The Attraction of Dark Tourism

As global communications have developed and people travel further, leisure tourism increased, including “Dark tourism”. Dark heritage and associated tourism are recently studied, historians such as Stone and Dann have attempted to define motivation but Dark tourism, formerly; “Thanatourism ”, “milking the macabre ” or “black spot tourism ”, is multi-faceted as shown in Stone’s spectrum of supply , leading to the legitimacy of definition being questioned . Lennon and Foley  were the first to coin “Dark tourism” as the definition but Stone suggests that “for as long as people have been able to travel they have been drawn purposefully or otherwise to places associated with death ”. 

Vellas and Bercherel affirm that “Dark tourism” has been apparent for centuries, since the medieval pilgrimages when people often travelled to sites of violent death to memorialise the dead . However, the religious links to pilgrimage do not impact “Post-modern” society as much, Foley  suggests, and Reader  proffers that although there is still a fascination with the macabre in society this is no longer linked with the ritualism and reverence of death, but the removal of the taboo around it. As society has become more secularised, the fear surrounding death has been removed although not the fascination.

 Dann suggests, many levels of motivation and various subsets of Dark heritage and Stone contends that the sites of Dark heritage fit a “spectrum of supply ”, which includes everything from Light-Dark tourism for entertainment, e.g. London Dungeons, to the darkest form, including concentration camps. Both historians also proffer that the motivation of tourists to visiting these sites range widely but all revolve around either a collective or individual level of emotion. Lennon  agrees that Dark Heritage is more significant than leisure tourism because motives for visiting are emotional, stronger, in many cases the sites are not easily accessible, not mass tourism. 

Sharpley  suggests that dark heritage, certainly in Britain, is mostly accidental, sites that were not marketed but still attract visitors. In major Judeo-Christian beliefs, the resting place of the dead is a pilgrimage, there are designated sites of permanent heritage for visitation. As Foley  describes this is nostalgic dark tourism, but he also infers that post-modern society and media have meant that these sites have become congregating places for those fascinated with the famous and infamous dead, creating a large part of the new Dark heritage. Although this may be the case, it has also meant that some of these sites are no longer untainted by political and commercial influence.

Highgate Cemetery is prime example, a cemetery, formerly sacred, a place of reverence, now advertises for visitors and charges admission. The cemetery, opened in 1839 and holds famous graves including Karl Marx, drawing homage from socialists meaning, the privately-owned cemetery, fell into disrepair. The “Friends of Highgate ” were formed in 1975 when the cemetery was in danger of being demolished, to maintain it for future generations because the graves are of historic interest. 

Many sites cannot handle the influx of visitors and maintenance is an ongoing concern. For unfunded sites commercialisation is unavoidable to keep up, but sites of death and memorial this brings ethical questions as discussed by Brook  when visiting an “accidental” site, surrounding whether death should then be marketed and whether souvenirs and admission fees are in poor taste, but as with many sites Highgate is forced to advertise its wares to maintain its existence. Although, where does this end? Highgate charges admission fees for entry to see famous graves, conducts paid tours and promotes lectures in a purpose-built auditorium, which try to retain its dignity, but also allows ghost tours and boasts of the “almost famous” dead including Abraham Lincoln’s Chiropodist and although for positive reason it is argued to cheapen the memory of the dead .

Tours are meant for entertainment, using folklore or stories outside living memory, they are based around fun and use artistic license like the Dungeon franchise to encourage interest. Highgate has a ghost and vampire walk performed by “Flecky Bennett” who, in himself is a good performer, the tour being described as entertaining and informative  but he uses death to make profit that in this case does not go to maintaining anything. 

Like the Ripper tours in Whitechapel, it is not educational nor has historical importance but uses the commercialisation on death and mystery for gain, following Palmer’s argument that death has become a commodity and is no longer feared or revered, but trivialised  and Dann’s list of motivation with the celebration of crime . The advertisement of these tours revolves around dark gruesome past, concentrating on fascination in death, mysterious murderers and horror stories.  Wight  argues this could be because these stories tend to be outside living memory and therefore disassociated from society. This uncivilised nature of death is separate, emotion is removed and therefore not dark heritage.

Highgate, when compared to City of London (COL) cemetery, a government funded site, which has a similar footfall, appears far more commercially minded. The sites are similar; they are both graveyards which receive visitors for morbid fascination and each has its fair share of famous residents holding victims of the ripper, footballers, politicians but COL has very little by way of its own publicity, therefore visitor’s motives for (COL) maybe different.

Highgate holds mainly political interest and City of London could be more based around a more social aspect and leisure. Although, as with Brooks  argument about Prison the advertisement and commercialisation of these places could revolve around the need for maintenance and therefore funding, for this reason the management style must be different and the location impacts footfall, as afore mentioned, Foley  states emotionally instigated dark tourism is less accessible.

The other side of this argument is dark heritage that is purposeful dark heritage. Lennon and Foley suggested that dark heritage can only be death within living memory and emotional  They construct the argument that dark heritage sites should make you question society. This fits Uzzell’s  “Hot Interpretation”, agreeing with Foley, stating that Dark Heritage begins with immediate response to death, offering immediate place for memorial, agreeing with Lennon and Foley  about the need for emotional response, but only mentions immediate response. Whereas Lennon and Foley argue that only recent sites of death could be dark heritage, linking to global communication increase and awareness of tragedy sooner allowing visitation within the parameters of the “Hot” interpretation easier, for example with Ground Zero.

Live footage of 9/11 was show globally and within hours in some cases people travelled to pay their respects. Per Blair , the event of 9/11 made “Ground Zero” attractive for memorialisation, doubling its visitors. Although, this brings what Vega describes as the “selling of trinkets,” gaudy gifts in poor taste. He  suggests this as a Post-modern phenomenon but the ghoulish onlooker and chancing trader have always appeared at the sites of disaster, as Rhiannon Beacham  divines at one of the worst Welsh mining disasters, Albion Mine, “ghoulish tourists and people who took advantage of that, turning up with barrels of beer to sell". 

Dann’s interpretation of motivation can link here also in his eight motivations include dicing with death, wanting to experience death, for example, Boorstin  alleges that the first British Tourism were trips to executions, the search for novelty, bloodlust and memorialisation, also linking to “Hot interpretation”   

Whereas, “Hot” usually memorialises, this argument surrounds “rubber-necking”, from car accidents to natural disaster, people wish to see carnage, Reader suggests the fascination behind death is more akin to a ghoulish desire rather an emotional outrage, and this has been ignored as a factor. But stemming back to gladiatorial games when bloodlust tourism was more available and death was a spectacle , or when relics of saints  were sold as trinkets or people cut down the royal oak at Boscobel House for souvenirs , which is just as relatable today in Lennon’s description of the exploitation of “tragic history”.  

Within marketed dark tourism memorialisation is the main focus, from war memorials which create Seaton’s entire sub-set, to the educational importance of the holocaust sites. The concentration camps of central Europe are the epitome of Dark heritage, showing the amalgamation of Dann’s motivation list  as many of the motivations lead you to Auschwitz and the darkest form in Stone’s  Spectrum of Supply. 

Auschwitz, a place of education and memorial, appears less morbid fascination fitting the emotional response theory of Lennon and Foley . It is not mass tourism, not on normal tourist routes and it is surrounded by social questioning and moral outrage . Other concentration camps are used to memorialise but politicism has affected how displays are focussed, sites involved in war, as Seaton suggests, tend to be highly politicised by the owning state, particularly the Russian camps. 

Auschwitz can be argued as prioritisng remembrance over historical accuracy, tend towards emphasising absence instilling emotional response, shoes with no feet, clothes with no bodies and seats with no people ,  concentrating on Jewish loss over other losses, showing an example of dissonant heritage . The atrocities and events are exhibited but only enough for general consumption. Auschwitz though, suffers from gratuitous commercialism  including stalls touting souvenirs unlike Dachau which is a more sombre affair with religious memorial and the guilt of the state is apparent. 

This concentration on absence and furthering the feeling of loss is noticed in other memorials including Leipzig, concentrating on where a synagogue congregation would have sat. The reverence visitors feel when at this memorial also shows the rawness of emotion still felt at these sites of dark heritage, no one sits, they just look.

Despite study into the attraction of Dark heritage, the wide range of attractions offer every possible motive somewhere to visit. Stone’s spectrum of supply  shows breadth of variety and Dann’s suggestion of the amalgamation of motives  and Reader’s inference that the darkest motives are being ignored  suggest a need for civility over truth, as confirmed by Lennon and Foley’s need for emotion . However, the enduring fascination with the macabre affirms motivation can be simple curiosity about humanities darkness. To conclude, the attraction to dark heritage, despite its increasing numbers, is a very individual affair . Although, the most all-encompassing suggestion is Dann’s reasoning; pilgrimage, celebration of crime, nostalgia, novelty, fear, dicing with death, sense of identity and bloodlust.