"From the Alcatraz East Crime Museum and Jack the Ripper guided tours to Phnom Pehn Killing Fields, ‘dark tourism’ is now a multi-million-pound global industry. Even in the most pleasant tourist destinations, underlying harms are constantly perpetuated, affecting both consumers and those who work or live around such tourist hotspots. Highlighting 50 travel destinations across six continents, expert criminologists, psychologists and historians explore the past and contemporary issues which we often disregard during our everyday leisure."
Are you a dark tourist? I think most of us would either answer ‘no’ or question the term. What is dark tourism, after all?
Do you have an interest in true crime? Do you find yourself glued to TV dramas or documentaries depicting real criminal investigations and crimes? Have you ever visited a war museum or a memorial, enjoyed a tour of the site of a criminal occurrence or even visited the Tower of London? If so, you may well be a potential ‘dark tourist’.
Although five million visitors a year visit the 9/11 memorial in New York, not all ‘dark destinations’ are so popular. Many are off the beaten track and difficult to access. Have you been to Auschwitz or to the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam? Perhaps, the battlefields of Normandy? Dark tourism comes in a wide variety of forms, from areas of natural disaster through to battlefields and scenes of notorious crimes.
50 Dark Destinations is a study of crimes and their links to contemporary tourism where noted academics and criminologists assess a wide range of locations and discuss what it is about them that appeals to us, the public who visit in such great numbers.
This is a fascinating and informative read. It contains a plethora of stories, some well-known, some less so, but all are covered with aplomb. A highly recommended read.
| Primary Genre | Travel |
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