Case Study: The Rise of Dark Tourism

A 2014 article in the The Atlantic,  “The Rise of Dark Tourism, Links to an external site.” profiled the increase in travel to destinations and cities related to war, famine, disease, or other dark cultural phenomena, often in real time.

The article primarily used examples of travel to war-torn areas of the Middle East. For instance, a tour that culminates at the Quneitra Viewpoint allows visitors to watch battles of the Syrian civil war in real time. Tour leaders include a retired Israel Defense Forces colonel who shared that tourists to the area “feel that they are a part of it. They can go home and tell their friends, ‘I was on the border and I saw a battle'” (Kamin, 2014, ¶ 2). Other tours travel to the Israeli border town of Sderot, an area on the Gaza Strip under heavy rocket fire.

According to Philip Stone, director of the Institute for Dark Tourism Research at the U.K.’s University of Central Lancashire, while war tourism is not a new phenomenon, the increased commercialization has marked a new trend. Dark tourism now has a more sophisticated infrastructure than the days when Thomas Cook took visitors to see hangings, and the increase in technology and interpersonal communications has caused this area of tourism to grow at a faster rate (Kamin, 2014).

The article cites media phenomena such as VICE videos (online documentaries) and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain’s show Parts Unknown, as well as the growth of the adventure tourism industry, as contributing factors. They list hyper-extreme tour operators such as War Zone Tours and Wild Frontiers (both in operation since the 1990s) as pioneers of the sector. More recent examples include former journalist Nicholas Wood, who formed Political Tours, a company that takes around a year to plan small-group excursions to political hot spots such as Libya, to the tune of $7,000 per guest (Kamin, 2014).

In addition to group tours, FIT (fully independent travellers) are creating their own extreme experiences, such as joining protestors in Kiev’s Independence Square and visiting Tahrir Square in Egypt to witness the election of Mohammed Morsi (Kamin, 2014).

Travel to North Korea is also a growing market, doubling in size each year with between 6,000 and 7,000 people making the trip in 2013. Some travellers cite their visits to countries and areas such as these with motivating them toward becoming journalists and activists. Others state their experiences are therapeutic, helping them to understand their own difficult experiences or those of others, such as the military service of family members (Kamin, 2014). According to one of these tourists, “You go to the most extreme place in order to not be alone with your feelings. You really can’t be anywhere else but there” (Kamin, 2014, ¶ 25).

Refer to the Institute for Dark Tourism Research Links to an external site. (http://dark-tourism.org.uk) and answer the following questions:

1. Would you classify this type of travel as a trend, or a fad?
2. The article seems to imply that dark tourism is an extension of adventure tourism. Do you agree? Why or why not?
3. How does the concept of authenticity of experience factor into dark tourism?
4. Imagine you are a citizen in a part of the world that is experiencing hardship and this type of tourism is increasing in your community. How might you feel about it?
5. Imagine you go to a famous battlefield where Canadians had fought and died, such as Vimy Ridge the World War I battlefield in France. What are the visitor motivations and what is the outcome of the visitor experience?
6. Would you classify visits to Ground Zero in New York as dark tourism? Why or why not?
7. What are the implications for tourism operators in these areas in terms of risk management and