Dark tourism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dark tourism or Grief tourism is tourism involving travel to sites associated with death and suffering. Thanatourism,^[1] derived from the Ancient Greek word thanatos for the personification of death, is associated with dark tourism but refers more specifically to violent death; it is used in fewer contexts than the terms dark tourism and grief tourism.

This includes sites of pilgrimage such the site of St Peter’s death in Rome; castles and battlefields such as Culloden near Inverness, Scotland; sites of disaster, either natural or man made such as Ground Zero in New York; prisons now open to the public such as Beaumaris Prison in Anglesey, Wales; and purpose built centers such as the London Dungeon.

One of the most notorious destinations for dark tourism is the Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz in Poland.

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• "What is dark tourism?", The Guardian special feature.
• Dark Tourism: Understanding Visitor Motivation at Sites of Death and Disaster (2003), by Stephanie Marie Yuill, Texas A&M.
• Dark Tourism Forum
• Grief tourism blog

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