People are fascinated with death and disaster, one would slow down on the motorway to see a crash, or the fact that there are more negative articles on the News, then positive, is a clear indicator of this. Thus, there is a growing demand for dark tourism, also known as Thanatourism. It is derived from the ancient Greek word thanatos, meaning the personification of death (Cristiana, 2013). Therefore, Dark tourism, is a tourism attraction that are based around morbid events, generally death and disaster (Shackley, 2002). Today, dark tourism, is significantly increasing in demand, resulting in an immense increase in academic interest ever since 1990’s. However as dark tourism is still very taboo, literature is fragile and inadequately conceptualised
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This essay discusses why dark tourism is a contemporary issue. Firstly, this essay explains the history and an overview of what dark tourism is. The essay will go on to discuss the two motivations aspects of visiting a dark tourism site, such as the site having meaning to the tourist, or educating the tourists on the events that took place. Each of these have then been broken down into positive and negative aspects, and how that results in the dark tourism being a contemporary issue. The negative impacts of the site having meaning to the tourist, is the disrespect that is seen at the site, followed by the positive, and that being voluntourism, or volunteer tourism, helping develop and aid the effected site. The negatives with education, is the utilization of education as a way to exploit the attraction, and the positives include developing sensitive and respectful economic gain by putting an emphasis on education. Finally, this essay discusses the overlap that dark tourism has with other contemporary tourism issues, such as film, or celebrity …show more content…
Thus, the positive of visiting the location of the dark tourism site, is it can offer an understanding and often peace of mind, through knowledge and education (Yuill, 2003). Generally, this knowledge and understanding is developed by teaching the history of the site, and how the event occurred (Raine, 2013). Creating this knowledge around the site, allows the individual, and the world to learn from its past mistakes, ensuring the the deviation does not occur again (Yuill, 2003). For example, Poland, opened Auschwitz to the public in 1947, it is the authentic location of the worst atrocities from the Holocaust. Today, it is the most notorious dark tourism site, each year seeing over a million visitors. This is due to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, acting as a memorial as well as an educational source informing visitors on what occurred (Brown, 2013., & Cristiana, 2013). Education is one of the main ways that dark tourism attractions market the attraction. In doing so the attraction is seen as educational, rather than a mass tourism business, thus, portraying the attraction as a more ethically correct attraction (Selmi, et al, 2012). Therefore, dark tourism is a positive contemporary issue as it has the potential to educate individuals on the events, ensure that it does not occur
This essay discusses why dark tourism is a contemporary issue. Firstly, this essay explains the history and an overview of what dark tourism is. The essay will go on to discuss the two motivations aspects of visiting a dark tourism site, such as the site having meaning to the tourist, or educating the tourists on the events that took place. Each of these have then been broken down into positive and negative aspects, and how that results in the dark tourism being a contemporary issue. The negative impacts of the site having meaning to the tourist, is the disrespect that is seen at the site, followed by the positive, and that being voluntourism, or volunteer tourism, helping develop and aid the effected site. The negatives with education, is the utilization of education as a way to exploit the attraction, and the positives include developing sensitive and respectful economic gain by putting an emphasis on education. Finally, this essay discusses the overlap that dark tourism has with other contemporary tourism issues, such as film, or celebrity …show more content…
Thus, the positive of visiting the location of the dark tourism site, is it can offer an understanding and often peace of mind, through knowledge and education (Yuill, 2003). Generally, this knowledge and understanding is developed by teaching the history of the site, and how the event occurred (Raine, 2013). Creating this knowledge around the site, allows the individual, and the world to learn from its past mistakes, ensuring the the deviation does not occur again (Yuill, 2003). For example, Poland, opened Auschwitz to the public in 1947, it is the authentic location of the worst atrocities from the Holocaust. Today, it is the most notorious dark tourism site, each year seeing over a million visitors. This is due to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, acting as a memorial as well as an educational source informing visitors on what occurred (Brown, 2013., & Cristiana, 2013). Education is one of the main ways that dark tourism attractions market the attraction. In doing so the attraction is seen as educational, rather than a mass tourism business, thus, portraying the attraction as a more ethically correct attraction (Selmi, et al, 2012). Therefore, dark tourism is a positive contemporary issue as it has the potential to educate individuals on the events, ensure that it does not occur