Dark Tourism Essay

Introduction

The statement 'dark tourism' is continuously gaining popularity as the form of tourism with increasing preference among tourist around the world. The term dark tourism can elaborate the relationship between individual interests in death and the macabre and tourism attraction. In general dark tourism is a fashion. The concept involves visiting sites that associated with specific incidents such as death and suffering. Traveling to places of genocide, former concentration camps, areas of mass destruction, historical battlefields and prisons all form part dark tourism. The concept of dark tourism is not a new concept since the excitement people derive from traveling and experiencing places related to death dates back to the eleventh century. There is a universal acknowledgment that death is inevitable therefore visiting dark exhibit and attractions enable identifying with the experience. The concept of dark tourism is full of several controversies. People have different opinions on whether it is appropriate or not to visit places associated with the controversial history of humanity.

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However, before building an argument about the essence of practicing dark tourism, one should first understand the various motives and reason that tourist has for traveling to dark tourism sites. The reasons for visiting the dark places or shrines are diverse, disparate, and sophisticated. Therefore, there exist a multitude of motives for associating with the macabre. Some studies claim that there exist some typical reasons for engaging with macabre. The motivations were investigated in the plethora studies, and they include, entertainment, curiosity, compassion, event validation, empathy identification, nationalistic motives, identity search, pilgrimage, sense of social responsibility, and education (Collins-Kreiner, 2016).

Motives for Dark Tourism

The diversity in reasons and motives brings about a variety of dark tourism and distinct types of dark tourists. The interpretations of dark sites are not entirely dependent on the tourist motives but are also greatly influenced by the image tourist hold for specific attraction sites. The other reasons and motives for engaging in dark tourism comes in variety of models including, the urge of understanding the human age, barbarism, romanticism, sign of decadence, part of national identity, spiritual experience, mystical experience, and the notion that some people are just naturally attracted to horror (Yan, Zhang, Zhang, & Guo, 2016). Tourist seeks to understand the strange things and those things that appear different to protect what is known. It also qualifies as a motive since the tourist might experience danger events in the safety of tourism environment. It is also important to note that the tourism experience varies for every tourist since people have varying interest and interpretations of things.

Some researchers also argue that dark tourism is akin to voyeurism, meaning that is associated with satisfying the desire of experiencing the forbidden (Ashworth & Isaac, 2015). But there is little evidence to prove peoples interest in death. The popularly reported motive is that people are curious to learn about past event and that drives tourist to visit the dark locations. Nonetheless, it is still difficult to state with absolute certainty the actual motive for dark tourism since most studies depend on self-reported data, and the respondent in the research would be biased and give positive reasons. The scenario is real, notably where the questions of the study incorporate sensitive subjects that might reveal a disquieting or troubling characteristic.

Ethical Dimension

Despite the whole uncertainty, there is a crucial moral dimension to dark tourism. For example tourism in North Korea. Most individuals suggest that the anti-American sentiments can significantly reduce if there exist contact between the different people enabled by tourism. The visits can also create a subversive effect. Through the exposure resulting from visits, North Korea can develop an appreciation of the liberties enjoyed by other citizens in other parts of the world and compare it to the system of life. Tourism has significantly contributed to opening up North Korea and allowing individuals from other countries to visit in the past decades. Even though the contact and socializing effect resulting from tourism may enable a change in mindset among the parties involved, proponents also argue that the average citizen in North Korea does not fully interact with the visiting tourists. The tours in North Korea are well-scripted and fully guided to strictly enable engagement with the regime as opposed to the ordinary citizens. Moreover, tourism in addition to enrichment it also legitimizes the system (Buda & Shim, 2015). In North Korea, it is estimated the tourism industry contributes to approximately $ 45 million per year (Buda & Shim, 2015).

Therefore, the unanswered question is whether it is ethical to promote a repressive regime that has continuously violated human rights. The thought is not limited to North Korea but applies to all dark tourism locations with questionable human right records. It spreads all over to places of human suffering from disasters such as the famous Chernobyl Nuclear power plant in Ukraine, and the some of the ancient fascist regimes like the killing fields of Phnom Penh, in Cambodia. Most people will agree it is very immoral to benefit from other peoples' calamities, however much they may be far removed from our present location or time.

Types of Dark Tourists

Narrowing down the idea of black tourism one can identify three types of tourists. First are those that want the feeling of connection to history, the second group is those with the intention of learning, and the third group comprises of individuals with no motive relating to the historic sites visited. After identifying the groups, it is possible to come up with dominant classes of tourist in various dark tourism destinations such as Auschwitz, North Korea, the disaster areas following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, USA, and Poland. Some studies suggest that dark tourism should not be applied as a tool to assist in political manipulation and propaganda (Ouellette, 2016). They should also not be used to mislead the public by misinforming them. An excellent example to explain the scenario in North Korea where the regime fully applies communism politics. The citizens of the of North Korea have to bear with poor living conditions as a result politics of isolation, sanctions, blatant mismanagement by the individuals in the communist political dynasty. In addition, the country also experiences high infant mortality rates, deteriorating infrastructure, and the economy does not provide enough opportunities to the inhabitants. Despite all that, the government still spread a political message that is entirely in contrast to the situation (Ouellette, 2016). Most of the tourist visiting North Korea are attracted by the country's political system. Very few people travel there just because of curiosity which is a positive sign.

Another typical example is the Auschwitz. The ideology of the memorial is to save authenticity, propagate ethics towards the victims, and educate people concerning history. The site attracts visitors who are driven by the motive of honoring the memory of events and getting to learn from the past. Some scholars' claim that the motive of attraction also largely depends on how the site presents itself (Light, 2017). If the site shows some respectful strategy as the Auschwitz does, then it will automatically attract tourist that will reciprocate by showing respect and behaving appropriately during the visiting period, especially in accordance to the expectation of the site.

In the case of disaster sites in New Orleans, most travel companies benefitted from making profits from the loss. The number of tours was extremely high even after a ban was placed to facilitate clean-up activities. There is an estimate of about 30 trips per day. Due to such cases of misconduct and mismanagement the tourist that visit do not intend to honor the victims and to understand the seriousness of the problem, but they come merely to watch. It is possible to assume that the strategies employed in various dark tourism sites significantly determine the type of tourist it will attract. There is essential to apply sustainability, acceptability and the display of unquestionable ethics to attract individuals who will visit the specified sites with an acceptable motive. Despite all then strategies, one cannot eliminate the effect of curiosity deriving people towards dark places. If a person believes that there is an inherent good in people, it means that the purpose of people making trips to dark sites is not to gawk but to enhance their understanding of the situation represented by the sites. But at the same time curiosity should not be written off as a motive.

References

Ashworth, G. J., & Isaac, R. K. (2015). Have we illuminated the dark? Shifting perspectives on 'dark'tourism. Tourism Recreation Research, 40(3), 316-325.

Buda, D. M., & Shim, D. (2015). Desiring the dark:'a taste for the unusual'in North Korean tourism?. Current Issues in Tourism, 18(1), 1-6.

Collins-Kreiner, N. (2016). Dark tourism as/is pilgrimage. Current Issues in Tourism, 19(12), 1185-1189.

Light, D. (2017). Progress in dark tourism and thanatourism research: An uneasy relationship with heritage tourism. Tourism Management, 61, 275-301.

Ouellette, D. J. (2016). The tourism of North Korea in the Kim Jongun Era: propaganda, profitmaking, and possibilities for engagement. Pacific Focus, 31(3), 421-451.

Yan, B. J., Zhang, J., Zhang, H. L., Lu, S. J., & Guo, Y. R. (2016). Investigating the motivation-experience relationship in a dark tourism space: A case study of the Beichuan earthquake relics, China. Tourism Management, 53, 108-121.