dark tourism meaning and definition

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Dark tourism, explained

Why visitors flock to sites of tragedy.

Every year, millions of tourists around the world venture to some of the unhappiest places on Earth: sites of atrocities, accidents, natural disasters or infamous death. From Auschwitz to Chernobyl, Gettysburg, the site of the Kennedy assassination and the 9/11 Memorial in New York, visitors are making the worst parts of history a piece of their vacation, if not the entire point.

Experts call the phenomenon dark tourism, and they say it has a long tradition. Dark tourism refers to visiting places where some of the darkest events of human history have unfolded. That can include genocide, assassination, incarceration, ethnic cleansing, war or disaster — either natural or accidental. Some might associate the idea with ghost stories and scares, but those who study the practice say it’s unrelated to fear or supernatural elements.

“It’s not a new phenomenon,” says J. John Lennon, a professor of tourism at Glasgow Caledonian University, in Scotland, who coined the term with a colleague in 1996. “There’s evidence that dark tourism goes back to the Battle of Waterloo where people watched from their carriages the battle taking place.”

The hit US drama "Chernobyl" brought a new generation of tourists to the nuclear disaster zone. (Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images)

That was in 1815, but he cites an even longer-ago example: crowds gathering to watch public hangings in London in the 16th century. Those are relatively modern compared with the bloody spectacles that unfolded in the Colosseum in Rome.

There aren’t official statistics on how many people participate in dark tourism every year or whether that number is on the rise. An online travel guide run by an enthusiast, Dark-Tourism.com , includes almost 900 places in 112 countries.

But there’s no question the phenomenon is becoming more visible, in part thanks to the Netflix series “Dark Tourist” that was released last year. And popular culture is fueling more visitation to some well-known sites: After the HBO miniseries “Chernobyl,” about the 1986 power plant explosion, came out this spring, travel companies that bring people to the area said they saw a visitor increase of 30 to 40 percent. Ukraine’s government has since declared its intention to make the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone an official tourist spot, despite lingering radiation.

[How to navigate the etiquette of dark tourism]

Philip Stone, executive director of the Institute for Dark Tourism Research at the University of Central Lancashire, in England, says anecdotally that he sees the appetite for such destinations growing.

“I think, for political reasons or cultural reasons, we are turning to the visitor economy to remember aspects of death and dying, disaster,” he says. “There is a kind of memorial mania going on. You could call that growth in dark tourism.”

(Illustrations by Laura Perez for The Washington Post)

Why are tourists so enamored with places that are, as Lennon puts it, “synonymous with the darkest periods of human history?” Academics who study the practice say it’s human nature.

[Ukraine wants Chernobyl to be a tourist trap. But scientists warn: Don’t kick up dust.]

“We’ve just got this cultural fascination with the darker side of history; most history is dark,” Stone says. “I think when we go to these places, we see not strangers, but often we see ourselves and perhaps what we might do in those circumstances.”

“When we go to these places, we see not strangers, but often we see ourselves and perhaps what we might do in those circumstances.”

Philip Stone, executive director, Institute for Dark Tourism Research at the University of Central Lancashire

There is no one type of traveler who engages in dark tourism: It could be a history buff who takes the family on a road trip to Civil War battlefields, a backpacker who treks to the Colosseum in Rome, or a tourist who seeks out the near-abandoned areas near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster, in 2011, in Japan.

Visitors walk between barbed wire fences at the Auschwitz I memorial concentration camp site in Oswiecim, Poland. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Those who are most familiar with the phenomenon do not condemn it. In fact, they argue that the most meaningful dark-tourism sites can help visitors understand the present and be more thoughtful about the future.

“These are important sites that tell us a lot about what it is to be human,” says Lennon, the tourism professor. “I think they’re important places for us to reflect on and try to better understand the evil that we’re capable of.”

There are even efforts underway to research the way children experience dark tourism, a joint project between the Institute for Dark Tourism Research and the University of Pittsburgh.

Mary Margaret Kerr, a professor of education and psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, says the idea came about when the National Park Service asked her to help create a team to design children’s materials for families who visit the memorial to United Airlines Flight 93, which was hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001, and crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

Her research team now includes middle-school students who have studied how their peers interact with the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial, in Washington, or the site of the Johnstown flood, in Pennsylvania, which killed more than 2,200 in 1889.

(Illustration by Laura Perez for The Washington Post)

“We wouldn’t want families to stop traveling, and adults want to see these places for very good reasons,” Kerr says. “It’s not so much making the decision for parents whether you take the children or not, but what are the appropriate safeguards."

She said the goal is to provide appropriate safeguards and ways to experience a site, even for children too young to grasp the history, “so the family can be there together, but each member of the family can take meaning that works out for them at their age and stage.”

As more sites with dark histories become popular spots — even part of organized tour packages — experts say there is a risk that they could become exploited, used to sell tchotchkes or placed as backdrops for unseemly photos.

“It does kind of invite that passive behavior — let’s call it that touristy behavior — that might be out of place,” Stone says.

Visitors look at the bodies of eruption victims exposed in the ruins of ancient Pompeii. (Mario Laporta/AFP via Getty Images)

Bad conduct by tourists at sensitive sites — smiling selfies at concentration camps, for example — has been widely shunned on social media. The online Dark-Tourism.com travel guide cautions against such behavior, as well as the ethically questionable “voyeurism” of visiting an ongoing or very recent tragedy to gape.

“These are important sites that tell us a lot about what it is to be human. I think they’re important places for us to reflect on and try to better understand the evil that we’re capable of.”

J. John Lennon, tourism professor at Glasgow Caledonian University

“What IS endorsed here is respectful and enlightened touristic engagement with contemporary history, and its dark sites/sides, in a sober, educational and non-sensationalist manner,” the site says .

Lennon says he’s sometimes “dumbfounded” by some of the behavior that gets publicized, but he declines to say what the right or wrong way is for tourists to behave. Overall, he says, he still hopes that by visiting places with dark histories, people are becoming better informed about atrocities like racial and ethnic cleansing.

“I’m heartened by the fact that they choose to try to understand this difficult past,” Lennon says.

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Hannah Sampson is a staff writer at The Washington Post for By The Way, where she reports on travel news.

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Dark Tourism: What Is It and Why Is It Important?

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Well, we’ve had this dark tourism blog for a little over a year now, so it seemed like a good idea to finally write a post addressing what dark tourism is, why it’s important, and why we’ve dedicated a blog to it.

What is Dark Tourism?

It’s difficult to discuss why dark tourism is important without first providing a definition.

There is a lot of misinformation about what dark tourism is. We’re even guilty of this, as we tend to sweep anything macabre under the dark tourism umbrella. And we’re not the only ones. The popular Netflix show Dark Tourist introduced many new people to the term. Which is great, but he didn’t get it all right.

Don’t get me wrong, Dark Tourist does cover some dark tourism, but he also visits several sites that have a tenuous connection at best.

For example, the racist nationalists in Africa? Not dark tourism. McKamey Manor , the terrifying horror house in Tennessee? Not dark tourism. Disturbing and macabre, for sure, but not dark tourism.

I’m not here to discuss the general merits of the show. If you like it, I honestly think that’s okay. I enjoyed quite a bit of it. However, it is important to know what is and isn’t dark tourism. And also to understand that a lot of it is sensationalist.

RELATED: The Best Historical TV Series for Dark Tourists

Defining Dark Tourism

Since I actually did my university dissertation on the effect of dark tourism on cultural heritage in Cambodia, this definition of dark tourism is almost word for word what I wrote in said dissertation:

The term ‘Dark Tourism’ was first coined in 1996 by professors John Lennon and Malcolm Foley. Dark tourism, or Thanatourism as it is sometimes referred to in academia, refers to sites associated with death, disaster and destruction.

In recent years, interest in these sites has increased; although death, suffering and tourism have been linked for centuries, specifically in the context of warfare, with sites such as the Waterloo battlefield drawing in visitors from the early 1800’s onwards. Thanatourism sites can be found around the world in varying size and scope. 

In his 1996 paper Guided by the Dark: From Thanatopsis to Thanatourism , Professor A. V. Seaton outlined five different forms of dark tourism: 

• museums that showcase death or symbols of death in some way, such as the popular Dungeon museums (i.e London Dungeon, Paris Dungeon) that allow visitors to “relive” the horrors of a city throughout its history; 
• participation or observation of death simulation, such as the re-enactments of famous battles; 
• witnessing of public deaths (though this form is less common as public executions occur in very few countries today), this would also include activities like gladiatorial combat; 
• visits to memorial sites – this encompasses graveyards, crypts, internment sites; and lastly
• travel to sites of individual or mass death and/or tragedy; this includes the sites of famous dead people and the homes of mass murderers, as well as the sites of battlefields (Waterloo, Gettysburg), and genocide (Rwandan genocide memorial sites, Holocaust memorials sites and extermination camps, i.e. Auschwitz, Dachau).

Hope that clears things up…

What Dark Tourism Isn’t

Essentially, haunted houses, abandoned places or just mean people aren’t necessarily dark tourism unless some kind of tragedy is attached to them. For example, we visited an abandoned amusement park in Elektrėnai, Lithuania and while it was wonderful and somewhat reminiscent of Chernobyl with the large, decaying ferris wheel and bumper cars, it was not dark tourism. Whereas Chernobyl, which suffered a devastating nuclear disaster in 1986 is very much dark tourism.

Likewise, we’ve written a few posts on haunted places and some of them are probably closer to dark tourism than others. The little girl who was locked in her home with her dead parents and was forced to succumb to cannibalism before choking on the flesh of her parents? Definitely closer to the definition of dark tourism than the residential home that may or may not have a poltergeist, but no one really knows why. In case you’re curious, those can both be found in this article .

So to reiterate, all dark tourism is macabre, but not all macabre tourism is dark tourism.

Why Dark Tourism Is Important To Me

I’ve always been a weird kid. I have a dark sense of humour, I find serial killers fascinating, and   Schindler’s List was my favourite film when I was 7. You get the idea.

There are more of us ‘weirdos’ than you think. Some people, like Caitlin Doughty, of Ask a Mortician fame, become morticians (and write darkly humourous books about it) and co-found death positivity movements like The Order of the Good Death . Others, like Tori Telfer, write books about history’s deadliest women and host podcasts on the same topic.

But I travel; it’s always been a big part of who I am. So it should come as no surprise that I became a dark tourist.

For a long time, I didn’t realise that’s what I was. It’s not just that I didn’t know the term – because let’s be fair, the term ‘dark tourism’ only entered into popular lexicon within the last few years, and while I did know the term before that, it’s irrelevant. What I mean is that I never connected my interests as a tourist with anything out of the ordinary.

I knew I was weird, I knew I liked macabre stuff and most people didn’t, but whenever we went to a ‘dark tourism’ site, it was normally pretty busy.

People thought I was weird, but travelling made me realise I wasn’t all that different from the world as a whole – just from small town America.

So yes, on a totally selfish level, dark tourism is important to me because it made me feel a little bit more normal. And as a kid that was important to me because I wasn’t like other kids, and kids care about that.

But dark tourism is also important to me for the same reasons it should be important to everyone. History matters. Those who lost their lives to genocide or trying to enact positive  change matter. Remembering matters.

RELATED: The Best Dark History Podcasts

How I Became a Dark Tourist

Honestly, I’ve always been one. 

I have always made it a point to visit sites that would be classified as dark tourism sites; I went to a former slave plantation in Charleston, South Carolina, paid my respects at several concentration camps, and looked out at the ocean that swallowed so many slaves on their way to North America at Cape Coast Castle in Ghana. Museums that showcase a dark period in history are often a highlight of my trips. And that’s just the beginning.

Truthfully, I don’t even remember the first place I went that could be classified as dark tourism, especially if we’re including museums. And I am, because museums make for excellent historical records concerning difficult history and heritage. Plus, technically speaking, today often sites like Auschwitz and the Killing Fields are also considered museums.

I don’t remember when I first heard the term dark tourism, but I remember how I felt when I heard it; I was relieved to know there were other people like me. It made sense; I had a box to tick on ‘type of travel’ all of a sudden.

Although I don’t remember where or when I heard it, dark tourism has definitely been in my vocabulary since at least the early 2010s. And in 2015, I really sealed the deal when I moved to Cambodia to do research on my dissertation.

What I can say for certain is that being a dark tourist has made me a better person. Learning about past atrocities from a young age (I was seven when I first learned about the Holocaust) taught me a lot about empathy, compassion and tolerance.

RELATED: Eye-Opening Books About Racism from Around the World

Dark Tourism Gets You Out of Your Comfort Zone

Visiting dark tourism sites can be quite shocking and upsetting for many people. Even as a seasoned dark tourist, our trip to Lidice in the Czech Republic had a profound effect on me.

This isn’t a bad thing. Learning about the bad parts of history are just as much a part of the travel experience as seeing beautiful buildings. It helps us grow as people, and it allows us to better understand and appreciate where we are.

I truly believe it is impossible to fully appreciate places like Poland and Cambodia without first learning about their tragic pasts. Horrific as they may be, these events are a part of a country’s history – oftentimes their very recent history – and have shaped them into the places they are today. To fully understand a place, we need to acknowledge and learn about its history.

In fact, it wasn’t until I lived in Cambodia and met so many people directly affected by the Khmer Rouge that I truly understood how vital it was to share these histories.

Genocide education didn’t become mandatory in Cambodia schools until 2010. Prior to that, there were thousands of young Cambodian children who didn’t know about their own past . Many Cambodians who lived through the war couldn’t and wouldn’t talk about what happened to them. In some stronghold areas they didn’t know the war was over. I met children who didn’t even know the Khmer Rouge had happened, let alone that their own parents and grandparents lived through it.

While doing dark tourism research in Cambodia, I found that the more I learned, the less I really knew.

This is because dark tourism forces you out of your comfort zone. It makes you confront harsh truths about humanity and society.

I think it is vital to visit well known and popular sites like Auschwitz, Chernobyl, the Killing Fields, Ground Zero or the Hiroshima Peace Memorial.

But I also think it is important to go deeper than that. These sites are a tiny piece of the puzzle. If you can handle delving deeper, you should. This can take on many forms, from visiting some of the lesser known WWII sites in Krakow to aid your understanding of Auschwitz, but also by visiting places not often on the tourist trail at all. Places such as Bosnia & Herzegovina, which witnessed its own genocide in the 1990s, or Gorée Island in Senegal, where you can learn more about the African slave trade.

But Isn’t Dark Tourism Unethical?

Dark tourism is often in the news when something bad happens. Auschwitz and Chernobyl have both seen a rise in problematic selfies. Most recently, Syria has expressed concern over the rise in dark tourism.

However, the problem is not dark tourism. The problem is people.

Dark tourism itself is not unethical. How people choose to conduct themselves at dark tourism sites can be unethical. Equally, not everywhere should be visited. Syria is an active war zone , not a tourist destination for adrenaline junkies.

Sometimes it comes down to personal feelings. Many people feel a certain amount of time should pass between the event and visiting, while others are happy to visit shortly afterwards. I do not think either approach is inherently wrong, but your motivations matter. 

Tourists flocked to Grenfell Tower in the UK almost immediately after the tragedy that killed 79 people in 2017. And while many were there to pay their respects, a lot of people were condemned for taking selfies . Either way, days after an event is too soon to show up if you don’t have a personal connection to a site.

And selfies are almost never okay.

But sometimes it is impossible to tell how soon is too soon. You might be surprised how long it took for some dark tourism sites to open.

The Rwandan Genocide Memorial opened its doors in 2004, only ten years after the massacre that forever changed the country.

The Ground Zero Memorial was completed in March 2006, not even five years after the tragedy that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York City.

And Auschwitz was converted into a museum on July 2, 1947, just over 2.5 years after the camp was liberated.

Why so soon? Because ultimately, these stories matter. They must be told, and they need to be remembered. The longer we ignore tragedy, the more chance the mistakes of our past will be forgotten and repeated.

Wait, Did You Say Selfies Are Okay?

Yes. And no.

Are you a black American reclaiming your tragic heritage by posing and smiling in front of a former slave plantation ? You’re probably okay.

Are you a Jewish kid whose family was murdered during WWII and now you’re giving a big fuck you to Hitler’s failed final solution? Also okay.

Do you have to take a selfie in those instances? Definitely not. Can you still feel those are inappropriate? Yeah, that’s totally valid. But there are nuances and complicated histories behind that.

Additionally, just because something at first seems problematic, doesn’t mean that it is and it’s important to understand the context behind a site, as well.

The Argument For Chernobyl

Following Chernobyl’s recent rise in popularity due to the HBO show, people were outraged about mass selfies at the site. I won’t lie, I’m still outraged about it. Darmon Richter, who runs ExUtopia and has spent a lot of time in the Ukraine, tweeted that the residents of Chernobyl don’t want people to be sad all the time because they live there and it’s nice to see people happy and smiling.

I completely agree with Darmon. Chernobyl is unique because people live there. What I don’t think is okay about the selfie culture coming out of Chernobyl right now is that the people taking those selfies don’t necessarily seem aware of that distinction.

There is also a huge difference between taking a group selfie with your tour guides or locals that you meet and befriend, and taking ‘sexy’ selfies in front of the abandoned ferris wheel.

If you want to take selfies at Chernobyl, there should be context. You should be explaining everything I just said to give reasons for why it is okay in this instance. The photos should also show the wonderful people you met while there and tell their stories, not yours!

Dark Tourism Should Not Be Controversial

People have been visiting sites of tragedy for centuries. People flocked to places like Pompeii and the Battle of Waterloo not long after the events had passed. But social media didn’t exist back then. Since there is now an academic term for people who are drawn to these sites, and with the increased popularity of sites like Instagram, it has become seemingly controversial. 

The main controversy surrounding dark tourism comes from three things: 

• a) the selfie culture and everyone’s need to ‘prove’ they were there and make themselves a part of something. This is highly problematic as it moves the focus from the tragedy and the victims onto the person visiting. Once someone makes themselves the focus of the photo, they are taking agency away from victims – often victims who can no longer speak for themselves. 
• b) people who visit sites, such as active war zones like Syria, as tourists rather than humanitarians, politicians or journalists. To me, this isn’t dark tourism, this is irresponsible tourism and thrill chasing.
• c) the idea that dark tourists derive some kind of pleasure from these sites. This is a complicated thing to explain. Many dark tourists do derive a sense of satisfaction from visiting dark tourism sites. But it is not because they are vicariously playing out a sick, twisted fantasy. It is about education; it is about being able to see a place they have read about their whole lives in person. It is also about paying their respects. 

But let me be clear: most dark tourists believe that sites like Chernobyl, Auschwitz, the Killing fields, and so on are paramount because we never want them to be forgotten. If they are forgotten, it will happen again and again and again. Even with the wounds of the Holocaust and WWII still relatively fresh, we have already witnessed many new genocides since. 

Essentially, dark tourism is important because in an ideal world, no new dark tourism sites will ever be added to our dark tourism “bucket lists.”

If you want to know more about dark tourism, you can check out our dark tourism page . There you will find a brief overview along with book recommendations and every article we’ve ever written about dark tourism. HERE ARE SOME OF OUR FAVOURITE DARK TOURISM ARTICLES – A Haunting Visit to the Lidice Museum and Memorial – Revisiting the Terezin Propaganda Camp in the Era of Fake News – East Grinstead Museum and the History of Queen Victoria Hispital – The Katyn Museum: Remembering a Forgotten Massacre – Beating Hearts: Visiting the Salaspils Memorial Park

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Dagney McKinney

American by birth, miniature by design. I moved for the first time when I was 18 months old, and I haven't stopped since. If I'm not wandering the planet, you can find me seeking out the hottest food possible or reading a good book and/or listening to a podcast in some quiet, remote alcove. I'm a classic introvert with a penchant for Camelidae, salt and underground spaces.

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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 .

D enver, Colo.: The city is undergoing a rebirth , with a newly refreshed Union Station and the gradual reopening of the mile-long, pedestrian-friendly 16th Street Mall to go along with views of the snow-capped Front Range.

La Rioja, Spain:  A drive through rolling vineyards will take you to 5 family-run restaurants  where you’ll find flavorful, affordable dishes you can linger over for hours.

Seattle, Wash.:  Today’s Seattle is ever evolving, filled with colorful neighborhoods that are emblematic of the Emerald City’s  natural beauty, vibrant street life ,  and commitment to both preservation and progress .

Stockholm-Helsinki Ferry:  The 16-hour trip between the two northern European cities is a festive summer ritual , with plenty of singing, gambling, limbo contests and maybe a bit too much to drink.

Swim in the Wild:  Looking to take a dip in or near a city center? Here are some European urban areas that have successfully opened up waterways for swimmers .

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Dark Tourism: Why People Travel to Sites of Death and Tragedy

Droves of tourists frequent concentration camps, sites of famous battles or even places where mass atrocities occurred. what draws us to this dark tourism.

If you've ever traveled somewhere new, there's a good chance you've planned your itinerary around popular destinations to make the most of your trip. That’s why famous museums, parks, restaurants and beaches are commonly filled with people trying to experience what makes a particular location so great. But some of us have a penchant for places that are historically associated with death and tragedy. All around the world, these tourists visit concentration camps, historical grounds of famous battles or even places related to mass atrocities.  

Today, this practice — fittingly called "dark tourism" — is a multi-billion dollar industry. But it's also far from a new phenomenon. Some people have always been drawn to death, and two of the earliest examples are the displays of public executions and the Roman gladiatorial games. The Colosseum in Rome may very well be one of the first dark tourism attractions. But what is it about these locations that make them so engaging? According to experts, there are plenty of factors that help draw us to these lurid locales. 

The Appeal of Death and Tragedy

The motivations of tourists in visiting dark tourist locations often come down to four common themes, according to a 2021 study published in International Hospitality Review . Curiosity appears to be the biggest factor, but personal connection also matters. Many tourists take part because they feel connected — or want to feel a connection — to the events that transpired at a particular location, says Heather Lewis, assistant professor at Troy University who was involved in the 2021 study.  

Others visit for educational purposes, while some just happen to be in the same place and decide to participate after seeing something that might be of interest, she adds. For some people, visiting the graves of celebrities they like is a way to celebrate their lives, and it’s not about focusing on the difficulty of their life, or the tragic circumstances behind their death.

“Dark tourism does not need 'dark' tourists — only people who are socially engaged in the cultural and political fabric of their own life world,” says Philip Stone, executive director of the Institute for Dark Tourism Research. “[It] is the commodification of places of pain and shame and, consequently, shines a mirror on contemporary society of how we memorialize, and who we remember.”  

The concept of dark tourism is culturally nuanced and means different things to different people. It can mediate our sense of mortality through the fatality of others where the dead act as warnings from the history of our own fights, follies, and misfortunes, says Stone. In short, a fascination with death in itself might not be the primary motive for visiting dark tourism sites; it likely has more to do with an individual's interest in cultural heritage and education. 

A Complex Legacy

Still, despite that nuance, dark tourism is often frowned upon. For tourists and travelers, it can seem like a minefield mired in “ moral ambiguities and managerial dilemmas,” says Stone. In many ways, the industry is all about managing our collective memory and providing a memorialized afterlife to those who died tragically or untimely. At the same time, it allows contemporary visitors to consume narratives of death that have been streamlined for their consumption. In other words, the practice can be considered a "touristification" of the places and people steeped in death and tragedy.

“Remembrance is a political process that is selective of what, who, and where is memorialized — and, perhaps more importantly, forgotten,” he adds. “As such, dark tourism showcases our significant dead as spectacular in a society of spectacle where commercialism ensures everything is 'packaged up' and sold, even tragic or calamitous death.” At its core, there is an element of dark tourism that knowingly exploits our fascination with the macabre, stirring up complicated ethical and moral issues about our own behavior.  

For Lewis, dark tourism isn’t necessarily a bad thing as long as it’s properly managed. The increase in tourism can be used to restore or maintain facilities in dark tourism locations, but it should not destroy or diminish the integrity of the location over time. For instance, there are Hurricane Katrina tours that will not visit certain parts of the city out of respect for the individuals living there, she adds.  

People must always be respectful of those who have experienced loss and hardship at dark tourism locations. Traveling responsibly and minimizing its impact on residents remain highly important because old suffering may be reopened, intensified, and prolonged by tourists. 

“The overall concern that we should have with dark tourism is making sure that we are being ethically and morally upright in the marketing and use of these locations as a dark tourism destinations,” says Lewis. “We should never seek economic gain by exploiting others’ suffering and loss.” 

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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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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.

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How “Dark Tourism” Warps Our Understanding of History

Hasanthika sirisena on the commodification of war.

Civil War battle site tourism, tourism to visit World War I and World War II battlefields, visits to Auschwitz all fall under the category of war tourism. In other words, visitors who never lived through the war—or most likely any war—pay money to go to a site and be accompanied by a tour guide—if at all possible a survivor able to provide a firsthand account. War tourism has a long history. Scholars John Lennon and Malcolm Foley, in a work published in 2000, accorded this type of tourism a more sinister appellation—dark tourism. Dark tourism is a broader category that includes tours to former sites of any type of catastrophe, natural or man-mad. In The Darker Side of Travel , Richard Sharpley and Philip R. Stone define dark tourism this way: “the act of travel to sites associated with death, suffering, and the seeming macabre.”

War tourists don’t limit their travels to places in which conflict is a thing of the past. A destination tour website in the UK happily touts that tourism to Afghanistan has increased 100 percent and tourism to Iraqi Kurdistan, it appears, has increased by 70 percent.

The question is what attracts visitors to such sites. Sharpley and Stone offer a few reasons. Visitors may be drawn by “a simple morbid curiosity, through schadenfreude, by a collective sense of identity or survival ‘in the face of violent disruptions of collective life routines.’” Novelty, the desire to participate in your own adventure narrative, and nostalgia are also posited as potential reasons. A voyeuristic impulse is a motivator. Grief plays a role.

It’s true that there’s a huge divide between visiting Antietam on a Saturday afternoon and paying thousands of dollars to travel to Aleppo. But, according to Sharpley and Stone, what characterizes all war tourism is an emphasis on extreme otherness. The contrivances of Disney World and Las Vegas are designed for the tourist’s comfort and enjoyment, but the dark tourist site promises an “authentic” brush with death, grief, mayhem, murder. And the experience promises to be transformative: the dark tourist goes from passive bystander and mere consumer of history to witness, with all the uniqueness and privilege that being a witness affords in this culture.

Expertly curated sites such as Auschwitz and Gettysburg National Military Park exist on the same continuum as the war tours conducted in the former Yugoslavia or in Sri Lanka. The dictum “Never Again” coexists uneasily with a thirst for the morbid. Perhaps the only true measure of how tasteful a war tourism site is, then, is the amount of time that has passed since the main event. Any tourist who trespasses that line too soon risks being haunted by a sense of their own rapaciousness. As Alfred Ely, one of the original Civil War dark tourists writes in his memoir, “Among other things, I found that to visit battlefields as a mere pastime, or with the view of gratifying a panting curiosity, or for the sake of listening to the roar of shotted artillery, and the shrill music of flying shells (which motives however were not exactly mine) is neither a safe thing in itself, nor a justifiable use of the passion which Americans are said to possess for public spectacle.”

My cousin and my friends have spent their entire lives in the middle of a war. They are either divorced or unmarried and none of them have children. In fact, of the whole group of friends only a handful is married. This gives them a lot of freedom to travel—they’ve traveled all over the world—and a great deal of disposable income. In the 90s, the government claimed that Sri Lanka’s universities—many of them of very high quality and well-respected throughout the world—were hotbeds of political agitation and shut them down. Many college-aged students left the country to attend university overseas and, because of the political situation, never returned.

It seems to me that men were more able to leave than women since women were expected to shoulder the burden of caring for their parents. These women who remained have done well—become bankers, lawyers, journalists, politicians. My cousin and my friends are successful, but you can hear in the way they speak a sense of loss, a sense of something important being missed, and occasionally of bitterness.

For most of the journey to the North of Sri Lanka the A9 was paved, but as we drew closer we hit rough patches—places where the road was heavily pitted or even parts that had never been properly paved. The government had recently committed itself to repairing the A9 as part of a massive development project in the North and had received most of its funding from China. Part of the conditions of the funding—or so the newspapers reported—was that the government use Chinese workers. As we drove we saw tents shielding helmeted Chinese road workers from the sun as they sipped at teacups. Every thirty miles or so, we were stopped at a checkpoint or passed an army regiment bivouacked at a point in the distance. Any sense that the LTTE had ever patrolled the A9 had disappeared.

The landscape of northern Sri Lanka is very different from that of the southern region. Most of Sri Lanka is verdant, green, lush with jungle vegetation. But Jaffna appears vast and flat—all hard clay and limestone dotted by the tree that is the symbol of the region, the Palmyra, a tall palm with a thin trunk topped by a crest of palm fronds that make it look a little like a giant green and brown Q-tip. The houses are often painted bold shades—blue, pink, apricot, as if to defy the monotone earth tones of the surrounding terrain. Candy-striped stucco walls mark a Hindu shrine or temple.

Sri Lankans in the South can be dismissive of the Jaffna landscape, refer to it as ugly. Whereas the landscapes of the South are jammed-packed with people, cars, animals, and billboards, the landscapes of the North emanate the rugged, off putting barrenness we associate with deserts. Leonard Woolf served as an administrator in Jaffna for several years. He wrote of Jaffna in his memoir Growing: “Here again is one of those featureless plains the beauty of which is only revealed to you after you have lived with it long enough to be absorbed into its melancholy solitude and immensity.”

As we drew closer to Kilinochchi, once the seat of the LTTE, the yellow caution tape marked in English, Sinhala, and Tamil with the word MINE became ubiquitous. We passed at another point female villagers—deminers—decked out in white helmets and visors kneeling hunched forward so they could examine the ground. (The CEO of one of the NGOs involved in demining operations in the North and Northeast informed me that the NGOs who recruit these women are very careful to ensure their safety. She was very proud of the fact that up to the point I spoke to her, no civilian deminer had been killed.)

The mood in the van shifted. We listened to ABBA and Eagles on the way, and we didn’t stop the music, but my friends began to share their memories of the war. One friend recounted how during the university shutdowns she’d lied to her parents and snuck into movie theaters during the day. “I’d sit there and feel terrible,” she admitted. “I thought, what if the theater was bombed and I was killed. My parents would know I had been going with boys.”

When we arrived at our first stop, an army jeep drew up next to us, and soldiers hopped out. What I hadn’t expected, and what makes the war tour I participated in Sri Lanka unusual, was that our tour was almost entirely coordinated by the Sri Lanka Army Security Forces headquartered in the area. Essentially, soldiers became our tour guides. Most were officers, though a few were infantrymen. My cousin and my friends decided that I shouldn’t speak much—we didn’t want to invite any inquiries into where I was from or have them ask for my papers and that I shouldn’t take notes, at least not during the tour itself. I resolved not to draw attention to myself. I can’t say I wasn’t frightened—we were dealing with soldiers after all— but it did seem to me that the soldiers were cowed by the presence of six affluent, well-dressed, women from Colombo. They were many of them garrulous, effusive with information, and shared at every moment possible insights into their lives during the war.

The sites that the soldiers escorted us to were caught in some halfway stage between what they had once been and a stop in an almost theme-park-like series of attractions. The army had, I was very surprised to see, erected signs in both English and Sinhala (but not Tamil). The signs were not written in the well-researched, semi-academic prose that you associate with markers at most historic sites. Instead the signs touted carefully worded propaganda meant to exalt the military and to remind the viewers—the Sri Lanka Armed Forces clearly expected the viewers to be mostly foreigners and Sinhalese—of the terrible deeds the LTTE committed.

At a swimming pool used to train LTTE divers, the signage read: “While the nation was swarming with pools of blood with the spate of LTTE’s heinous crimes elsewhere, the terrorist had constructed this huge swimming pool in 2001 for exclusive use of the cream of terrorists.” Over two days, the Security Forces escorted us to bunkers used by LTTE leaders, a makeshift war museum exhibiting LTTE weaponry, an LTTE village, an LTTE junkyard, even restricted areas of Mullaitivu including Puthumathalan, which was the site of some of the heaviest fighting in the final days of the war.

At an LTTE prison, the soldiers led us to the empty prison cells. They told us this secret prison in the middle of the jungle was where the Tigers had held Sri Lanka Armed Forces soldiers and Tamils whom the Tigers considered traitors. The steel doors of most of the cells had been removed and the doorways, all placed at regular intervals, stood empty, six long slivers of darkness, stark against the egg-carton-gray prison walls. A large margosa tree arced over the building on one side. Behind the prison, a stretch of red clay dirt bloomed where the grass had begun to die away. A miasma of clay dust, kicked up by our van and the army jeeps that escorted us to the prison, hung in the air. The landscape shimmered behind it, slightly distorted, like objects viewed through a scrim. It was early afternoon, and the sun had begun to bear down, searing the skin on the back of my neck. Between the two buildings was a long trench now overgrown with grass. The soldiers told us that during heavy shelling the LTTE made the prisoners shelter inside the trenches.

The soldiers urged us to take pictures. One soldier gestured to me to follow him, and I did. He led me to a cell and demanded I step inside. The cell was narrow, barely four feet in width, and there was just enough room for me and another friend who had joined me when the soldier began to lead me away.

The soldier waited outside the cell as my friend and I entered. He yelled to us that most of the Tamils kept in the prison were Christian. This was only our first day of our war tour, but I already felt depressed, scared by the presence of so many soldiers, and overwhelmed. The cell was dark, except for a small window on the far end covered with bars. The outline of some sort of ledge was barely visible underneath. I didn’t try to explore it. I was sorry to be standing there at all.

On the wall spread a chalk drawing of an enormous tree, the branches and leaves curving and intertwining together to form an intricate network of abstract shapes. There was also writing in Tamil that none of us, my friend, the soldier, or me, could read, and a series of numbers. My friend asked the soldier what the numbers meant. He shrugged because he either didn’t know or didn’t care. “It’s a calendar,” I replied.

The Sri Lanka Army’s motives, at the time we arrived, might not have been entirely triumphal. General Sarath Fonseka, one of the architects of the campaign that had ended the civil war, had been arrested a few months before on charges of corruption. The feeling among the army was that the arrest was unjust and politically motivated—Sarath Fonseka had attempted to run against the president in 2009. Many of the officers and soldiers must have also been aware of some of the war crimes allegations being leveled against them by the Western press, Tamil journalists and politicians, and even some members of the Colombo elite. These war crimes allegations included bombings of civilian targets and genocidal rape.

One of the many stops on our war tour was the former LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran’s bunker. The soldiers ushered us into the first level—a spare room with a cot to one side. The mattress had been stripped bare and the fabric was stained brown with sweat and age. Over the bed hung a framed portrait of Prabhakaran in camouflage standing next to the LTTE flag. On a far wall rested a garment rack; a neatly pressed and folded combat uniform hung from one of the rungs. In the corner, on a cushioned bench, sat a large, stuffed toy cheetah. The walls had been painted a light blue, paint chips peeling from the wall. The room was lit with a single light bulb. The air tasted heavy on the tongue and faintly bitter.

Whoever had designed this room had reconstituted it to resemble one of those “this-is-how-they-lived” displays you find in museums, with only the velvet rope barrier missing. But there existed a sparse—haphazard—feel to the whole creation that put me off a bit, as if a child had pieced it all together. My cousins and my friends walked around snapping pictures.

After we had spent ten minutes in what appeared to be Prabhakaran’s bedroom the soldier led us down a rickety staircase to a bottom level. According to the soldiers, the entire bunker was multiple stories and included secret passageways that would provide Prabhakaran escape if necessary. The one level we were shown was dark, lit by a faint bulb strung from the ceiling. I couldn’t see much of anything except that there appeared to be a lot of wood and metal on the ground. The concrete walls secreted an intestinal ooze that glistened in the half light. By then I could barely follow the soldier’s Sinhala and couldn’t make out my cousin or any of my friends in the dark. A military engineer—a good friend of one of the women on the tour with me—had joined us, and he offered a few facts in English—dimensions and information of what the room had been used for originally. He called it a war room.

When we came back up, I noticed an object sitting on what I assumed was once Prabhakaran’s bedside table. It was metal, the dimensions of a crock-pot. I asked my friend to ask a soldier what it was. He shook his head at her question. My friend offered that perhaps it was for developing film canisters, though that didn’t seem right to me. I had studied photography in art school. I did know enough to recognize it was mostly likely some sort of centrifuge. In the van, I drew up a quick sketch of the object. When I returned to Colombo I determined, through some research on the Internet, what it really was—a centrifuge used for plasma separation. Prabhakaran, a diabetic, would have needed to be able to get accurate medical results if he spent a long time in the bunker. I don’t know why but the centrifuge stays with me.

__________________________________

Dark Tourist: Essays by Hasanthika Sirisena is available via Mad Creek Books.

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Dark Tourism | What Is It and Is It Ethical?

A s Halloween approaches, many thrill-seekers search for eerie destinations that offer more than just spooky fun. Dark tourism, however, takes a different approach by drawing people to places tied to real-life tragedies. This type of travel sparks a lot of debates: What exactly is dark tourism, and is it right to visit these sites? Should you even consider it?

Understanding Dark Tourism

Dark tourism involves visiting locations linked to historical events of death, disaster, or suffering. While it may seem morbid, you might have unknowingly participated in it already. These places often attract visitors who are curious about the past, hoping to learn about significant events while experiencing the somber atmosphere firsthand. What sets dark tourism apart is its focus on real tragedies—whether they’re sites of mass killings, natural disasters, or museums dedicated to these events. In contrast, attractions designed purely for scares, like haunted houses or Halloween events, don’t fall under dark tourism.

The Ethics of Dark Tourism

So, is it ethical to visit these places? The answer isn’t clear-cut. Many dark tourism sites aim to educate visitors about historical tragedies to prevent history from repeating itself. These sites can also be a way to honor the memory of those who suffered. On the other hand, some locations turn tragedy into a form of entertainment, such as tours of notorious crime scenes or execution sites. There are also sites that are simply eerie, providing a thrill without much harm.

If you’re unsure whether visiting a dark tourism site is appropriate, ask yourself a few questions to help you decide:

Does the site educate visitors about historical events in a respectful manner?

Examples include tours of Auschwitz, visits to the Holocaust Museum, or the Ground Zero memorial.

If the site is more focused on entertainment, has enough time passed that it no longer impacts the victims’ families?

Consider places like Salem, Pompeii, or the Jack the Ripper Museum.

3. Is the site a historical structure, such as a church, castle, or catacombs?

Think about visiting the Catacombs of Paris, San Bernardino alle Ossa, or an ancient cemetery.

If your answers are “yes” to any of these questions, the site is likely an appropriate place to visit. However, if the location is tied to recent tragedies or sensationalized crimes, it might be better to skip it. Some sites, unfortunately, exploit recent tragedies for profit, causing further pain to those affected. Examples include:

The homes of serial killers like Jeffrey Dahmer or John Wayne Gacy.

Plantation homes in the U.S. that gloss over the horrors of slavery in favor of their beauty.

Dark tourism sites should maintain a respectful and educational approach, with clear guidelines for visitor behavior. However, managing these sites can be challenging, especially when they attract large crowds.

Being a Responsible Dark Tourist

Your actions as a visitor are just as important as the ethics of the site itself. There have been instances where social media influencers were criticized for taking inappropriate photos at Auschwitz, or when Justin Bieber left a questionable message at Anne Frank’s house. Even something as simple as acting respectfully during a visit to a memorial or museum is crucial. Remember, these sites are often places of mourning, and it’s important to treat them with the dignity they deserve.

The Significance of Dark Tourism

Visiting dark tourism sites can be an important way to understand history’s darkest moments. These sites allow us to pay respects to those who suffered while learning valuable lessons to avoid repeating past mistakes. Humans have a natural curiosity about such places, and when approached with respect, dark tourism can be a meaningful and educational experience.

The debate around dark tourism is complex. Some argue that it’s wrong to visit places of tragedy, seeing it as a form of exploitation or morbid fascination. While this may be true in some cases, these sites play a vital role in helping us comprehend human history. It’s up to us to visit them thoughtfully, ensuring that we and others maintain respect for what these places represent.

I believe that it depends on the location, your reason for going, and what you take away from it. Pompeii, for example, is astonishing and wonderful while also obviously tragic and terrible. The garden of the fugitives, for example, will take your breath away with the palpable terror and despair those people must’ve felt in their last moments. But more than just the tragic end of Pompeii, other parts of the city bring those ancient people and their way of life almost within touching distance. The political graffiti, the naughty paintings, and the weird Villa of the Mysteries are all utterly fascinating and can teach us a lot about our ancestors.

Dark Tourism

A brief look at the seedier side of extreme holidays..

Posted December 9, 2019 | Reviewed by Kaja Perina

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In a previous article , I briefly examined ‘disaster tourism’, a form of ‘dark tourism’ and 'niche tourism'. Since writing that article I came across an interesting book chapter by the Slovenian researcher Dr. Lea Kuznik entitled ‘Fifty shades of dark stories’ examining the many motivations for engaging in the seedier side of tourism. Dark tourism is something that I have been guilty of myself. For instance, as a Beatles fanatic , when I first went to New York, I went to the Dakota apartments where John Lennon had been shot by Mark David Chapman . In her chapter, Dr. Kuznik notes that:

“Dark tourism is a special type of tourism, which involves visits to tourist attractions and destinations that are associated with death, suffering, disasters and tragedies venues. Visiting dark tourist destinations in the world is the phenomenon of the twenty-first century, but also has a very long heritage. Number of visitors of war areas, scenes of accidents, tragedies, disasters, places connected with ghosts, paranormal activities, witches and witchhunt trials, cursed places, is rising steeply”.

As I noted in my previous article, the motivations for such behaviour is varied. Those working in the print and broadcast media often live by the maxim that ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ (meaning that death and disaster sell). Clearly whenever anything hits the front of newspapers or is the lead story on radio and television, it gains notoriety and infamy. This applies to bad things as well as good things and is one of the reasons why dark tourism has become so popular. Kuznik notes that although dark tourism has a long history, it has only become a topic for academic study since the mid-1990s. Dr. Kuznik observes that:

“The term dark tourism was coined by Foley and Lennon (1996) to describe the attraction of visitors to tourism sites associated with death, disaster, and depravity. Other notable definitions of dark tourism include the act of travel to sites associated with death, suffering and the seemingly macabre (Stone, 2006), and as visitations to places where tragedies or historically noteworthy death has occurred and that continue to impact our lives (Tarlow, 2005). Scholars have further developed and applied alternative terminology in dealing with such travel and visitation, including thanatourism (Seaton, 1996), black spot tourism (Rojek, 1993), atrocity heritage tourism (Tunbridge & Ashworth, 1996), and morbid tourism (Blom, 2000). In a context similar to ‘dark tourism’, terms like ‘macabre tourism’, ‘tourism of mourning’ and ‘dark heritage tourism’ are also in use. Among these terms, dark tourism remains the most widely applied in academic research (Sharpley, 2009)”.

Kuznik also notes that dark tourism has been referred to as “place-specific tourism”. Consequently, some researchers began to classify dark tourism sites based upon their defining characteristics. As Kuznik notes:

“Miles (2002) proposed a darker-lighter tourism paradigm in which there remains a distinction between dark and darker tourism according to the greater or lesser extent of the macabre and the morose. In this way, the sites of the holocaust, for example, can be divided into dark and darker tourism when it comes to their authenticity and scope of interpretation…On the basis of the dark tourism paradigm of Miles (2002), Stone (2006) proposed a spectrum of dark tourism supply which classifies sites according to their perceived features, and from these, the degree or shade of darkness (darkest to lightest) with which they can be characterised. This spectrum has seven types of dark tourism suppliers, ranging from Dark Fun Factories as the lightest, to Dark Camps of Genocide as the darkest. A specific example of the lightest suppliers would be dungeon attractions, such as London Dungeon, or planned ventures such as Dracula Park in Romania. In contrast, examples of the darkest sites include genocide sites in Rwanda, Cambodia, or Kosovo, as well as holocaust sites such as Auschwitz-Birkenau”.

In relation to the reasons for visiting dark tourism sites, Kuznik came up with seven main motivations for why we as humans seek out such experiences (i.e., curiosity, education , survivor guilt , remembrance, nostalgia , empathy, and horror ) that are outlined below (please note that the descriptions are edited verbatim from Kuznik’s chapter)

Curiosity: “Many tourists are interested in the unusual and the unique, whether this be a natural phenomenon (e.g. Niagara Falls), an artistic or historical structure (e.g. the pyramids in Egypt), or spectacular events (e.g. a royal wedding). Importantly, the reasons why tourists are attracted to dark tourism sites derive, at least in part, from the same curiosity which motivates a visit to Niagara Falls. Visiting dark tourism sites is an out of the ordinary experience, and thus attractive for its uniqueness and as a means of satisfying human curiosity. So the main reason is the experience of the unusual”.

Empathy: “One of the reasons for visiting dark tourism sites may be empathy, which is an acceptable way of expressing a fascination with horror…In many respects, the interpretation of dark tourism sites can be difficult and sensitive, given the message of the site as forwarded by exhibition curators can at times conflict with the understandings of visitors”.

Horror: “Horror is regarded as one of the key reasons for visiting dark tourism sites, and in particular, sites of atrocity…Relating atrocity as heritage at a site is thus as entertaining as any media depiction of a story, and for precisely the same reasons and with the same moral overtones. Such tourism products or examples are: Ghost Walks around sites of execution or murder (Ghost Tour of Prague), Murder Trails found in many cities like Jack the Ripper in London”.

Education: “In much tourism literature it has been claimed that one of the main motivations for travel is the gaining of knowledge, and the quest for authentic experiences. One of the core missions of cultural and heritage tourism in particular is to provide educational opportunities to visitors through guided tours and interpretation. Similarly, individual visits to dark tourism sites to gain knowledge, understanding, and educational opportunities, continue to have intrinsic educational value…many dark tourism attractions or sites are considered important destinations for school educational field trips, achieving education through experiential learning”.

Nostalgia: “Nostalgia can be broadly described as yearning for the past…or as a wistful mood that an object, a scene, a smell or a strain of music evokes…In this respect Smith (1996) examined war tourism sites and concluded that old soldiers do go back to the battlefields, to revisit and remember the days of their youth”.

Remembrance: “Remembrance is a vital human activity connecting us to our past…Remembrance helps people formulate an identity , allowing them to learn from past mistakes, and to go forward with a clear vision of the future. In the context of dark tourism, remembrance and memory are considered key elements in the importance of sites”.

Survivor’s guilt : “One of the distinctive characteristics of dark tourism is the type of visitors such sites attract, which include survivors and victim‘s families returning to the scene of death or disaster. These types of visitors are particularly prevalent at sites associated with Second World War and the holocaust. For many survivors returning to the scene of death and atrocity can achieve a therapeutic effect by resolving grief , and can build understanding of how terrible things came to have happened. This can be very emotional experience”.

Dr. Kuznik also developed a new typology of “dark places in nature”. The typology comprised 17 types of dark places and are briefly outlined below.

* Disaster area tourism: Visiting places of natural disaster after hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanic destructions, etc.

* Grave tourism: Visiting famous cemeteries, or graves and mausoleums of famous individuals.

* War or battlefield tourism: Visiting places where wars and battles took place.

* Holocaust tourism: Visiting Nazi concentration camps, memorial sites, memorial museums, etc.

* Genocide tourism: Visiting places where genocide took place such as the killing fields in Cambodia.

* Prison tourism: Visiting former prisons such as Alcatraz.

* Communism tourism: Visiting places like North Korea.

* Cold war and iron curtain tourism: Visiting places and remains associated with the cold war such as the Berlin Wall.

* Nuclear tourism: Visiting sites where nuclear disasters took place (e.g. Chernobyl in the Ukraine) or where nuclear bombs were exploded (e.g., Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan).

* Murderers and murderous places tourism: Visiting sites where killers and serial killers murdered their victims (‘Jack the Ripper’ walks in London, where Lee Harvey Oswald killed J.F. Kennedy in Dallas)

* Slum tourism: Visiting impoverished and slum areas in countries such as India and Brazil, Kenya.

* Terrorist tourism: Visiting places such Ground Zero (where the Twin Towers used to be) in New York City

* Paranormal tourism: Visiting crop circle sites, places where UFO sightings took place, haunted houses (e.g., Amityville), etc.

* Witched tourism: Visiting towns or cities where witches congregated (e.g., Salem in Massachusetts).

* Accident tourism: Visiting places where infamous accidents took place (e.g. the Paris tunnel where Princess Diana died in a car accident).

* Icky medical tourism: Visiting medical museums and body exhibitions.

* Dark amusement tourism: Visiting themed walks and amusement parks that are based on ghosts and horror figures (e.g., Dracula).

Looking at these different types quickly I reached the conclusion that I would class myself as a ‘dark tourist’ as I have engaged in many of these and no doubt reflects my own interest in the more extreme aspects of the lived human experience.

Ashworth, G., & Hartmann, R. (2005). Introduction: managing atrocity for tourism. In G. Ashworth & R. Hartmann (Eds.), Horror and human tragedy revisited: the management of sites of atrocities for tourism (pp. 1–14). Sydney: Cognizant Communication Corporation.

Blom, T. (2000). Morbid tourism – a postmodern market niche with an example from Althorp. Norwegian Journal of Geography, 54( 1), 29–36.

Dann, G. M., & Seaton, A. V. (2001). Slavery, contested heritage and thanatourism. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 2 (3-4), 1-29.

Foley, M., & Lennon, J. (1996). JFK and dark tourism: A fascination with assassination.International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2 (4), 198–211.

Foley, M., & Lennon, J. (2000). Dark tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 19 (1), 68-78.

Kuznik, L. (2018). Fifty shades of dark stories. In Mehdi Khosrow-Pour, D.B.A. (Ed.). Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology (Fourth Edition). (pp.4077-4087). Pennsylvania: IGI Global.

Miles, W.F. (2002). Auschwitz: Museum interpretation and darker tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 29 (4), 1175-1178.

Podoshen, J. S. (2013). Dark tourism motivations: Simulation, emotional contagion and topographic comparison. Tourism Management, 35, 263-271.

Rojek, C. (1993). Ways of escape. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan.

Seaton, A. V. (1996). From thanatopsis to thanatourism: Guided by the dark. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2 (4), 234–244.

Sharpley, R., & Stone, P. R. (Eds.). (2009). The darker side of travel: the theory and practice of dark tourism. Bristol: Channel View.

Smith, V. L. (1996). War and its tourist attractions. In A. Pizam & Y. Mansfeld (Eds.), Tourism, crime and international security issues (pp. 247–264). New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Stone, P. R. (2006). A dark tourism spectrum: Towards a typology of death and macabre related tourist sites, attractions and exhibitions. Tourism, 54 (2), 145–160.

Strange, C., & Kempa, M. (2003). Shades of dark tourism: Alcatraz and Robben Island. Annals of Tourism Research, 30 (2), 386-405.

Tarlow, P.E. (2005). Dark tourism: the appealing dark side of tourism and more. In M. Novelli (Ed.), Niche tourism – Contemporary issues, trends and cases (pp. 47–58). Oxford, UK: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Tunbridge, J.E., & Ashworth, G. (1996). Dissonant heritage: The management of the past as a resource in conflict. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Mark Griffiths, Ph.D., is a chartered psychologist and Director of the International Gaming Research Unit in the Psychology Division at Nottingham Trent University.

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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

As the name already suggests, “dark tourism” is related to the activity of tourist, which is stimulated by an enthusiasm in the more somber facets of human reality (Smith et al., 2010).Dark Tourism is that tourism which involves visiting to places which have some events related to death, disaster, violence, massacre etc. (Sharpley and Stone, 2009).

Dark tourism is also famous by the names of Grief Tourism and Black Tourism. Dark Tourism is now becoming a popular form of tourism and tourists are becoming anxious to experience this type of tourism as it helps in gaining educational knowledge from it.  Prison tourism and disaster tourism are also considered to be a part of dark tourism.  

History of dark tourism

Since time immemorial people have taken a keen interest in activities related to death and it is evident from the fact that from medieval period to nineteenth century their used to be a large gathering whenever there was any public execution taking place. Also in Roman era there were lot of gladiator fights used to take place which were of a great joy for the audience. It is commonly said that the Roman Colosseum were the first dark sites for the people who are interested in the tourism associated with it.

The first research on dark tourism was done in International Journal of Science of cultural and historical heritage by Foley & Lennon in 1996, since then there are so many theories and models were made in order to clarify the concept of dark tourism. The concept of pilgrimage tourism is often coinciding with dark tourism due the fact that both involve a psychological journey for tourists. 

Dark tourism is “travelling towards sites, attractions or events that are somehow linked to negative historical events where death, violence, suffering or disaster may have taken place” (Sharpley and Stone, 2009).

As the name already suggests, “dark tourism” is related to the activity of tourist, which is stimulated by an enthusiasm in the more somber facets of human reality (Smith et al., 2010). In 2005, Stone suitably described it as the “travel to sites of death and suffering”. 

Pilgrimage has a sacred or, at least, holy significance, which contains fundamentals of both a personal physical as well as often a psychological journey for participants. Sometimes this can be related with attaining social

Huge chunk of researchers have started taking interest in dark tourism since 2001.As per the various reports of UNWTO (World Tourism Organisation) and WTTC (World Travel and Tourism Council) tourism is measured as one of the biggest and fastest growing industry.

As it is already mentioned about the popularity of dark tourism in older times keeping the view these days it has become one of the unique form of tourism which needs to be pondered upon. There is a sudden thrust in the popularity of this form of tourism due to its unique nature. Huge number of tourists are now diverting towards dark tourism. Ground Zero in New York is the most famous dark tourism site.

Types of dark tourism

1. fun factories:  .

This concept revolves around superficial deaths and it includes all the places which have good tourism infrastructure. A Dark Fun Factory refers to the place or attraction that has some amusement focus and financial ethic. Dark Fun Factories offer hygienic products in terms of representation and are anticipated as less original. Dark Fun Factories acquire a high level of tourism infrastructure. One of the examples of Dark Fun Factories was the intended “Dracula Park” in Romania. Where the schemes for the 460 hectare theme park were cancelled on environmental grounds rather than the real product content. This project revolved around the life of” Vlad the Impaler”, who supposedly distressed his prisoners by making them to run on the spikes and leaving them to die. 

2. Dark Demonstrations:  

This concept revolves around death and misery and it has a unique education leaning for the tourists. Dark Exhibition is those sites, places and exhibitions that essentially amalgamate the product design to portray education and potential opportunities. Dark Exhibitions offer products which go around death and suffering. They also present built in dedicatory, educational and speculative message. So these Dark Exhibitions are anticipated as more original and serious sites. These are declared with a large product range and these are located away from the real side of the death event. Various museums situated around the world offering the concept of death and misery is the best examples of dark fun factories.

3. Dark Dungeons:  

All the places related with matters regarding criminal offence and injustice is been included in Dungeons. It also provides education to the tourists about the history associated with it. Dark Dungeons are the sites; places revolve around earlier prisons and courthouses. These sites provide the benefit of both education and amusement.

For example, the galleries of justice visitor sites ( in Nottingham) promoted as the “ Family Attraction of the Year” under displaying line “Fell the Fear”, these were built from the buildings which were really as prisons and courthouses in 1780’s until recently as 1980’s. With an illustration of ruthless penal codes from days gone by, the attraction seeks to amuse the visitor through heritage whilst promoting educational and historical content.

4. Dark buried Places:  

Dark Resting Places emphasis on the cemetery or graveyards as products for Dark Tourism. Cemetery is being used to popularize visiting to an area, preserve the goodness and structural integrity of landscape and be friend to the ecology. These places include open air museums and various sculptures which are based on the theme of graveyards. In Paris, the largest park is the Pere-Lachaise cemetery; this has been converted into an open museum and garden. Few other examples of resting places are National cemetery of Arlington and academy of la-recoleta.  

5. Dark Sacred places :  

These are shrines which are being promoted as tourist’s spots though not those much popular sites. Location of these sites is nearby to the sites of death and misery. These sites are less attractive to the eyes. The main purpose of visiting these sites are to pay homage and respect to the deceased. In terms of infrastructure these sites are not well developed and are temporary in nature. Best examples are Isles of Solomon and Guadalcanal battle.

6. Dark Conflict places:  

These sites and attractions are associated with some major battles fought in the past. These sites are very much historical in nature and great for learning and research purpose. Again in India context the battle of Jhansi, battle of Buxar and battle of plasi.

7. Dark places of Mass killing :  

These are the sites associated with atrocities and deaths. Places of genocide also associated with dark camps. These have been divided into various categories from darkest to lightest. darkest are the sites which cannot be developed fully in terms of tourism and here the death is really occurred or it is the original place of death where the lightest are the places which have been recreated in terms of deaths. Auschwitz is said to be the darkest place in the world whereas the lightest one is Dracula Park. Stone has given the model of dark campus

Top Dark tourism Destinations

• Sedlec ossuary : It is very historical site associated with Hussite war in 15th century. Location of this site is Sledec, below the saint’s cemetery church. It acquires around 40,000 to 70,000 skeletons of humans which are been arranged in a very decorative manner. It is most widely visited place of the world. On an average around 200,000 tourists visit this place every year. It is the most famous spot of burying the dead.
• Salem, Massachusetts : Salem, Massachusetts has become famous all over the globe as the place of disreputable Salem witch trials of 1692. These results in the killing of 20 individuals liable of witchcraft and magic most of who were women. These trials were conducted in a few of small villages in the area that is now called as the City of Salem. Salem is now a very popular site for those who are passionate for the history of attraction. 
• Catacombs of Paris :   The Catacombs of Paris have ossuaries beneath the city of Paris. It has the remains of six million of people, acquiring its prestige as “The World’s Largest Grave”. The catacombs of Paris were opened their doors for visitors in 19th century and this place is believed to be the world’s darkest site. As a tourist spot and from that time it has become one of the most popular and famous dark tourism spot in the world. An estimated 30,000 tourists visit this place every year.
• Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary : Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary is located on Alcatraz Island it is a prison which used to keep the most dangerous criminals of America, now it has been converted into a museum for tourist. It was opened in 1934. Till 1963, it acted as a supreme security prison. It can be treated as the terrifying prison when the prisoners themselves reported forceful mistreatment and cruelty while being captured there. But now the prison has been converted into a museum and it attracts a lot of tourists from all over the world. Around 1.5 million tourists visit this place every year.
• The Tower of London : The Tower of London is one of the finest dark tourism destinations in the United Kingdom. In 1078, the first section of the tower was made on the bank of River Thames. This tower is also famous for its various functions like it acts a treasury, an armory, a public record office etc. The exterior of the tower was popularized in the 16 th and 17 th centuries. The Tower of London is so famous and popular all over the world because of its history

Also read Dark Tourism in India

Dark tourism in india.

Generally people are influenced by social and cultural behavior. An anxious tourist gets persuaded over the perception of others. The tourist simply needs a motivation or an inspiration for that particular place. Whatever a person is, he is made by the environment and the surrounding. A person who wants to have an experience or entertainment instead, would surely try to find a particular place to complete his wish.

A spot which sounds appealing attracts tourist from all over the world. It is the choice of the tourist that where he wishes to go for amusement, entertainment, business, holiday etc. The person who loves to explore the unexplored things may be fascinated in knowing about what happened to the fatalities of a non –happening or at disturbed places, by visiting that place and exploring it.

Almost every type of tourism exists in India because of diversified cultures, religions, festivals. In India, Dark Tourism is not much famous but there are many spots in India that comes under the category of Dark Tourism. Some of them are:

• Bhangarh Fort: It is in the state of Rajasthan, built by Man Singh. It is the most haunted place in India as it is considered to be cursed by a magician. Visiting to this place after sunset is strictly banned .
• Kuldhara: It is a place in Rajasthan where it is said that 83 villages lost their existence in just one night. This place is believed to be cursed by the villagers and there is no one sustaining there right now.
• Jallianwala Bagh : On 13 th April, 1919 a mass of people gathered at the “Jallianwala Bagh” in Amritsar as it was the day of Baisakhi, the main Sikh festival. On knowing that the mass is supposed to gather in the garden, the British General Dyer ordered to shoot the common mass. The shooting continued for nearly ten minutes and the whole ground was colored with blood of people.
• Dumas Beach : It is situated in Surat, Gujarat. This beach is enclosed with black sand and various mystic activities have been observed here. It is believed that the persons walking around the beach at night could vanish. This is also considered as a Dark Spot in India.
• Three Kings Church : It is in Goa. It is believed that Three Kings killed each other so as to rule over the property of this church and the inhabitants still believe that their spirits wander in the church.  
• Mussoorie : Mussoorie is a famous recreational destinationfor tourist. Dark Tourism also exists there. “The Lambi Dehar Mines” in Mussoorie is one of the haunted places in India. Millions of workers died in the mine while working. Unusual deaths and activities have also been observed.  
• Savoy Hotel: Savoy hotel at Mussoorie is yet again a haunted place in India. Various strange activities have been observed in this hotel. This attractive hill station has many hotels but this hotel makes the tourists to be scary of this place.
• Shaniwarwada Fort : ShaniwarwardaFort is in Pune. It is believed that a Prince was unkindly murdered and there have been many supernatural activities experienced by people there.  
• Hyderabad’s disreputable Ramoji film city is one of the major and famous film cities of India, where there are many hotels and in these hotels, supernatural activities have been observed. Eccentric marks are left on the mirror, the leftover food scatters around the room and the invisible powers tear’s one’s clothes and so on.  

Challenges to growth of Dark Tourism in India

There are many famous type of tourism in India but the Dark tourism is not so much famous.  We have to overcome all the problems as well as the challenges that come in the promotion of Dark Tourism.Some of the challenges that dark tourism faces are given as under:

• Lack of promotion: Promotion is very much required in any aspect. When it comes to tourism, promotion is a vital component. One of the reasons for dark tourism to lack behind is less promotion as well as less publicity.
• Less Local support: When it comes to tourism, local support is very important. Locals do not give their proper coordination to develop such type of peculiar tourism.
• Less tourist services at destination: As the tourist destination is not well known, various agencies and organizations are not able to give the required services to the tourist. That is why a tourist takes a back foot to visit such places. 
• Inappropriate Maintenance of Dark Tourism sites: As it is a form of tourism, so the particular tourist spot or place must be well maintained as well as cleaned. The manifestation of a particular spot must be attractive so that the tourist gets fascinated towards that spot.
• Less accessibility : These places are not well recognized, there is not any proper arrangement to access these places. Due to less convenience, the tourist cannot comfortably access all the places they desire to.

Strategies to overcome the challenges

• Pr omoting India as a Diversified Nation for Destinations : India is known all over the world for her cultures, religions, festivals etc. It is a place where a tourist can enjoy different things in the same time. India offers various domains of tourism; Dark tourism must also be promoted as one of them.
• Local support : People living near the particular spot have sufficient knowledge about that place. They must cope up with the tourist as well as the government and should be protective and supportive towards the tourists. Participation of locals will also help them to earn their livelihood.
• Suggest government to transform the policies : The people in relation to tourism sector must suggest the government to alter the useless policies and implement such policies which must have a positive impact.
• Proper maintenance of the spots: Teams should be selected or a number of people should be elected for the maintenance of the spots. Updating the resources and implementing the strategy for maintenance should be done and followed properly.
• Formulate policies to promote untapped places associated with dark tourism.

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What's Dark Tourism? And Why Is It So Popular?

Updated 05/3/2022

Published 05/8/2020

Sam Tetrault, BA in English

Contributing writer

Cake values integrity and transparency. We follow a strict editorial process to provide you with the best content possible. We also may earn commission from purchases made through affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Learn more in our affiliate disclosure .

When most people think of travel, they think of posing in front of the world’s most stunning sights or relaxing on a tropical island. They probably don’t think about visiting places where some of the world’s biggest tragedies and horrors took place—unless you’re talking about dark tourism. 

Jump ahead to these sections: 

What is dark tourism , why is dark tourism popular, criticisms of dark tourism, dark tourism etiquette, where can you find dark tourism in popular culture and media, what books can you read to learn more about dark tourism.

Dark tourism isn’t a new concept, though it recently gained popularity after the launch of the Netflix series with the same name. In the documentary series, journalist David Farrier visits some of the most unusual and macabre tourism places around the globe. From a nuclear blast site in Kazakhstan to JFK’s assassination site, nothing is off-limits.

With all of this excitement both for and against dark tourism, what is it exactly? Is it a shining example of death positive or yet another way to commercialize human suffering? In this guide, we’re pulling back the curtain on dark tourism to understand why it’s so alluring. 

In simple terms, dark tourism is the opposite of “traditional” tourism . Instead of visiting inspiring, classic sites, travelers take great care to visit places where some of the darkest events in human history took place. This includes anything from natural disasters to war and assassination. 

While most people have only just familiarized themselves with the term “dark tourism,” this is no way a new phenomenon. The term was coined in 1996 at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland. Researchers have found evidence of dark tourism going back throughout history.

For example, during the Battle of Waterloo in the 19th century, regular civilians lined up along the sides of the battle with their carriages to watch everything taking place. While this sounds particularly grotesque, it doesn’t end there. Researchers also compare today’s modern fascination with dark tourism to public executions and hangings in the Middle Ages. Crowds would form to watch those put to death take their final breaths. 

In ancient Rome , spectators came from all over to watch gladiators fight to the death. Bloody sports and spectacles of human mortality were very common up until modern times. Today, as a society, people still have an urge to peak into these dark curiosities. 

Popular dark tourism sites

You might be surprised at some of the most popular dark tourism sites . Many of them are classic destinations, though they harbor a dark past. Some, on the other hand, might send even the most experienced traveler running for the hills (or the airport). 

• Colosseum (Italy): The Colosseum was a gory battlefield for hundreds of years. While it’s an architectural wonder, it also has a deadly history. 
• Auschwitz (Poland): Visiting any concentration camp from the Nazi era is a humbling experience, but especially the notorious Auschwitz. 
• Ground Zero (USA): Ground Zero is the site where the Twin Towers fell on 9/11. While there is a memorial and museum in place now, this is an undeniably eerie location. 
• Killing Fields (Cambodia): The Killing Fields in Cambodia were where some of the worst genocides in human history took place, and you can still see the remnants of blood today. 
• Chernobyl (Ukraine) : Possibly one of the most well-known dark tourism sites, Chernobyl is where the 1986 nuclear reactor accident took place. The grounds are still dangerously radioactive, but you can still take a guided tour. 
• Hiroshima Museum (Japan): Travelers and locals alike visit the site of the Hiroshima bombings to see artifacts from the explosion that killed so many. 
• Murambi Memorial (Rwanda): Visitors can see the original clothing of the Murambi Genocide victims hanging in this countryside memorial. 
• Alcatraz Penitentiary (USA): Possibly one of the most well-known prisons in the world, Alcatraz allows visitors to glimpse into the hard life of inmates incarcerated on this island. 
• Pompeii (Italy): When Mount Vesuvius erupted, it wiped out the entire Roman city of Pompeii. This was in 79 AD, and the archaeological site is still a popular place for people to visit. 

Does this list surprise you? Dark tourism is very much intertwined with mainstream travel, though some are willing to go farther off the beaten path. 

In many ways, dark tourism is not much different from watching a horror film or going through a haunted house. Humans are naturally curious creatures, and death is the great unknown. These close encounters with some of the worst tragedies offer a rush of adrenaline from a “safe” distance. It’s a way to walk in the footsteps of history, even when that history isn’t pretty. 

Humans are naturally interested in death. We will all die at some point, and death all over the world has come to mean different things. Most people visit these sites not to poke fun or take Instagram photos. They want to encounter death up close, to peer into what it might have been like for the victims of these places and events. 

There is a lot of philosophy behind this phenomenon. Coming to terms with something so grim as genocide or tragedy isn’t easy. By visiting these dark tourism destinations, visitors have an opportunity to learn from this experience and pay their respects. 

While many have argued for the advantages of dark tourism (they see them as educational, intriguing, and so on), others have a lot of criticisms. There is no clear answer. 

The main question is whether this is an opportunity to learn something about death, tragedies, and real-life examples of rituals from around the world? Or is this a way for privileged Westerners to explore some of the biggest catastrophes of the world so they can feel better about themselves?

Dark tourism often doesn’t account for other cultures and belief systems. It can either intentionally or unintentionally paint things as “sinister” that might otherwise just be a cultural misunderstanding. For instance, finding a grave in another part of the world might cause a dark tourist to draw untrue conclusions. 

Ultimately, there’s something unappealing about the commercialization of tragedy. The Netflix series does a fair job of exploring some of these money-fueled tourist “attractions.” Things like war reenactments, assassination narratives, and actors pretending to be a part of drug cartels are just a bit too close to reality for comfort.

It’s left up to the individual traveler to determine their own boundaries between thrill-seeking, education, and being respectful of cultures and tragedies. There will never be a clear answer for what’s “right” or “wrong” in the debate around dark tourism. For some, boundaries will be overstepped. For others, it might be an enriching educational experience. 

If you do plan to take on some dark tourism of your own, it’s important to consider the proper etiquette. Much of the debate around whether this is a worthwhile practice stems from those who pay little attention to the consequences of their actions, no matter how small they may seem. 

Because travel should always be about respecting other cultures and ideas, here are the most important things to remember about dark tourism etiquette:

• Respect graves : Most dark tourism sites have some form of memorial or grave. This is something that should always be treated with respect. Never touch graves, sit against tombstones, or otherwise disrupt the monuments.
• Avoid cliches : A lot of cultures around the world have been warped by Hollywood portrayals. Always familiarize yourself with the history of the places you visit and don’t buy into stereotypes of false beliefs. 
• Put the camera away : When visiting heritage sites, treat them with respect. Don’t take unnecessary photos or selfies. Though these tragedies might have happened long ago, remember to honor those who died by being mindful of your photography. 
• Follow the rules : While some dark tourism sites are open to the general public, always read any posted rules. There might be things that are off-limits or not allowed, and you don’t want to overstep these boundaries. 
• Emotions: A lot of people have strong emotional reactions to visiting these dark tourism places. This is very understandable, but it might be a reason to rethink your trip. If you’re worried you’ll be upset or challenged by visiting something, it’s best to stay away. 
• Tourism companies : A lot of tourism companies offer guided tours to some dangerous sites, but that doesn’t mean you should go. Always do your research to make sure these companies operate safely and ethically.
• Intent : Finally, remember your intent behind your visit. Are you hoping to learn from these events and gain deeper respect, or is it just something to check off your travel list?

There are no stopping people from visiting some of the darkest places on the planet, and there is a strong argument for why dark tourism is important. However, it’s always essential that you’re mindful of your behavior, so you treat these places with the respect they deserve.  

Since the rise of the internet and social media, dark tourism has become a greater part of mainstream media and pop culture. While these places were largely hidden and distant in the past, the internet makes them closer than ever before. Dark tourism has also encouraged people from across the globe to venture to these destinations as part of their bucket list . 

Thanks to the accessibility and availability of travel, dark tourism is more popular than ever. Far off sites of destruction used to be something only seen on the big screen or read about in newspapers. Today, visitors from across the globe can flock to these places for themselves. Here’s where you can find dark tourism in today’s pop culture and media. 

Social media

It should come as no surprise that social media is a huge source of the excitement around dark tourism. As more everyday people travel to these places, it’s becoming common to share these experiences on social media platforms. When seen on a news feed, they feel even more accessible. Some popular profiles that explore dark tourism are:

• Chernobyl_guide : This TikTok account has over 1.5 million followers, and its narrator shares the many sites you can visit if you book your own Chernobyl tour through the nuclear disaster site. 
• URBEX : This YouTube channel explores abandoned and dangerous spaces to share an inside, never-before-seen look for over 300k subscribers. 
• The Proper People : With over 1.25 million subscribers on YouTube, the Proper People is one of the leading dark tourists pages on social media. These travelers explore abandoned hospitals, power plants, and more to share the lesser-seen side of dark tourism. 
• Exploring with Josh : Josh is an amature videographer and explorer who isn’t afraid to highlight some of the world’s most surprising destinations on his YouTube channel. With over 4 million subscribers, he is one of the pioneers in this digital space. 

Film and TV

Movies and TV shows also explore the world of dark tourism, especially in recent years. From docuseries to dramatic reenactments, all of these things lead to a rise in dark tourism across the globe. 

• Dark Tourist : This 2018 Netflix documentary series shows a New Zealand reporter traveling to some of the world’s most notorious destinations. 
• Chernobyl : The HBO historical drama Chernobyl reenacts the catastrophic nuclear disaster from the town of Chernobyl, Ukraine in the 1980s. 
• Inside North Korea’s Dynasty : National Geographic shares an in-depth documentary series about the lives and actions of the Kim family in North Korea from WWII until the present day. 
• Lost Cities : Featuring American scientist and explorer Albert Lin, this National Geographic docuseries examines ancient cities with high-tech imagery and 3D technology. 
• Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown : Lastly, the late Anthony Bordain’s CNN show Parts Unknown explores often unseen destinations, not shying away from the darker aspects of travel. 

Finally, there are many books that explore the idea of dark tourism in more detail. From uncovering the realities behind these destinations to delving deep into the motivations of dark tourists, these books are far from light reading. Whether you’re a traveler yourself or simply open minded, it’s important to take a critical look at your motivations and perspectives when seeing more of the world. 

• Imagine Wanting Only This (Kristen Radtke): Named one of the best books of 2017 by Forbes and Lit Hub, this is a graphic memoir written about Radtke’s experience coming to terms with the grief of losing an uncle. She discovers a fascination with ruins, people, and the places left behind. 
• Dark Tourist (Dom Joly): After spending his childhood in war-torn Lebanon, Joly wished to push beyond the sanitized experiences of modern day travel. In this memoir, this comedian isn’t afraid to tread off the beaten path. 
• I Am the Dark Tourist (H. E. Sawyer): Sawyer becomes a self-aware dark tourist in this memoir. This is more than a travel story. It’s an examination of why people wish to visit sites touched by death in the first place. 
• Dark Lands (Tony Wheeler): Lonely Planet’s Tony Wheeler goes deeper into the world’s darkest corners to explore troubled nations. His well-traveled perspective gives these places rarely seen in popular media a dose of reality and openness. 
• Memorial Museums (Paul Williams): What has led to the world’s rush to commemorate atrocities? William researches this phenomenon, and he visits many of these memorial museums himself to see whether they fit within cultural history. 
• A Nuclear Family Vacation (Nathan Hodge): Two Washington D.C. defense reporters paint a portrait of nuclear weaponry around the world. 

The Darker Side of Travel

Travel isn’t always about relaxation and getting away from the hustle and bustle. Sometimes it’s a way to challenge yourself and broaden your mind. For many, this includes an element of dark tourism. Not only does visiting these macabre sites give visitors a thrill, but they’re also a way to pay respects to a darker past. 

That being said, dark tourism requires travelers to tread carefully. This is not a simple issue, and it requires a lot of consideration. Before you head off on your next travel venture, give some thought to the history of the place and what your visit might mean. 

• “Did gladiators always fight to the death?” History Stories. 1 September 2018. History.com . 
• Madden, Duncan. “Dark Tourism: Are These The World’s Most Macabre Tourist Attractions?” Forbes . 25 September 2019. Forbes.com . 
• Sampson, Hannah. “Dark tourism, explained.” Washington Post. 13 November 2019. WashingtonPost.com .

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Everything about Dark Tourism | Concept, Types, Examples

What is dark tourism.

Who are Dark Tourists? 

The term “dark tourist” refers to a person interested in visiting dark tourism sites and knowing about the dark past and a brighter future, where everything happened. This genre is getting increasingly popular among tourists from all over the world and might act as a factor influencing tourism . There is also an increase in searches for the term dark tourism and a few dedicated tourism management agencies, tour guides also exist. Guided tours help you to understand the very recent history, long traditions, exclusion zones etc.

Dark tourism destinations extend globally over 60 years, including places like Bogot, Colombia, Cusco, Peru, Bolivia, Togo, Chernobyl, Romania, Florence, Moscow, Camillo, and many more. All these sites focus on the strong links between history, disasters that they have incurred, have dark histories and are associated with death. A grief tourism destination for a dark tourist can advance and shape their travel experience when visiting a site. Therefore, a person’s identity comes into play when they visit these places. Dark tourism is often confused and considered similar to disaster tourism. Disaster tourism is the practice of visiting locations at which an environmental disaster, either natural or man-made, has occurred. The dark outcome makes it relevant when talking about dark tourism and discussing dark tourist attractions.

An essential quality of dark tourists is the desire to know tragic history and understand deeply twisted history. They have the perspective that the dark destination is a reflection of the past that needs more attention. That’s why they are attracted to these grief places. They have a natural attraction to sites or events related to disasters, war, or other natural calamities. More information is available in the video below if you prefer watching to reading!

Related Article: 6 Reasons Why People Pursue Dark Tourism

Types of Dark Tourism

Many objectives can drive the dark tourist’s motivation to visit any dark sites. Various types of tourism can be linked to dark places that are listed below. 

Holocaust Tourism

History is vast, which accounts for many intriguing stories. One such interesting and devastating time is World War II that is still remembered and studied. It holds a lot of death and destruction. Dark tourism mainly started in Nazi-ruled Germany. The dark sites of that period showcase the memorials, nature, politics, and the grief of children and citizens. 

The horrific stories prompted travelers from all across the globe to visit memorial parks and memorial museums, like Auschwitz, other Nazi concentration camps, or the Holocaust Memorial site. They highlight the remembrance of young and old Jews who lost their lives because of the execution by the government. The place also establishes a contrast between the past and the modern-day. The memorial site attracts a huge mass of events, and the photography becomes souvenirs for people. Movies such as pearl harbor also highlights some examples.

Two places in Poland that are worth mentioning in the context of Holocaust tourism are Warsaw and Oswiecim. Also, these places have served as a location for many big films to recreate authentic events of suffering. Warsaw is the capital city of Poland and one of the major dark tourism destinations. The people suffered the worst living conditions during the Nazi-led government, deportations during the Holocaust, infrastructure loss of almost all the old buildings, and inhuman treatment. 

Grave Tourism

Many people are drawn to visit cemeteries that represent a sad historical time frame. Some people might like to visit because it is a final resting place of a famous person. The burial sites give away interesting storylines that draw people towards them. These places tend to bridge the void between the present and the past, the living and the dead. Like Père Lachaise in Paris receives almost 3.5 million visitors per year. Other famous examples include Burma, Vandayasana, Weave, Cherub in Cambodia, and Garden Cemeteries of the Venerable Buddha. 

Heritage tourism:

Heritage tourism is not limited to travel, but it also gives an exposure to access and preserve the intangible cultural heritage. Any type of monument or heritage site that reminds people of a tragedy also gives knowledge about the context of events. The common ground of history combines heritage and dark tourism together. People travel there to discover the treasures of tragedy, war zones in the historic sites. For example, Auschwitz (Death Camp), or Vimy Ridge (war memorial) people get to know the history of a world war period and heritage through travel. Sedlec ossuary in the Czech Republic also can be viewed as an example. These areas are known to have long tradition and places historically important.

Heritage tourism boosts the local economy and enhances tourism development. All the hot spots of cultural heritage can become authentic potential destinations in nature. It also helps the tourist acquire knowledge about important cultural and historical places. It also gives a more profound sense of what can be preserved.

Communism Tourism

Even in the 21st era, a portion of the world is still under the control of communists. But it draws as an attraction for people to visit those areas and interact with the people, like North Korea. Also, it is impossible to know the natural history of communism in a country without seeing that place. 

Another example is Red Tourism, a subset of “tourism in the People’s Republic of China,” in which Chinese people visit locations that give a glimpse of Chinese Communism. It’s widely promoted to establish them as a cultural foundation for future generations. It is visited by many other people from Korean Peninsula and Chinese from eastern Europe. 

Battlefield Tourism:

The visiting of battlefields and war ruins, a dark tourism destination, is not new. There are World War One sites at the Somme, Verdun, or Ypres. Also, a recent example, the areas in the Falklands of the 1982 war are visited. There are also historical re-enactments in period costumes to give a real experience to the people. Mass graves and war zones are also popular examples of battlefield tourism.

Other Types

Other types and form of dark tourism include famous cemeteries, robben island, site of Vietnam war, site of cold war, bombing sites, dark fun factories and even London dungeon, morbid tourism, memorial park, nuclear tourism, slum tourism, macabre tourism etc. Tourists like to explore the darker side of such places and events.

Also Read: 5 Factors Influencing Tourist Destination and Tourism

Famous Dark Tourism Destinations:

Kigali genocide memorial, africa:.

The dark tourism sector is famous in Southeast Asia. Because of its fusion of rich heritage and tragedy. One such example was the Rwanda genocide in 1994. For about 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority and Hutu ethnic group were slaughtered by armed militias. It is estimated around 500,000 to 600,000 people were brutally killed. After these vulnerable stories came to light, people developed an attraction to the victims, which later generated tourism.

The Kigali Genocide Memorial has the remains of over 250,000 people. There is a visitor center for students and tourist who wants to gain more information about the events leading up to the genocide 1994. It is the principal entry point for foreign visitors and offers a few more sites that are worth exploring. Till now, this incident is a sensitive issue in Rwanda, and it is illegal to talk about ethnicity over there.

Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Poland:

People who were intrigued by the events of the World war will be familiar with the Auschwitz concentration camp. The German higher authorities established it in 1940 in the suburbs of Oświęcim. By 1942 it became one of the largest networks of Nazi death camps. The prisoners were pushed into forced labor, inhumane medical experiments, and mass killings. The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum is a memorial and museum in the memory of the people killed in the camps. It is one of the major attractions of Holocaust Tourism. Also, Auschwitz is called the “epitome of all dark tourism.” 

Garden of the Fugitives, Italy:

Pompeii is a world-famous heritage site and attracts Italy’s tourist attention. Additionally, it is one of the most important archaeological sites on Earth for its Roman remains. The ancient town is famous for volcanic ash caused by the eruptions of Mount Vesuvius in the year 79 AD. Even after so many years, it is still well-preserved roman town in history. It was rediscovered in the 18th century with the excavation process going on since the 19th century. One-third of the site is still under the ash.

Many mosaics, cultural relics, and remains of human bodies have been found. The archaeologists poured liquid chalk into the hollow cavities left by the decaying bodies to showcase the look of petrified bodies. Some of the plaster casts show a facial expression of calm and falling asleep.

Chernobyl and Pripyat, Ukraine:

In 1986, Chernobyl witnessed the worst nuclear disaster. It resulted from a series of mistakes at the power plant that caused explosions releasing radioactive material into the atmosphere. The winds amplified the destruction by carrying the toxic air over Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, contaminating millions of acres of land that had to be permanently evacuated. Pripyat is also known as the ghost town where tourists worldwide flock to see the amusement park, a moss-covered Ferris wheel, and other examples that give evidence of how lively the town was before the unfortunate incident.

People visiting there get a natural feeling of erosion and disruption that could be seen in the atmosphere of a destination. Chernobyl has not yet reached the final stage of its development and introduction.  However, it is still gaining a  lot of attention from dark tourists worldwide, especially after the famous web series on this tragic event.  

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Cambodia

The Cambodian genocide at the hands of the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot is considered one of the worst crimes against humanity. The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum recalls the genocide and the torture of the victims in prison. It is located in Phnom Penh. The site is a former secondary school used as Security Prison 21 from 1975 to 1979. Around 14,000 to 20,000 victims were captured in prison and tortured. Almost all of them were ended up in the killing fields of Choeung Ek.

Be more educated on Dark Tourism, if it fascinates you

If you think you cannot wait to visit Chernobyl, hike in an authentic mountain in South Africa, visit Mummified Corpse and Museum in Phnom Penh or even attend a Christmas party haunted forest in North Korea. In that case, you are a dark tourist! And, it’s fine to embrace it. Heritage studies also dedicate some part of the syllabus to this field now due to increased academic attention.

Dark Tourism as a field of study:

Dark tourism is a self-professed destination industry and has been defined by the principles of importance, prestige, and high-quality tourism. Tourism research aims to understand society’s problems. It is an application to research the world’s problems from the mistakes done in the past, such as war and terrorism. There are over a million people who are dark tourists which is an evidence that dark tourism is gaining interest.

Dark tourism is known as ‘thanatourism’ in academic literature. It is a broader sense to understand the tourist thinking, history, and re-learning of the events that led to the destruction and later attraction for people. It also understands the effect of the resources in the economy and the upcoming environment. Therefore, dark tourism research is related to the development of the tourism destination. 

Many types of research are going for Tourism development in the context of dark tourism. The Institute for Dark Tourism Research (iDTR) is a world-leading academic center for dark tourism scholarship, research, and teaching.  

Travel Blogs on Dark Tourism:

There are many blogs on Dark Tourism to increase the knowledge about captivating stories of these destinations. They also give an insight on how to behave and follow the protocols on these types of destinations. it is also depicted in museums, historical and spiritual sites, theatres, films, which can give a lot of information. 

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About The Author

Anshita Kandhari

This story was published before war came to Ukraine and suspended all travel there.

An abandoned Ferris wheel stands on a public space that has become overgrown with trees since the city of Pripyat was evacuated in the wake of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. 

Is 'Dark Tourism' OK?

There’s nothing inherently wrong with visiting Chernobyl's fallout zone or other sites of past tragedy. It’s all about intention.

These days it seems you can't go more than a few weeks without hearing about some unfortunate selfie faux pas on the Internet.

Tourists posting   photos of themselves   giving the thumbs up in   Auschwitz , for example, or   smiling from a rusted-out bumper car in Pripyat , the Ukrainian city that was evacuated after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear meltdown .

The offending images are seen and blasted around to social media circles. Disparaging comments are made and the shares continue, rippling out to create a full-blown meme about travelers' growing predilection for “dark tourism.”

The truth is, visiting places associated with death and suffering has been popular a lot longer than the selfie stick.

Mark Twain devoted a full chapter to Pompeii in   Innocents Abroad . Tourists flocked to the still-smoking fields of Gettysburg in 1863 to see the aftermath of one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War. Anton Chekhov left his successful playwriting career in 1890 to become   the world’s first “gulag tourist.”   And then there’s the Taj Mahal—a selfie-central icon that's actually a tomb—which has been a staple of the world-travel circuit for half a millennium.

From the September 11 Memorial   and the   Roman Colosseum   to Rwanda's   Murambi Technical School , there is no shortage of   “tourist sites of death, disaster, or the seemingly macabre,” as the U.K.-based   Institute for Dark Tourism Research   puts it.

But while so-called "dark tourism" isn't new, what   is   new is how some of these sites and experiences are being marketed.

Visitors to the Cu Chi tunnels near Ho Chi Minh City   are promised a chance to shoot AK-47s in the famous Viet Cong guerrilla maze ... for a price. Certain tours to Israel's   Golan Heights   come with expectations of witnessing real-time missiles in an active war zone. You get the idea.

To me, the problem lies not with the choice of destination, but with the intention behind the choice.   After all, why should we avoid the   Anne Frank House   just because   Justin Bieber left an insensitive message in the guest book ?

The first thing we should ask ourselves: Are we traveling to a place to heighten our understanding, or simply to show off or indulge some morbid curiosity?

Of course, intention can be a two-way street. There is a difference, obviously, between the people who go on tours and the people who develop, run, and profit from them.  

While some tour operators seem to have no qualms about skewing—and even fabricating—facts or ratcheting up the gore factor for dramatic effect, others approach sensitive subjects such as genocide, terrorism, and nuclear disaster with the care and gravitas they deserve.  

Confronting the most chilling examples of what poet Robert Burns termed “man's inhumanity to man” can be a profoundly moving experience,   bringing war, oppression, violence, and injustice to gut-wrenching life and deepening our capacity for compassion and empathy.  

As I was thinking about this story, I did a lot of reflecting on my most memorable travel experiences. Many of the places that made my list—concentration camps, the sites of massacres and political assassinations, and battlefields—could be described as “dark.”

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What I remember most about the time I spent in Warsaw's WWII-era Jewish ghetto   is a fellow visitor, a white-haired man who, when I noticed the number tattooed on his arm, acknowledged my silent inquiry with a nod. The   experience made history more real for me.  

Some critics bemoan the commodification of such sites, but I believe well-meaning attractions—despite whatever snacks their visitor center café may stock—can   be catalysts for healing and change.

Many Americans, for example, have chided Russia for its reluctance to memorialize its millions of gulag victims (there is actually a   Mask of Sorrow monument   in remote Magadan; I’ve been). Yet in the U.S. the   first   real site dedicated to exploring the history of human slavery   from the perspective of the enslaved opened only in 2014 (and through private funding). I think it's a positive thing when a past wrong is addressed, even if wildly overdue.

Another standout memory from my travel past involves a visit to the Tower of London in 2014. To mark one hundred years since Britain became involved in WWI,   888,246 flame red poppies progressively filled the Tower’s famous moat   throughout the summer, one for every British military fatality. I spent an hour walking by them all. The physical representation of each life lost was easily the most powerful anti-war message I’ve ever seen.  

Of course, nearly every destination in the world is “dark” in some way. Even places we describe as “to die for” often have been scenes of natural disaster, violence, and displacement. Turning your back on that reality   can be the ugliest travel of all.

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dark tourism

• tourist travel to areas affected by or associated with disasters or other public tragedies.

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What Is Beauty Tourism?

There are all kinds of reasons to travel across the globe, from expanding your view of the world, to eating incredible food. However, the latest travel trend has less to do with changing your perspective, and more to do with changing your body. 

For one, beauty tourism, as it’s known online, is the practice of traveling abroad with the specific intention of getting beauty treatments in another country, some as noninvasive as cheap hair extensions, and some as intense as going under the knife. 

Countries like South Korea and Turkey have become centers for this kind of travel, and it has become more common to see photos of airports and planes packed with nose-plastered travelers and hair-implanted men. But as its popularity grows, we have to ask the question: Is beauty tourism safe?

For starters, it should be known that the United States is also a common destination for people seeking speciality treatments. “I have a significant population of patients from western Europe, including Spain, Ireland, Italy, and Greece. People are willing to travel for a super-specialist,” says Dr. Benjamin Caughlin , a facial plastic surgeon at Impressions Face and Body , based out of Chicago.

Thanks in part to Hollywood stars–who can become almost like walking ads for various beauty treatments, surgeries, and doctors–it’s no surprise that people fly to cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago to seek out the best of the best. 

Finding the right doctor—especially for invasive, risk-heavy procedures like plastic surgery—is paramount. Some overseas locals have become known for their skills in certain areas. “Hair transplants and rhinoplasties are very common in Turkey. They perform these procedures frequently and have become very skilled at them,” says Dr. Caughlin. 

Similarly, skin treatments in South Korea have become almost legendary. “I think the Korean beauty concept is genius and works well,” says double board-certified dermatologist Dr. Karan Lal . “Many of my patients have had a very good experience. I think if patients want to venture out and want to try cutting edge technology and skincare, it’s safe to go to South Korea.”

However, seeking out the best of the best is hardly the only reason why beauty tourism has ballooned. Sometimes people go abroad because patients are seeking out treatments that, for better or worse, are not legal or common in the United States. 

“Many people go to Korea for stem cell facials, salmon sperm injections, and skin tightening treatments that are not FDA-approved here in the United States,” says Dr. Lal. “Many patients go to South America for injectable fillers that are not currently available in the United States. The FDA has a very rigorous process in the United States and things take much longer to get approved for the safety of the general public.” 

When BBLs–Brazilian butt lifts–reached new heights in popularity, patients seeking this surgery often went abroad, because many American plastic surgeons ban this procedure in their offices due to its high risks to patients. Even when the sought-after treatment is considered generally safe, countries with looser regulations than the United States can become hubs for beauty tourism. 

It has to be said, however, that the answer as to why beauty tourism has expanded is simple: The price. “I think the number one driving factor for why people are going overseas for plastic surgery is cost,” says Dr. Rukmini Rednam , plastic surgeon and founder of Dr. Rednam Plastic Surgery . “In places like Turkey, Mexico, Korea and the Dominican Republic, to name a few, the US dollar can go a lot further. So despite travel costs, people feel that plastic surgery in some of these places abroad is more within their reach and affordable.”

It is true that within the United States, the price of plastic surgery, skin treatments, and hair extensions has reached heights that mean the combined cost of plane tickets, hotels, and the treatments abroad can be less expensive. However, this mindset can come with many risks. “I think it’s worth going to specialists. However, be cautious about shopping only on price,” says Dr. Caughlin. “There are excellent surgeons who charge less than others, so don’t base your decision solely on cost.”

On the operating table and off, traveling abroad for surgery comes with increased risk. “While I understand the appeal of traveling abroad, there are several important factors to consider,” says Dr. Rednam. “Every country has different regulations for surgeons and facilities, and if you do not live in that country, you really have no way of knowing what these are for that country. You may not even have an actual trained plastic surgeon operating on you.”

Even if all goes well with the procedure itself, complications could arise once you return home. “If you have a complication, you will not be able to see your surgeon again unless you travel back to their country. I’ve seen many patients who return after traveling abroad for surgery who have an issue and are unable to get any help from their treatment clinic,” Dr. Rednam continues. 

This is a worry for Dr. Caughlin as well. “Consider access to your surgeon post-operation. I give all my patients my cell phone number. One issue with overseas surgery is the lack of access when problems arise. I’ve treated patients in Chicago who had surgery abroad and encountered issues like infections or abscesses. I know surgeons in almost every major city worldwide whom I trust and can refer patients to.”

And then there is the simple matter of getting home. Even treatments like hair transplants or more invasive facials can become infected, and airports are hardly sterile environments. For many surgeries, in particular BBLs, blot clots are a major concern. 

“We know from studies that long flights after big surgeries are not safe and not recommended. Most of these patients are often quickly on return flights which puts them at risk for blood clot complications,” warns Dr. Rednam. That is not even getting into the physical discomfort people can experience flying at high altitudes in cramped conditions. 

While prices may be raised at home, experts agree that going overseas on a beauty tourism trip is rarely a good idea. “Beauty tourism can be safe in any country, but it depends on the specific clinic, doctor, and team. You need to do your research. Word of mouth is often the best way, along with reviews and board certifications. However, certifications can vary by country,” says Dr. Caughlin. Even the most skilled team, however, cannot ensure no complications arise. Having a doctor near where you live could be life-saving if a complication did occur after returning home.

In most cases, the US does offer similar, if not the exact same, treatments within its borders. Despite this, experts are not expecting the rates of beauty tourism to dip. “Given the cost of consumables and services in the United States, I expect beauty tourism to increase, since procedures are so much cheaper outside the United States,” says Dr. Lal. While social media shows the excitement of beauty tourism, be aware of the drawbacks. “Just because your friend or someone on social media had surgery abroad and did fine and had no issues does not mean you will. Every person’s body can respond differently to surgery and having reliable aftercare is not a luxury but a necessity,” says Dr. Rednam. As beauty tourism becomes more popular, we can expect more procedures, and more practitioners to get in on this burgeoning market. Dr. Lal warns, “as tourism increases, the number of complications will increase.”

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