Haunting Dark Tourism Destinations for Dark History Lovers

Dark Tourism Matters

Dark tourism isn’t just about the worst aspect of life, it’s about society’s reaction to it. The horrors of the Holocaust, slavery, homicide are beyond words. Murders and accidents are painful. Dark tourism educates visitors about what happened and how to prevent it from happening again. Visitors learn how to help and advocate to make things better. Some communities don’t want to be known for dark tourism, but hiding a local tragedy doesn’t work.

People visit tragedy sites anyway, even without a curated experience, but this lacks the context and educational element. Dark tourism is a vital part of learning and changing things for the better. It can share, spirituality, and cultural traditions. And in the cases of haunted houses, can just be a fun way to draw in tourism dollars. Whatever the purpose of the dark tourism site, it is an important part of our culture and history.

Where did we find this stuff?

A Dark Tourism Spectrum:  Towards a typology of death and macabre related tourist sites, attractions and exhibitions. Stone, Philip (2006).  Tourism: An Interdisciplinary International Journal, 54 (2), pp. 145-160.

An unforgettable history: The slave castles of Ghana.  Alexandra Yingst, Discover SilverSea.  17 March 2021.

Andersonville Prison, Andersonville, Georgia.  (n.a.) American Battlefield Trust, (n.d.)

Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940 – 1945). UNESCO. Unesco.org (n.d.)

Bridget Bishop.  Prof. Douglas O. Linder, UMKC School of Law, Famous Trials.  (n.d.).

Cape Coast Castle (n.a.) Slavery and Remembrance. (n.d.)

Chacabuco: Chile’s eerie ghost town.  “Kelli”.  The Vanabond Tales.  23 November 2021.

Dark tourism as educational tourism: The case of ‘hope tourism in Fukushima, Japan.  Kyunjaoe Jang, Kengo Sakamoto, Caroline Funk, Journal of Heritage Tourism (2021), 16(4), pp. 481 – 492.

 ‘Dark’ Tourists Prefer the Gloomy and Macabre.  Maria Cramer, New York Times, 28 October 2022.

Dracula’s Castle, Transylvania, Romania: Grisly Tales. (n.a.) Exploring Castles, n.d.)

The five worst nuclear disasters in history.  (n.a.) Process Industry Forum (n.d.)

Former M-13 prison/Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (former S-21) Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre (former execution site of S-21).  UNESCO, unesco.org, (n.d.)

Ghana’s slave castles: The shocking story of the Ghanian Cape Coast.  Lilian Diarra, theculturetrip.com

The Gruesome Story of the Unsolved Villisca Axe Murders.  Katie Serena.  All That’s Interesting, 1 September 2022.

History’s 5 Worst Nuclear Disasters.  Jennie Cohen, History.com. 15 December 2022.

Lizzie Borden: A Woman Accused (video).  History Vault (1996).

Prisoner Camp, “Chacabuco.”  (n.a.). Memoria Viva (n.d.)

The UK’s deadliest garden.  Chris Griffiths, bbc.com, 5 August 2022.

What the 9/11 museum remembers, and what it forgets.  Emily Witt.  The New Yorker, 9 September 2021.