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Have we illuminated the dark? Shifting perspectives on dark tourism

It is almost 20 years since the idea of dark tourism was introduced into tourism studies, which was still predominantly viewed as a fun-based activity with a potential for a beneficent cross-cultural understanding. The suggestion that it could have dark attributes was both novel and shocking. Once introduced, the idea offered new insights into the tourist experience. It promised to open up new connections with many facets of human sensation and behaviour and also an intellectual framework to assist the management of multi-used tourism sites. This paper will examine the promise of the idea as it evolved through the work of numerous scholars who developed and refined the concept and discovered new applications for it and will explain how the focus, which initially was to identify and catalogue dark sites, has shifted towards the motivation, subsequent experience and consequent behaviour of the tourist in relation to the sites.

Consuming dark sites via street art : murals at Chernobyl.

This paper aims to extend dark tourism scholarship concerned with existential aspects of the human nature and the power of ‘dark places’ to provoke our thinking about the meaning and purpose of human existence. Our main focus is on the artistic expressions in the form of murals that have emerged in the years following the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, questioning the significance and meanings they have for the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, in the context of tourists' perceptions and, more generally, in the context of our being in the world. To that end, we deconstruct the tourist experience of dark sites through knitting together dark tourism, existentialism and street art.

Sustainable tourism, happiness & dark tourism

Reconceptualizing the dark ride experience using first-hand experience: Including the visitor's perspective

Dark rides embody a noteworthy phenomenon in theme park destinations and beyond, serving as a textbook example of structured experiences. They therefore offer valuable insights for knowledge development on structured experiences in the broader realm of tourism and leisure experiences. Despite various conceptualizations of the dark ride experience, the visitor's perspective has been largely overseen. Through qualitative interviews we explored 16 distinct dark rides, unveiling key constituent components of their experience and identifying contributing factors. Results indicate that dark rides are primarily appreciated for their ability to generate here-and-now experiences, characterized by imagery, imagery-based states, and emotions. However, visitors may inadvertently shift their focus to internal thoughts and cognitions based on motivation, opportunity, and ability-related switch factors, risking mental disengagement.

Dark tourism/ leisure experiences

A new approach to understanding tourism practices

In spite of renewed attention for practices in tourism studies, the analysis of practices is often isolated from theories of practice. This theoretical paper identifies the main strands of practice theory and their relevance and application to tourism research, and develops a new approach to applying practice theory in the study of tourism participation. We propose a conceptual model of tourism practices based on the work of Collins (2004), which emphasises the role of rituals in generating emotional responses. This integrated approach can focus on individuals interacting in groups, as well as explaining why people join and leave specific practices. Charting the shifting of individuals between practices could help to illuminate the dynamics and complexity of tourism systems.