz attract thousands of visitors a year in a trend known as “dark tourism”

In 2016, the World Trade Centre memorial was the subject of more than 62,000 TripAdvisor reviews with 54 per cent rating the site where close to 3000 people lost their lives, as “excellent”.

The Tower of London with its enduring reputation as a place of torture and death was the second most reviewed site, followed by Ann Frank House in Amsterdam where the young Ann and her family hid from the Nazis in World War II.

Australia’s most reviewed dark tourism site was Port Arthur where Martin Bryant gunned down 35 people in 1996.

Dr Elizabeth Grant who contributed to the Palgrave Handbook of Prison Tourism coming out this month, said the term “dark tourism” was actually coined when people started visiting the scene of John F Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas.

“People started taking pictures of that site in Dallas and if you see their behaviour when they go there, it’s really quite strange,” said Dr Grant.

“It’s like they’re getting a trophy shot.”

She said the same was true of the Auschwitz concentration camp, Pearl Harbor and the electric chair at the Texas Prison Museum.

“Some people like the sinister, and like the macabre,” Dr Grant said.

“It can seem like we’re becoming more obsessed about a quick personal experience in gathering places rather than understanding the place.”

Handbook Editor Jacqueline Wilson said prison tourism was emerging as one of the most popular forms of tourism in the world.

“Some times these places are just so terrible the only way people can deal with them is to have a laugh,” said Associate Professor Wilson.

“I can understand the selfies with the noose and the keystone cops tourist guides — why there’s that aspect.”

Travel enthusiast Ben Alcock said he never planned a holiday specifically for the purpose of visiting a “dark tourism” site but he had visited many including Ground Zero, Anzac Cove, Tiananmen Square, and the Killing Fields in Phnom Penh.

“Sometimes being close to the deep melancholy of a place connected to tragedy can arouse a morbid thrill, a shiver of ghastliness,” Mr Alcock said.

“The same thing we might feel watching a horror film, only real.”

Insurance expert with finder.com.au Bessie Hassan said the number of reviews posted online about the dark tourism sites showed travellers were keen to share their “haunted holiday stories”.

“People are generally intrigued by places with negative or tragic histories, and are naturally drawn towards them, but you wouldn’t typically expect responses to be so positive,” said Ms Hassan.

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A couple’s dream holiday to Bali ended up turning into a horror experience that left them $8000 out of pocket. Now, they’re warning others.

The dad of a British teen who has gone missing in wild lands on a Spanish island has paid an emotional visit to the search site.

A family’s holiday has turned into tragedy after the parents drowned in front of their six kids, with their children unable to do anything but watch in horror.

Dark tourism: Why are we attracted to tragedy and death?

T he appeal of sites, visitor centres and museums linked to atrocities and tragedy is known as “dark tourism”.

There are numerous morbid destinations currently popular with travellers around the world - from Ground Zero in New York, to the tours of concentration camps - but the biggest surge in recent times has been to Chernobyl in the aftermath of the resounding success of HBO's recent drama series .

Documenting the tragic events following the 1986 Chernobyl power plant disaster, one of the worst man-made catastrophes ever to befall our planet, the show deservedly earned some rave reviews . 

Its success has seen tourism numbers skyrocket, and has reportedly  attracted a raft of Instagrammers who have been accused of posing inappropriately in the ghost town of Pripyat.

But this isn’t the first time in recent years that tourist behaviour at harrowing locations has been put under the spotlight. Back in 2016, visitors flocked to Auschwitz in Poland after a film from Ukranian director Sergei Loznitsa called Austerlitz  was released. The film was a quiet study of the more than a million visitors who stream through the infamous gates every year.

It showed but refrained from commenting on some exuberant groups who could be deemed by the audience to be behaving inappropriately - perhaps because they were speaking too loudly, or even dressed too loudly. They also took lots of selfies, raising the question of whether such behaviour should be better policed.

Professor Lennon - a lecturer in dark tourism from Glasgow Caledonian University London and the man who helped coin the term - believes such visits are “motivated by a desire for actual or symbolic encounters with death.”

The darker side of tourism is nothing new, according to Professor Lennon. Our ancestors, after all, visited Roman gladiatorial games, honoured death in pilgrimages to Canterbury, and enjoyed days out at public executions.

Tong Lam, an Associate Professor at Toronto University and author of the book Abandoned Futures: a Journey Through the Posthuman World, recently told Telegraph Travel : “I think ruin tourism or dark tourism has become popular because it helps to negotiate our growing anxieties over the existential threats that we are facing, including climate change, globalisation, nuclear annihilation or simply death.”

But if we visit dark tourism sites, not just to tick a box but because we want to remember a tragedy and be affected by it, doesn’t it follow that we should want to behave respectfully?

The fatal car crash involving Diana, Princess of Wales, prompted pilgrimages to the Parisian underpass where it happened, as did her burial in Althorpe. Adrian Bridge, a Telegraph Travel editor, was one of those who went to pay his respects. “I was curious,” he said. “I went and stood at the junction and, although it was busy with traffic, there was a poignancy to it. There is something quite powerful about being at a scene where something like that took place.”

There was some outrage expressed a few years ago when President Obama was seen taking a selfie at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service. The rules of conduct for visitors to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, for example, forbids loud noises, calling and shouting, music, dogs, cycling and sunbathing.

“Sites of mass killing,” suggested Professor Lennon, “particularly those associated with the Jewish holocaust, present major challenges for interpretation and invariably questions arise concerning the nature of motivation for visitors.”

Where the sympathies and behaviour of visitors cannot be relied upon, appropriate conduct can be imposed. Guards at the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam are on hand to ensure visitors walk in single file and maintain a respectful countenance.

It is for those planning attractions that commemorate death too to consider what kind of reaction they want.

“The emotional impact of such sites is not culturally straightforward, it is about more than creating reflective memories for the visitor,” said Professor Lennon.

And turning the location of a tragedy into a profit-making tourist attraction is not something that can be done without proper consideration.

“There is a clear profit motive at a number of such sites,” he said. “Even if admission is free there are secondary revenue streams from retail, catering and so forth.

“Concentration camps are usually operated by trusts which use a contribution from sales for maintenance and staffing costs.”

Indeed, some tours to Chernobyl were closed temporarily in 2011 after it was alleged that the takings were not being spent on cleaning up the area’s deadly radioactive legacy.

Profits aside, the impact of dark tourism sites on local communities needs also to be considered. Londonderry’s more famous attractions include large street murals depicting the Troubles.

Some commentators have suggested that these should be updated with something more positive, and that the city should not be forever looking to the past.

But Professor Lennon believes it is more important to ensure that events presented are historically accurate.

“Many locations have a tragic past (Paris and the revolution, Berlin at the heart of the Nazi government), but that does not mean such places cannot change,” he said.

“The murals in Northern Ireland are associated with a period of history but remain a major attraction because of the images of the period they detail. New images of a peaceful and prosperous location are unlikely to exert the same fascination.”

He pointed out that visiting dark tourism sites may be a crucial way for us to learn the lessons of the past, whether or not current governments want us to.

“When we look at which sites are maintained and developed and which are not, it provides an insight into which are acceptable and unacceptable histories,” he said.

“The Cambodian government, for example, has been slow to conserve and finance the interpretation of the Killing Field sites of the Khmer Rouge, therefore mapping the acts of this particularly barbarous regime.

“But to remain silent and not to record and interpret these events for tourists, may encourage future generations to ignore or forget these terrible periods of human history. Dark tourism, like our dark history, occupies an important part of our understanding of what it is to be human.”

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The Titanic Sub and the Draw of Extreme Tourism

Diving to the bottom of the ocean is risky. So is flying to space. But people will keep paying to do both.

The submersible craft’s journey to the bottom of the ocean and back was supposed to take about eight hours . Two and a half hours for the descent, a few hours to explore the century-old wreckage of the Titanic, and then another two and a half hours to return to the surface.

But the sub and its five passengers have now been missing in the Atlantic Ocean for three days. In that period, it has had no communication with the rest of the world. American and Canadian crews are searching the sea for any sign of the vessel, and time is against them. According to a U.S. Coast Guard official, the submersible has a finite supply of emergency oxygen, which is dwindling by the hour. What began as an adventure has turned into a frantic rescue operation.

The voyage, as grim as it seems now, is one of many treacherous tourism options for the wealthy. The lost submersible, named Titan, belongs to OceanGate Expeditions, a research and tourism company specializing in deep-sea excursions, which has charged $250,000 for a ticket to the Titanic. Wealthy adventurers could also pay hundreds of thousands to fly to the edge of space, or millions to orbit the Earth. When traveling to such dangerous, exotic environments, disaster is always a risk. And yet, people pay considerable money to take it on.

Read: What it’s like to be at the bottom of the ocean

As the rescue efforts continue, details about the submersible experience have emerged. The expensive voyage is far from luxurious. David Pogue, a CBS journalist who traveled on the submersible last year, recently called the cramped vehicle, with as much room inside as a minivan, “janky.” Before he boarded, Pogue signed a waiver that described Titan as an “experimental submersible vessel that has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body and could result in physical injury, disability, emotional trauma, or death.” The New York Times reported today that a few dozen submersible experts, oceanographers, and deep-sea explorers wrote a letter in 2018 to OceanGate’s CEO—who is on board the missing vessel—expressing concern about the safety of the sub.

People still signed up, of course. The reason some human beings are drawn to such extreme tourism is rather straightforward, if slightly unsatisfying: They’re just like that. “We’re all wired a little bit differently,” James Petrick, a professor at Texas A&M University who studies tourist behavior, told me. Researchers categorize travelers and their motivations along a spectrum: On one end are the risk-averse psychocentrics , who travel least often and to familiar spots. On the other end are the risk-embracing allocentrics , who travel often and are more adventurous. Most people fall somewhere in the middle, Petrick said: “You may go on a vacation and bungee jump, but you want the comforts of your hotel room the rest of the time.”

Adding to Titan’s appeal was the submersible’s destination, the site of the most famous shipwreck in history, where more than 1,500 people perished. Visiting such gruesome places is part of a phenomenon known as “dark tourism.” Countless visitors travel to the sites of concentration camps, battlefields, and Ground Zero. Dark tourism brings out “something that we all have in common, which is our demise,” says J. John Lennon, a tourism professor at Glasgow Caledonian University, in Scotland, who coined the term with a colleague. “The means and method of that demise seem to exert an enduring fascination over many of us.” (Again, some of us are just like that.)

Read: There’s nothing wrong with posing for photos at Chernobyl

Tours of places such as Auschwitz can have historical and educational value; OceanGate says that every deep-sea dive involves some scientific research, and passengers are given the title of “mission specialist.” But the real draw is obvious in this now-deleted marketing line: “Become one of the few to see the Titanic with your own eyes.” The narrative surrounding the Titanic as an “unsinkable” ship further shrouds the wreckage in intrigue, turning a trip to the depths into “something between learning and voyeurism,” Lennon told me. Petrick wondered whether, as awful as it sounds, the story of the missing submersible might make the deep-sea location even more appealing for potential travelers.

Most can’t afford a $250,000 submersible trip, or any of the other kinds of travel popular with the ultra-wealthy. Consider space tourism, which is finally becoming routine after years of anticipation. A ride to the edge of space with Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson’s space company, costs $450,000. Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin hasn’t publicly divulged its prices for its own edge-of-space trip, but one seat seems to have gone for $1.25 million. Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which takes passengers into orbit and to the International Space Station, charges many more millions . Flying to space is becoming as much of a status symbol as climbing Mount Everest, and the spacefarer club is much more exclusive. “If you can go a step further than the pack, if you can do something more daring, intriguing, and enigmatic than the others—and if it’s photogenic—all the better,” Lennon said.

Read: The new ‘right stuff’ is money and luck

For those who can afford it, the draw of high-risk adventure is, apparently, irresistible. Among the five passengers on the OceanGate submersible is Hamish Harding, an aviation businessman and seasoned adventurer , who has set a diving record in the Mariana Trench and traveled to Antarctica with Buzz Aldrin. Last summer, before he joined the submersible voyage, Harding was a passenger on Blue Origin.

Dark Tourism

Managing Dark Tourism Sites, Attractions, and Exhibitions

GROUND ZERO...

On 11th September 2001, America and the world were shocked by the terror act that took place. Two planes crashed into the World Trade Centres in Manhattan, New York causing mass destruction and the loss of nearly 3000 lives. Soon after the major tragedy, plans for cleaning up the site were well underway for were the planned memorial site would be. The site is called Ground Zero and took around 10 years to construct. It is set up of two memorial pools, they are placed exactly were the twin towers were situated. The two pools are surrounded by the names of the people who lost their lives in bronze parapets. The memorial has had more than 11 visitors since it first opened in September 2011 and continues to rally in millions of tourists every year making it one of the most visited Dark Tourism sites in the world. ‘In 2002, ground zero in New York attracted 3.5 million visitors, almost double the number that annually visited the observation platform of the WTC prior to 9/11’ (Stone & Sharpley, 2009). 

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'Remember when it was just hallowed ground? Ground Zero is now one of the most popular tourism attractions in the city.… The proud can buy Twin Towers T-shirts, the angry can buy toilet paper bearing the face of Osama bin Laden and the curious can climb up the fence to take the perfect picture of what is now just a big hole. The hustle of commerce hawking to the crush of sightseers has prompted some to call it September 11 World'.

(Stone & Sharpley, 2009).

Managing a Dark Tourism site of this scale is a huge job for the management team. They have to be careful, considerate and understand that tourists are visiting to pay tribute to the people who lost their lives. Some of the possible issues in the managerial practices of Ground Zero are:

The overcrowded sidewalks and the overflowing waste in the trash cans.

The local businesses being used as public bathroom services

Local residents and businesses moving away due to the high number of tourists, especially in the earlier years of the 2001 attacks.

In the early years of the attack, New York officials did not want the market Ground Zero as a tourist attraction as they felt that the local residents would deem it insensitive.

Whether they should make money from Ground Zero. 

(Pizam & Fleischer, 2002)

'Frequently, the popularity of such sites may be enhanced by the marketing and promotional activity of businesses or organisations anxious to profit through tourism; equally, the media frequently play a role in ‘promoting’ dark sites'.

(Seaton, 1996 )

One of the main issues surrounding the site that the managers can come across when working is that some people may not be respecting the wishes of the site. The managers need to make sure that the consumers understand the rules that apply at the memorial.

(Doss, 2010) 

Some of the managerial practices being applied to Ground Zero currently are:

The management of tourist’s numbers: They need to keep this in check because it could have extreme impacts on both the environment and with the local residents. This could be done with changing the cost of the entrance fee to the payable tourist’s sites and making them higher. This could defer as many people from visiting and they could slowly get the tourists numbers to a reasonable number. Although charging the higher entrance fee would benefit them in more way then one, this could also raise the question of do they want to purely profit from the dark tourism site? Also, would they want to affect the local businesses by reducing the number of visitors this way?  

The surrounding area and infrastructure: As there are many tourists visiting Ground Zero every day, the best thing to do is to make sure that the site looks the part and is eye catching. For some tourists it has to look beautiful whilst still being a memorial spot. Also by managing the site as a tourist attraction the infrastructure overall will improve and it may help with the possible protection of the surrounding area.

Local waste and overcrowding: Plans have been made to widen the sidewalks which will help with the over crowded streets and also the overflowing trashcans. Doing this would make the memorial site more appealing for the visitors and even the local residents. It will also reduce the negative impacts on the current environment as well as he locals.

Restrooms: Restrooms in the memorial would benefit the local businesses because many of the tourists wouldn’t need to use them as often. This is one thing that the management of the memorial site needs to look at more closely because it would benefit many people. ‘Public restrooms are not available on the Memorial or in surrounding hotels. The closest public restrooms are located in Wagner Park or Battery Park. Bathrooms are also available in Federal Hall on Wall Street, Monday through Friday, 9 am to 5 pm’ (9/11 Memorial, 2015).  

Increase in businesses and residents: Since 2011, residents and businesses has seen a major increase in lower Manhattan. This has had great positive impact in the area as people are feeling safer in the post disaster area and has raised the local economy immensely. Also with there being in influx of visitor number in Ground Zero, the local businesses have benefitted.

'One question relating to many dark sites and attractions is whether it is ethical to develop, promote or offer them for touristic consumption. For example, significant debate surrounded the construction of the viewing platform at Ground Zero, enabling casual or even voyeuristic visitors to stand alongside those mourning the loss of loved ones'.

(Lisle, 2004)

Reconstructive work entails not just rebuilding Ground Zero, not just contentious military ventures in the Middle East, but also an ongoing attempt to incorporate 9/11 into a revised narrative of America and of the West. Dark tourism and the media are central to this process of revision.

(Stone & Sharpley, 2009)

'Profiting from Ground Zero will put money back into the broken city as it cost so much to clean up the area and recover after 9/11'. 

(Pizam & Fleischer, 2002)