Deaths, disasters and atrocities in touristic form are becoming an increasingly pervasive feature within the contemporary tourism landscape. Indeed, the seemingly macabre within tourism includes people gazing upon former sites of war and battle, whereby organised violence is brought back to life by tour guides offering accounts of heroism, tragedy and personal torment. Similarly, the present day ‘tourist’ can take in Ground Zero, the site of mass murder and carnage on September 11, whilst on a trip to the Big Apple. Other examples of this death-related tourism include excursionists sightseeing in the ruins of New Orleans (after Hurricane Katrina), day-trippers touring the Gulags of the former Soviet Union, and visitors purchasing an ‘atrocity experience’ at former genocide sites such as Auschwitz-Birkenau or the Killing Fields of Cambodia.

 

Consequently, the phenomenon by which people visit, purposefully or as part of a broader recreational itinerary, the diverse range of sites, attractions and exhibitions which offer a (re)presentation of death, suffering and the macabre is ostensibly growing within contemporary society. Indeed, it is this seemingly proliferation of ‘tourists’ gazing upon death and ‘other’ suffering that has ushered in the rather emotive label of ‘dark tourism’ into academic discourse.

 

Dark tourism, the generic term for travel associated with death, tragedy and disaster has, over the past few years, witnessed increasing attention from the academic community and media alike. As a result, the area of dark tourism has become a fascinating and important subject to research, both with its implications for the tourism industry, in addition to exploring fundamental relationships with the wider cultural condition of society. Nevertheless, to date, the dark tourism literature remains both eclectic and theoretically fragile. That is, various gaps in our knowledge of dark tourism remain, despite an increasingly number of academics who are beginning to turn their attention to this intriguing research area.

 

Indeed, many questions remain unanswered about both the production and consumption of dark tourism. Those questions often revolve around visitor typologies, consumption and the motivational drivers of 'dark tourists'. Importantly, questions are now being raised about the role and influence of contemporary society, and in particular, the nature of death and dying upon dark tourism consumption.

 

In addition, dark tourism sites, attractions and exhibitions often present governing bodies and managers with complex moral and ethical dilemmas. Other issues surround the dynamics of commercial development and exploitation, the nature of political heritage and ideology, the act of remembrance, and the role of the media in reporting dark tourism. These issues are often compounded by the extent and type of interpretation and representation employed at 'dark sites'.

 

Consequently, dark tourism raises questions about appropriate political and managerial responses to the range of experiences perceived by visitors, local residents, victims and their relatives.

 

Hence, dark tourism is a fascinating, provocative and emotive concept and requires much more research in order to address some of the issues raised here. However that task is now well underway.

 

The Dark Tourism Forum, led by the University of Central Lancashire in the UK, and launched in September 2005, has become the premier online facility which showcases current thinking within the dark tourism domain. With thousands of hits from people on every continent, The Dark Tourism Forum aims to provide resources and material to researchers to aid their research within dark tourism and its related subject areas.

 

The Dark Tourism Forum encourages you to join our free online Research Group to take part in debates, foster contacts and to further the knowledge into this fascinating phenomenon called 'Dark Tourism'....