Investigating the motivation–experience relationship in a dark tourism space: A case study of the Beichuan earthquake relics,China

This study identifies implications of dark tourism and describes how tourists and destinations, which are principal collateral cores, define what constitutes “dark” travel. The study also examines the dimensions of dark tourism motivation and experience and finds that the former partly affects the latter. The exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis aimed to examine why tourists approach and engage with disaster sites and how such experiences may affect tourists motivation and emotional reaction. It is the first paper that applies structural equation modelling to dark tourism research. We focus on the causal relationships between dimensions of motivation and experience, and the relationship that the emotional reactions effect on tourist experiences. We find that the curious visitors are likely to engage cognitively by learning about the incident or related issues and tourists' emotional reaction to the “dark” space influence more heavily emotional tourist experiences than cognitive experiences do.     

Benefits of visiting a ‘dark tourism’ site: The case of the Jeju April 3rd Peace Park, Korea

This research examines visitor experiences at a contemporary dark tourism site: the April 3rd Peace Park on Jeju Island, South Korea, a site commemorating and memorializing one of the most destructive episodes in modern Korean history. The study employed quantitative and qualitative research methods, with 46 semi-structured interviews forming the basis of a questionnaire, and 407 valid questionnaires obtained for data analysis. The implications of the findings are firstly that ‘obligation’ remains a key motivation for a visit, with a number of subsequent visitor benefits also identified. Secondly, that a benefit-based approach provides an effective framework for comprehending visitor experiences in dark tourism contexts. And thirdly, that a ‘hot interpretation’ of visitor experiences in dark tourism contexts remains particularly valid for comprehending visitor experiences, and in turn, for effectively designing and managing dark tourism sites within Asia and more generally.     

暗夜星空旅游研究进展——基于2001—2021年英文文献的综述

近几年中国星空旅游市场快速崛起,然而国内学术界对这一旅游新业态的研究明显不足。本文采用传统的文献分析方法,对国际暗夜星空旅游的发展脉络与研究进展进行了系统梳理。研究发现：（1）在全球暗夜保护运动的推动下,星空的旅游价值得到发掘,暗夜星空体验项目在西方国家已趋于成熟;（2）国际暗夜星空旅游的实证研究于2011年起步,文献数量持续上升,质性研究与量化研究同步发展,但研究主要集中在欧洲和北美等发达国家和地区;（3）通过分析与对比天文旅游,本文界定了暗夜星空旅游的概念并探讨了暗夜星空旅游的主要特征;（4）国际暗夜星空旅游研究主要集中在光污染测量与暗夜星空旅游发展、暗夜星空旅游发展效益、暗夜星空旅游体验及其影响、暗夜星空目的地的旅游发展4个方面。对于正处在萌芽成长期的中国星空旅游而言,国际研究成果为此旅游新业态的发展与管理提供了一定的理论基础,同时也促进国内学者结合本土暗夜星空旅游市场展开具体的实证研究,逐渐建立暗夜星空旅游研究的中西对话。     

国外黑色旅游研究综述

黑色旅游是近年来国外,特别是欧美地区旅游学界新兴的热点研究领域,也是一个颇具争议的领域.文章对国外有关黑色旅游的文献进行梳理,认为黑色旅游的概念界定、黑色旅游者行为特征、黑色旅游展示和历史原真性的争议、黑色旅游的影响是国外黑色旅游研究的4大主题,并对每一个主题进行了总结.     

‘It’s not that we like death or anything’: exploring the motivations and experiences of visitors to a lighter dark tourism attraction

This paper explores motives for visiting a lightest dark (heritage) tourism attraction. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 24 visitors to the London Dungeon. Few visitors reported an interest in death, suffering or the macabre as important in their decision to visit, a finding which accords with research at a range of other types of darker places. Instead, most people visited from general or incidental reasons that were unrelated to the attraction’s theme. However, while few visitors stated that an interest in learning was important in their reason for visiting, many reported that an element of informal education and discovery was an important part of the visit experience. As such, lighter dark tourism is about more than entertainment and the London Dungeon offers opportunities for visitors to engage with the themes and stories in a deeper way. Overall, these findings suggest that lightest dark tourism has more in common with heritage tourism than at first appears.     

Dark tourism,thanatourism, and dissonance in heritage tourism management: new directions in contemporary tourism research

This research note focuses on tourism to heritage sites with a controversial history and sites associated with death, disaster, and the macabre. Several new concepts and research directions have emerged in the study of such sites. Particular attention is given to the dark tourism and thanatourism approaches as well as to an analysis of dissonance in the management of heritage sites. Further, changes at places with a shadowed past are examined in the context of a revived geography of memory. There is a continued interest of the traveling public in revisiting war and peace memorials. In the final part of the research note examples of a new perspective on places of pain and shame are introduced.     

Battlefield sites as dark tourism attractions: an analysis of experience

There has been much discussion by scholars about the efficacy of the term ‘dark tourism’ with a call to move from a theoretical to a more evidence-based approach to research. Recent analyses of dark heritage sites have shown that research has yet to engage fully with the experiences of tourists at dark sites. This paper seeks to meet this challenge by providing more evidence of the actual experiences of tourists at those sites which are conceptually identified as ‘dark’ using the particular example of battlefields in the UK. Based on a wide-ranging survey of battlefield sites the study used a blend of quantitative and qualitative methods to determine the nature of tourist experience. Central to this was a content analysis of visitor comments and vocabulary used to describe the sites. The results showed that visitors had a wide range of experiences but there was no evidence of a considered appreciation of the sites’ ‘darker’ aspects. Visitor experience here is casual and dominated by a lighter set of values. This is affected by the commercial nature of the sites which supports the assertion that thanatopsis is a rare feature of tourist visits.     

Domestic tourists to Elmina Castle,Ghana: motivation,tourism impacts,place attachment,and satisfaction

Abstract

Current research on dark tourism lacks an in-depth investigation of the relationships between the various psychological factors that influence tourist satisfaction. Using the cognitive-affective-behavior system, this paper evaluates a theoretical model that postulates relationships between four constructs, namely: motivation, perceptions of tourism impacts, place attachment, and satisfaction. The study extends the tourism literature on cultural sustainability by showing the psychological connections of domestic tourists to a dark heritage site, and the implications for perceptions of tourism impacts on this heritage. Based on a sample of 414 domestic tourists at a dark heritage site in Elmina, Ghana, PLS-SEM confirmed several inter-relationships among the four constructs. Motivation had a positive relationship with perceptions of positive and negative tourism impacts, suggesting that the tourists who were more motivated to visit the site for cultural/learning experiences were also more inclined to perceive both positive and negative tourism impacts. Implications for dark tourism and how heritage site management can influence tourists’ perceptions of impacts are offered.     

Progress in dark tourism and thanatourism research: An uneasy relationship with heritage tourism

This paper reviews academic research into dark tourism and thanatourism over the 1996–2016 period. The aims of this paper are threefold. First, it reviews the evolution of the concepts of dark tourism and thanatourism, highlighting similarities and differences between them. Second it evaluates progress in 6 key themes and debates. These are: issues of the definition and scope of the concepts; ethical issues associated with such forms of tourism; the political and ideological dimensions of dark tourism and thanatourism; the nature of demand for places of death and suffering; the management of such places; and the methods of research used for investigating such tourism. Third, research gaps and issues that demand fuller scrutiny are identified. The paper argues that two decades of research have not convincingly demonstrated that dark tourism and thanatourism are distinct forms of tourism, and in many ways they appear to be little different from heritage tourism.     

黑色叙事对旅游目的地引致形象的影响机制

"讲好故事"已成为塑造和传播国家和地方形象的重要手段。以"讲故事"为手段打造旅游目的地形象是一种国际通行的旅游目的地营销方式。现有旅游目的地叙事研究开展还很不充分,关注的叙事偏重于正面叙事材料,对负面叙事的关注还很不够。文章着眼于黑色叙事对旅游目的地引致形象的影响机制,以德国首都柏林作为研究案例,以著名历史游记《柏林:一座城市的肖像》(Berlin:Imagine a City)中关于柏林的系列黑色叙事和柏林旅游局在微信公众号发布的图片作为实验材料,通过招募志愿者参与包括4个阶段的混合研究设计,验证黑色叙事对柏林旅游目的地形象(认知、情感及意动)的复杂影响。研究的主要理论贡献在于:首先,验证了黑色叙事对旅游目的地形象具有显著影响,实证该影响主要透过"叙事主角-游客-自我形象一致性"这一主线发挥作用,明确了黑色叙事主角形象对黑色叙事引致旅游目的地形象的影响机理,丰富了叙事传输理论相关结论。其次,验证了黑色叙事引致情感形象在黑色叙事影响旅游目的地形象过程中的影响效应,发现黑色叙事引致情感形象(而非认知形象)是黑色叙事最终能够影响游客动机的关键。最后,在黑色叙事这一特定研究情境中,验证了目的地认知形象对"情感形象影响意动形象"具有"增强调节效应",丰富了现有旅游目的地形象"认知-情感-意动"三联结构理论。文章在此基础上提供了相应的管理和营销建议。     

Exploring sub-dimensions of intrapersonal constraints to visiting “dark tourism” sites: a comparison of participants and non-participants

Previous studies have focused on exploring why people seek out sites of death, whereas little is known about why they do not visit or revisit such sites. This paper aims to fill this gap by exploring the inner constraints on visiting the darkest edge of the dark tourism spectrum among both participants (N?=?460) and non-participants (N?=?275). By identifying four sub-dimensions of intrapersonal constraints in the context of dark tourism (i.e., traumatic memory, emotions of fear and depression, taboos and cultural ideas and lack of interest), an extension of a leisure constraints framework was created. The findings move beyond the prior studies on tourism constraints, which solely measure intrapersonal constraints as an overall construct, and thus explain the non-homogeneity of this construct. This study also contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how non-participants differ from dark tourists on the psychological constraints of visiting sites of death.     

儿童旅游认知的探索性研究

儿童参与的旅游,无论是"以乐为中心"的家庭旅游模式,抑或"以儿童为中心"的亲子旅游模式,均具有鲜明的成人主义性质。文章试图从儿童的视角/声音对儿童旅游认知进行探索性研究,核心命题聚焦儿童如何定义旅游,旅游与游戏/玩有什么区别,旅游之于儿童的价值和意义是什么,旅游的"儿童版本"与"成人版本"之间存在哪些差异。研究方法采用结构化的妈妈语式访谈法,研究案例地为南京市红山森林动物园和玄武湖公园,研究对象主要为4岁以上、12岁以下儿童(幼儿园和小学阶段儿童)。研究结果显示:(1)"小小人类"远超成人的想象,多数儿童能够通过空间、速度、数量、比较、因果、抽象、逻辑以及感觉、情感类语言来描述旅游、认知旅游",旅游感"十足。(2)从家庭环境、学校环境变换到旅游环境,儿童旅游认知呈现出4个鲜明的主题,分别是旅游与"玩"、旅游与"爸爸妈妈"、旅游与"学习""、喜欢"与"不喜欢"。(3)旅游是比"玩""更好玩"的游戏,是和爸爸妈妈一起、离开家、去外面不一样的地方、开心尽情地玩。理解旅游的"儿童版本"将会丰富旅游学的研究内容,同样有助于回答旅游的"成人版本"。儿童研究具有趣味性,研究者需要具有童心。妈妈语式访谈法是研究早期、中期儿童相对有效的方法,但需严格遵循儿童研究伦理和实施要领。     

Self-care for the researcher: dark tourism in Varanasi,India

ABSTRACT

Dark tourism is a popular niche of tourism that allows tourists to come into close proximity with death, atrocity, and the macabre, and therefore has the potential to be an emotional and even traumatic encounter for tourists. While this context has inspired tourism researchers to investigate dark tourists’ motivations, as well as the marketing and representation of dark tourism sites, we have yet to attend to its implications for the researcher. This paper analyzes the emotional experiences and aftermath of fieldwork at the cremation grounds of Varanasi, India, which involved working closely with tourists, Doms, and Aghoris by focusing on the relations of reflexivity, positionality, and emotionality. As a result, we suggest a number of reflexive and self-care practices to be put into place so as to attend to the researchers’ emotional well-being in the fieldwork process.     

Corrigendum to “Dark tourism,abjection and blood: A festival context” [Tourism Management 64 (2018) 346–356]

Dark tourism and its implications have been gaining significant prominence in both the literature and in practice in recent years. Moving conceptualizations of dark tourism forward, we utilize the interpretative phenomenological frame to investigate the interrelationships between tourism and current conditions of society. We do this by qualitatively studying tourists' experiences while in the process of attending dark tourism oriented music festivals that prominently feature direct confrontation with abjection. Our findings indicate that these abjection-oriented festivals allow tourists to encounter blood, animal corpses and other death elements in a ritual-like context within the confines of a transitory space. Ultimately, our research reveals how dark tourism festivals featuring abjection can allow some tourists to feel closer to actual death.     

Managing ghosts: exploring local government involvement in dark tourism

In the growing discussion of dark tourism, attention has focused on dark tourism theory, interpretation of tragic events, management of dark tourist sites, and visitor motivations. The local government component, however, has been overlooked in this field of study. Fame from notorious events often transfers to the city where it happened, sometimes sharing a name (the Amityville Horror, the Villisca Axe Murders, Auschwitz) whether the community likes it or not. This fame transfer creates a shared city ‘ghost’ lingering in its shadows, but draws curiosity seekers from around the globe. This study presents factors local governments should consider as they examine their role in dark tourism, including planning for site management, consideration of the safety of, and services provided to, their citizens, examination of potential economic benefits, and most importantly, to ensure that they have a voice in the stewardship of their history.     

Consuming dark tourism: A Thanatological Perspective

Despite increasing academic attention paid to dark tourism, understanding of the concept remains limited, particularly from a consumption perspective. That is, the literature focuses primarily on the supply of dark tourism; less attention, however, has been paid to the demand for ‘dark’ touristic experiences. This theoretical paper seeks to address this gap in the literature. Drawing upon the contemporary sociology of death, it explores the relationship between socio-cultural perspectives on mortality and the potential of dark tourism as a means of confronting death in modern societies. In so doing, it proposes a model of dark tourism consumption within a thanatological framework as a basis for further theoretical and empirical analysis of dark tourism.     

Rethinking slavery heritage tourism

This paper argues that the investigation of slavery heritage within a ‘thana’- or ‘dark’ tourism framework invariably fails to appreciate the subtleties, power relationships and various contestations that are at play in both the presentation and consumption of former Transatlantic Slave Trade (TAST) sites. Instead, the authors argue that a combination of Halbwachs’ collective memory theory and Tunbridge and Ashworth's concept of dissonant heritage can provide a deeper understanding of tourism linked to such sites. A study of TAST sites in Ghana identified six key groups of stakeholders involved in the interpretation of slavery heritage, each with its own agenda, desire to remember or forget slave memories and desire to compose different narratives. By analysing collective slave memories, the study proposes a framework that demonstrates that tourism to TAST-related sites is complex and nuanced because it relates to the nature of the historic event itself, intrinsic qualities of TAST-related sites in terms of current relevance and the closeness of the event or site to each stakeholder.     

Analyzing Non-Participation in Domestic Tourism: a Combined Framework

Non-tourists comprise a large potential market, but are rarely studied in research. This paper aims to examine the reasons behind the non-participation of individuals in domestic tourism through a proposed combined framework which incorporates concepts presented in the psychological continuum model and constraint negotiation model from the field of sports and leisure respectively. Data were analyzed using binary logit regression and comparative analysis. The findings indicate that tourism cognition/awareness, tourism affection/interest, and tourism behavior intention, have a significant effect on the non-participation of individuals in domestic tourism while intrapersonal and economic constraints are regarded as the most difficult constraints to be negotiated by non-tourists.     

‘From the Flames to the Light’: 100 years of the commodification of the dark tourist site around the Verdun battlefield

In order to contribute to research on dark tourism, this article details the process of commodification of a dark site by adopting a supply approach. We empirically apply the dark tourism spectrum (Stone, 2006) to the battlefield of Verdun in France from 1916 to 2016. In doing so, we shed light on the relationship between the temporal distance from the tragic event and potential economic exploitation. Our findings reveal that commodification is possible from the very creation of the site and becomes more complex as temporal distance increases, notably due to the multiplicity of stakeholders and their incompatible interests. Our results contribute to the improvement of the dark spectrum; we add the stakeholders' structure as a new and dynamic attribute.     

Tourism in South America

Summary

This article introduces a collection of eight revised papers that focus on the connection between slavery and tourism. After tracing the history of the former from its origins to the present day, and after providing some examples of related attractions, it confronts a number of dilemmas associated with their juxtaposition. A brief overview of the contributions to the volume is supplied, along with some epistemological and methodological concerns that they raise. Slavery tourism is finally contextualized within a framework of thanatourism, dark tourism and dissonant heritage, a field which in turn poses several questions for further research into this new and exciting phenomenon.