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Articles on Dark tourism

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A participant of the ‘Stokerland’ event in Dublin, in front of St Patrick’s Cathedral, goes the extra mile, with an ornate costume and even stilts. Luisa Golz

Gothic getaways: the rise and evolution of ‘dark tourism’ festivals

A recent addition to the “spooky” calendar of events are Gothic festivals, inspired by Gothic literature classics such as “Dracula”.
The ruins of Nepal’s Gorkha district after the 2015 earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people and injured 22,000. Tourism helped lead the way back. EU/ECHO/Pierre Prakash

Holidaying in a disaster zone isn’t as crazy as it might seem

It isn’t always good advice for tourists to stay away. Often their money can help, as well as their skills.
Is it ethical to use former prisons, with long histories of death, suffering and wrongful incarcerations, as entertainment venues? Rockin' the Big House

A prison is no place for a party

What does it mean to hold a party in a place with a long history of death and suffering?
African diasporans visit forts and castles in Ghana as the material embodiment of death, violence and subjugation during the slave trade. Supplied

Ghana’s Year of Return 2019: traveler, tourist or pilgrim?

For Africans and diasporans, learning about their heritage is important. But it remains to be seen how this will translate into a sustained continental and diasporan engagement.
A tourist photographs the stupa of human remains at Choeung Ek Genocidal Center. Caroline Bennett

Dark tourism: why atrocity tourism is neither new nor weird

A new Netflix series focusing on tourism to sites of historic disasters or atrocities delivers no more than a contemporary version of a freak show.
Students at Ponar Forest in Lithuania, where Nazis massacred many Jews. Daniel B. Bitran

Why tourists go to sites associated with death and suffering

In recent years, the number of people traveling to sites of death, natural disaster, acts of violence, tragedy and crimes against humanity has dramatically increased. Is it immoral?
The so-called ‘prison tree’: over time, myth has coalesced into a ‘fact’ for which there is no evidence. Author provided

Dark tourism, Aboriginal imprisonment and the ‘prison tree’ that wasn’t

There is no evidence to support the marketing of an ancient boab in Western Australia as a tree that once held Aboriginal prisoners. The story is a myth that elides the tree’s deep significance to Indigenous people.

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