Crime and tourism: organizational opportunities and social marketing in LA Gang Tours

Existing investigation on tourism and crime has indicated a negative relation between these two concepts where crime appears as an influential factor in limiting tourist flows. Albeit tourists have repeatedly reported the importance of safety in their travels, this paper presents a paradoxically positive relation between tourism and present crime, where gang culture is the main attraction of the visit. This case study is focused on ‘LA Gang Tours’, a non-profit organization and its use of social marketing in the re-interpretation of an organization threat to an opportunity in Los Angeles, the ‘gang capital of the world’. For this purpose, I have applied conceptual content analysis of online data referring to this touristic attraction.