Dark Tourism Archives — Lara Dunston

Motives for dark tourism: enrichment, education and empathy? Or just plain voyeurism and morbid curiosity?

Last weekend I posted about Anzac Day, sacred moments, and the revival of nationalism and Anzac Day imagery and ‘young Australia’: national identity and the need for heroes. The extensive media coverage here in Australia showing young flag-wearing and flag-waving Australians on Anzac Day was what had motivated my series of posts reflecting on the … Read more about Motives for dark tourism: enrichment, education and empathy? Or just plain voyeurism and morbid curiosity?

Dark tourism resources, references and first-hand accounts

by Lara Dunston

The best depository of dark tourism resources must be the the University of Central Lancashire’s Dark Tourism Forum which has a long list of links to books, scholarly essays and media articles on the subject. Their definition of dark tourism also takes in a prison tourism and the specialised area of Holocaust tourism and genocide … Read more about Dark tourism resources, references and first-hand accounts

Dark tourism, tours and DIY how-to guides

by Lara Dunston

The term ‘dark tourism’ is generally thought to have first been coined by UK academics John Lennon and Malcolm Foley in the mid-1990s. They were the first to publish a book on the subject, ‘Dark Tourism: The Attraction of Death and Disaster’ in 2000, which explores the rise of this phenomenon in the late 20th … Read more about Dark tourism, tours and DIY how-to guides

The history of dark tourism: from Roman gladiator spectacles to contemporary conflict zone tours

by Lara Dunston

Dark tourism is not new, as my readers (whose insightful comments always inspire further reflection) point out: Travel Muse recalls touring German war sites as a teenager, while Sandy suggests that The Crusades, which revolved around a fascination with the macabre, might also have been an early version of dark tourism. Indeed, the thesis of … Read more about The history of dark tourism: from Roman gladiator spectacles to contemporary conflict zone tours

The rise in Grief Tourism or Dark Tourism

by Lara Dunston

Is it real, imagined or constructed? Recent years have seen a rise in grief tourism, dark tourism and disaster tourism, according to media reports. But I wonder if this has any actual foundation, whether the increase is real or whether it’s a case of more media reporting, arising from more academic analysis on the phenomena? … Read more about The rise in Grief Tourism or Dark Tourism