DARK TOURISM

tourism

Dark

Traveling is a common thing that people do very often. When we talk about tourism we do it in a general way. But there are different types of tourism. Do you know what dark tourism is?

What is dark toursim?

Places where death, suffering, tragedy, disaster or violence took place. This could include sites of natural or man-made disasters, assassinations ...

Dark tourism also includes museums, monuments, and travel to dangerous political hotspots.

Well, unlike sun and beach tourism, gastronomic, rural ... dark tourism is a type of tourism that involves visiting places where some of the darkest events of human history have unfolded.

DARK TOURISM

This type of tourism is often considered similar to voyeurism, which is the enjoyment of seeing something scandalous. However, Peter Hohenhaus, believes that most dark tourists are primarily motivated by a desire to improve their understanding of contemporary history and therefore cannot fairly be described as voyeuristic.

In fact, there are studies that indicate that since people began to travel, they have been attracted to dark tourism.

This type of tourism is an old phenomenon. J. John Lennon, professor of tourism at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland says: "There is evidence that dark tourism dates back to the Battle of Waterloo, where people watched from their carriages the battle taking place”.

MAIN DESTINATIONS

Auschwitz was a concentration camp established by the Germans at the time of the holocaust. It is near Krakow. There were extermination camps in this place, and others of forced labor.

Auschwitz

More than a million people lost their lives in this place, most of them Jews. Auschwitz had gas chambers that could kill 2,000 people at the same time. The work was so hard, consequently, it was another form of genocide. In this place, discrimination, hate, abuse, death and violence were normal daily. Today, some history-loving tourists visit this place to see this tragic place. The tourism in this place has risen dramatically over the years.

ANNE FRANK HOUSE

The house of Anne Frank, is a museum of the place where she hid from Nazi persecution with her family and two families more. In the attic, the entrance was covered by a false shelf. In this place, Anne Frank wrote her diary, a great testimony of the atrocities that were committed at the time. In this place, they lived for two years, without contact with the outside, until they were anonymously betrayed, arrested and imprisoned in a concentration center. Given to book lovers reading their newspaper, this place appeals a lot of interest from tourists.

catacombs of Paris

The catacombs of Paris were mines in Roman times. However, they later became a mass grave, storing more than 6 million human remains. A feature that appeals the attention of tourists are some of its walls covered by human bones and skulls, forming shapes or structures.

Disasters, suffering, tragedies and death, what leads someone to travel to these kinds of places?

WHY IT IS SO POPULAR?

A main factor that turns a place into a tourist attraction is its geophysical characteristics.

The risk is when it becomes fashionable, as it has happened in Chernobyl.

Also a person can visit it to show empathy with the victims, remember and honor them, and be guided by a sense of moral duty.

They look for places that are different from the usual tourist sites, other experiences such as fear, tension and curiosity, learn unusual stories or expand information about a place they already knew from books, movies or documentaries.

We know that death is the end of everything, it is the great unknown and we are fascinated.

WHY IT IS SO POPULAR?

• Learn and correct the catastrophes that have occurred

Arlington National Cemetery

Thus appeared the current dark tourism, a curiosity to know how the lives of other human beings ended.

Nowadays, cruelty and brutality is not allowed, that is why human beings feel uneasy about knowing information about death, so scary movies or murder news are highly debated and analyzed topics.

A factor that determines the motivation of each person is religion and education.

The reason for the lawsuit is ethical and moral values.

• An unforgettable and dangerous experience.

• Curiosity.

• Preserve the heritage of the place of the events.

• The tribute and the commemoration of the dead people.

• The desire to understand how the events happened.

The reasons for visiting these dark destinations are very varied.

Each person will have different expectations and demands that will decide which destination to choose.

MOTIVATIONS

ETHICAL CONCERNS

• Motivations
• Dark Tourism Exploits Human Suffering
• Dark Tourism Sites Can Spread Misinformation
• Inappropriate Conduct at Dark Tourism Sites (The Selfie Problem)
• Too Soon
• Dark Tourism Can Support the Wrong People
• Desecration of the Site
• Voyeurism

Saying whether dark tourism is ethical or not basically depends on the ethics of each person, but, in general, there are several criteria that are usually taken into account to determine whether it is ethical or not.

eTHICAL CONCERNS

Daniela AgüeraVanesa CasqueroLaura Fernández Alejandra Martín Lucía Sanchidrián

¡THANKS!