Dark Tourism:

What is Dark Tourism? Dark Tourism is tourism that involves travelling to places that are associated with suffering and death.

A few years ago, I read a book called the Dark Tourist by Dom Joly. This book was absolutely fascinating to me because I had never opened my eyes to any places other than Spain, Wales and Lanzarote for a holiday. I thought that travel was supposed to be all about a sun or ski holiday. But the Dark Tourist showed me that there are other, slightly darker options.

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The Dark Tourist brought me to some unusual places – the Killing Fields of Cambodia, Chernobyl in the Ukraine and Auschwitz in Poland. But I’m not here to write a book review. I’m here to write about the geography of Dark Tourism.

There is an Institute for Dark Tourism Research (IDTR) in the University of Lancashire led by Dr Phillip Stone. Along with other academic and medial interest in the subject of Dark Tourism, the phenomenon has become very popular and well known.

Dark tourism is also known as thanatourism. The two phrases mean the exact same thing. Thanatourism comes from the Greek word for death – Thanatos, and thanatourism means travelling to places that are associated with death and suffering.

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Some dark destinations you might never have considered to be ‘dark’. Pompeii could be one of those. The eruption of Mount Etna occurred so long ago that I think we feel detached to it, because none of us have a personal connection to it like we do with 9-11 or the Holocaust. In fact, some people even see the city of Pompeii as a place of beauty – with Roman architecture and history, it is an ancient civilisation frozen in time. If it weren’t for science and historic records, that is what I would see the place as. However, because Pompeii is a place associated with the death and suffering of thousands because a nearby volcano destroyed the town, I do not.

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Other places you probably most definitely associated with Dark Tourism. One of those is Auschwitz-Birkenau – a disused concentration camp in Oświęcim, Poland. Up to 1,000,000 victims of the Nazis were killed there (there are no actual records). That is one sixth of Jewish extermination camp casualties in World War II.

Medical experiments like injecting women’s uteruses with chemicals in an effort to seal them off and prevent reproduction or using x-rays to try to sterilize Jews took place in Auschwitz. Now, many people go to Auschwitz for a tour. There is a rumour that birds do not sing when they are in the camp.

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Some cemeteries are considered to be dark tourism sites because of who is buried there. One of such places in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France. Famous and rich people such as Edith Piaf, Oscar Wild, Frederic Chopin and Jim Morrison are buried there.

Old gaols are also considered to be places of dark tourism. In Wicklow, Wicklow Gaol provides a spooky tour through the unused prison with actors in old clothing, creepy wax figures and damp, old classrooms where child prisoners were taught. You can visit the cells and see where people were executed. Melbourne Gaol in Australia is also considered a dark destination. This was the place for 135 executions and happens to be one of the most popular tourist activities in Melbourne.

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You may have noticed that nearly all of the places I have mentioned are to do with history. It’s true that most places with Dark Tourism are to do with their past. Most of the destinations are not still associated with present day pain, death and suffering.

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However, there are always exceptions to a rule. The whole country of North Korea is considered to be part of Dark  Tourism. This is due to the secrecy that surrounds the country and the rumours that have risen due to the privacy of North Korea. Concentration Camps, lovingly named with just numbers are one of the rumours. These camps are allegedly where whole families of comrades of DPR Korea, and their grandchildren’s grandchildren are locked away for life. Starved, beaten and tortured they only know suffering for their entire lives. Many people say this is to show the other people in North Korea a lesson.

Along with dark tourism, there are other types of ‘unusual’ tourism. Slum tourism involves visiting poor areas like the favelas of Brazilian cities or the slums of Mumbai. In the 19^th century, Manhattan and London were popular. Originally, people wanted to see ‘how the other half lives.’ In the 1980s, black people in South Africa organised tours for whites from the government to see how they were being treated.

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Another type of deathly tourism is war tourism. This is when you visit a war site for recreational purposes. Disaster tourism is when you visit a place where a disaster, such as an earthquake has occurred to quench your curiosity.

Some people do not specifically go on dark tourism holidays. Often, people mix in a day of visiting a dark place with the rest of their holiday. An example of this would be in Chernobyl. Due to the radioactivity in the area, you can only stay for a few hours. However, with travel that ends up being a whole day of your holiday.

Dark tourism can also be dangerous. Like I mentioned above, you can go to nuclear sites or to areas with strict governments that could imprison you like North Korea. Recently, a journalist was imprisoned in North Korea who was working for a cable show.