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Dark tourism and cities
Sites associated with death and disaster appear to exert a dark fascination for visitors and tourists. Death, suffering, visitation and tourism have been interrelated for many centuries but the phenomena of dark tourism was identified as such and categorised by Lennon and Foley (1996, 2000). However, as early as 1993, Rojek had referred to “Black spots” and “Fatal Attractions” to highlight sites of fatality which he identified as a feature of the post-modern condition (p. 136). However, such a definitional framework was considered too narrow and Lennon and Foley (1996, 2000) hypothesised that there are aspects of the ancient, modern and post-modern to be identified within the spectrum of dark tourism. The phenomena developed included:
visits to death sites and disaster scenes;
visits to sites of mass or individual death;
visits to sites of incarceration;
visits to representations or simulations associated with death; and
visits to re-enactments and human interpretation of death.
Critical here is the language and the use of the word “dark” as a predominantly pejorative term that intimates that events or locations are negative, transgressive or dubious. Other forms of visitation which Seaton (1996, 2009) refers to as “Thanatourism” have either limited or no sinister connotations, such as; literary pilgrimages to the graves of famous authors or visiting battlefields with family associations. However, the urban or city context frequently features.
Heritage is contested concept and the pursuit of historical “accuracy” is invariably compromised by competing ideologies, interpretation, funding and a host of other factors. For some, such as Lowenthal (1998) valuably highlighted defining heritage let alone agreeing a verifiable truth will invariably remain elusive. In tourist attraction sites, visitor centres and those locations explored in this submission such issues are continually confronted. This complexity becomes acute in the case of “dark” sites at what has been referred to as dissonant heritage (Ashworth and Hartmann, 2005; Seaton, 2001). Dark tourism then is an inclusive term incorporating the extensive and identifiable phenomena of visitation to sites associated with our shared dark past; mass killing, extermination, death, incarceration, war crimes, dictatorship, etc.
Dark tourism has generated much more than purely academic interest. The term has entered the...