Dark Tourism
Part of the human condition is the
grim fascination with horror and
atrocity.
Jack the Ripper’s first Victim – London, Whitechapel's Buck's
Row just before four in the morning Friday, August 31, 1888
Not a new phenomenon
Visiting sites connected with death:-
e.g. murder & death sites, battlefields,
cemeteries & homes of dead celebrities
has been and still is a significant part of
tourist experiences all over the world.
Geoffrey Chaucer’s (1342-
1400) Canterbury Tales arose
from the journey of a group
of people to the death site of
Thomas a Becket at
Canterbury Cathedral in 1170.
The Bayeux Tapestry, measuring over 230 feet long
and 20 inches wide, was a commemoration of the
Norman invasion of England and the events leading
up to it which culminated in the death of King
Harold on Christmas day in 1066
The Black Death, 1348 which led to the untimely
death of between 25-50% of Europe’s population - all
have been the subject of tourist visits for centuries.
20th Century
• The industrialisation of death.
Death happens on a scale rarely
seen in human history.
In many societies, the dead are buried in
sites designated for this purpose to leave a
permanent remembrance to those who
wish to visit.
Pyramids in Egypt
Abraham Lincoln Memorial
Nelson’s Column
Tragedy sells; - be it copy for
newspapers, magazines, books, radio or
television programmes.
Media presentation of the event,
circumstances and smallest details
surrounding the event complete with theories,
eye-witness testimonies and expert analysis
Death has become a
commodity
Lockerbie Air Disaster, Dec 21st 1988
• Pan Am flight 103 exploded and pieces of the plane
fell onto the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing 259
people on the plane and 11 people on the ground.
• The nose of Pan Am 103 has become the symbol of
the crash
• It landed on the north of a churchyard at Tundergarth,
just outside Lockerbie Town. The body of the pilots
and a stewardess was found inside. The stewardess
still had a pulse when first found, but she was dead a
few minutes later.
• Tourists now visit the site of the crash
Part of a commoditised tourist
experience
The advent of global media
• We experience the effects of conflict on a
daily basis.
• Now apparently closer to us in space & time
• Many people decide to visit these places of
death and disaster when the opportunity
presents itself.
Tourism Organisations
• National and regional tourism bodies,
voluntary groups and commercial
businesses
• Provide the services & facilities to promote,
transport and service the visitor at these
tourism destinations of ‘celebrated’ sites.
• Hence the advent of dark tourism.
Dilemma
• What is the appropriate chronological
distance between the event and the arrival
of visitors at the site?
•Acceptable to visit death sites
immediately following the event
to show respect .
•What takes longer to be
acceptable is the creation of a
‘touristic’ experience -
interpretation for consumption
by tour groups.
Examples where interpretation
takes place today
• Concentration camps
• Battle sites of the First World War
• Pearl Harbour
• Hiroshima
• Bridge of the River Kwai
• Changi Gaol in Singapore.
Individual deaths
Part of the tourism infrastructure in their
respective locations
• John F Kennedy
• Marilyn Monroe
• Serial killers (Jack the Ripper, Charles
Manson) and their victims (Sharon Tate)
Dark Tourism definition -
Lennon J and Foley M (2000)
• Events that have taken place within the
memories of those still alive to validate
them.
• Visits to the site suggest elements of anxiety
and doubt
• ‘Commodification of anxiety’ is brought
into question (merchandising and revenue
generation)
Visitor Types
• Specialist – seeking the location of their
relatives or friends sufferings or pursuing a
special concern e.g. the technology of tank
warfare
• Serendipity - on the itinerary of the tour
company or who happen to be in the area.
Merchandising is important, ‘impulse
purchase’ becomes central to the product
involved.
Further Examples
Dark Sites of concentration camps
estimated numbers of visitors
Auschwitz (Poland) 750,000
Dachau (Germany) 900,000
Majdanek (Poland) 300,000
(Source: Young 1993)
‘Not only is the relevant material vast and
intractable; it exercises a subtle, corrupting
fascination. Bending too fixedly over
hideousness, one feels queerly drawn. In
some strange way the horror flatters
attention ….I am not sure whether anyone,
however scrupulous, who spends time and
imaginable resources on these dark places
can, or indeed, ought to leave them
personally intact.’
(Steiner, 1971, pp30-31)
Hiroshima
The atomic bomb, 8:15 am Aug 6, 1945
45 000 died on
the first day and
a further 19 000
during the
subsequent four
months.
Melted Sake Bottles
Hiroshima
Student Uniform
Akio Tsukuda (13 at the
time) was engaged in fire
prevention work about 800
meters from the
hypocenter.
His father found his
school uniform hanging
on a branch of a tree on
August 8, 1945. His
body was not found
Enola Gay
Aircraft that
dropped the first
atomic bomb on
the Japanese City
of Hiroshima.
Smithsonian Air &
Space Museum in
Washington DC.
Whose history is interpreted?
• Ethical dilemma for the tourist professional
is whose viewpoint is used for the
interpretation - viewpoints do change over
time.
• The civil rights movements in America and
the troubles in Northern Ireland have all
been re-appraised recently.
The Future of Dark Tourism
• Anniversaries of events at 5 and 10 years
have significance for participants and the
media. The 80th anniversary of the First
World War, the 50th anniversary of the ‘D-
day’ landings
Future
• Questions of taste and sanctity. Trips to
Bucharest based upon Ceausescu’s former
palace and travel using his vehicles.
• The following of the final route of Princess
Diana in a black Mercedes S-class through
the streets of Paris.
• The opening of Governmental and commercial
sites in New Mexico where once weapons of mass
destruction were contained coining the phrase
‘atomic tourism’
Final viewpoint
• How long will it be before all types of
suffering is commodified for touristic
consumption – who will define the
boundaries of good and bad taste?