Page 28 - Dark Shades of Istria
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Dark Tourism Theory and Discourse
234). There is one more thing that must be highlighted here. Light (2017,
p. 282) identified the similarities in definitions, and classified them into
groups:
• those based on practices of visiting particular types of places, i.e.
Foley and Lennon (1997, p. 155), Tarlow (2005, p. 48), Preece and
Price (2005, p. 192), Stone (2006, p. 146), Robb (2009, p. 51);
• those based on tourism in particular types of places, i.e. Foley and
Lennon (1996, p. 198), Lennon and Foley (1999, p. 46);
• those based on a form of experience, i.e. Ashworth (2008, p. 234),
Stone (2016, p. 23).
The term dark tourism is not the only term to define the tourism-death
connection. One of the more recognised ones is thanatourism. As this
chapter does not wish to enter into a debate over the terms, but rather
acknowledge a commonly accepted general meaning of the term, as ap-
plied to tourism, only two definitions of thanatourism will be presented.
Seaton’s (1996, p. 240) from the mid-1990s was one of the first, where
thanatourism was defined as ‘travel to a location wholly, or partially, mo-
tivated by the desire for actual or symbolic encounters with death, partic-
ularly, but not exclusively, violent death,’ while Dann and Seaton (2001, p.
24) defined it as ‘heritage staged around attractions and sites associated
with death, acts of violence, scenes of disaster and crimes against human-
ity.’ Besides thanatourism and dark tourism, many other terms were de-
tected. As early as in the late 1980s, O’Rourke (1988) wrote about visit-
ing (post) conflict areas like Lebanon, Nicaragua, and Belfast (Northern
Ireland), and referred to them as holidays in hell. ‘Morbid tourism’ and
an ‘attraction-focused artificial morbidity-related tourism’ (Blom, 2000),
‘sombre tourism’ (Butcher, 2003; Hughes, 2008), ‘fright tourism’ (Bristow
& Newman, 2005), ‘atrocity tourism’ (Ashworth & Hartmann, 2005b),
‘grief tourism’ (Dunkley et al., 2007), ‘conflict heritage tourism’ (Mans-
feld & Korman, 2015), ‘genocide tourism’ (Dunkley et al., 2007), ‘trauma
tourism’ (Clark, 2006), ‘war-related tourism’ (Bigley et al., 2010), ‘post-
war tourism’ (Wise, 2011), ‘war tourism’ (Keyes, 2012), ‘warfare tourism’
(Šuligoj, 2016), ‘battlefield tourism’ (Dunkley et al., 2011; Ryan, 2007),
‘tourism of memory’ (Hertzog, 2012), ‘memorial tourism’ (Drvenkar et
al., 2015), or ‘memorable tourism’ (Kim, 2013) and others are just ad-
ditional detected terms related to the connection between tourism and
death, which are not fully synonyms. An interesting discussion about this
heterogeneity was made by González Vázquez (2018). Interestingly, at the
28
234). There is one more thing that must be highlighted here. Light (2017,
p. 282) identified the similarities in definitions, and classified them into
groups:
• those based on practices of visiting particular types of places, i.e.
Foley and Lennon (1997, p. 155), Tarlow (2005, p. 48), Preece and
Price (2005, p. 192), Stone (2006, p. 146), Robb (2009, p. 51);
• those based on tourism in particular types of places, i.e. Foley and
Lennon (1996, p. 198), Lennon and Foley (1999, p. 46);
• those based on a form of experience, i.e. Ashworth (2008, p. 234),
Stone (2016, p. 23).
The term dark tourism is not the only term to define the tourism-death
connection. One of the more recognised ones is thanatourism. As this
chapter does not wish to enter into a debate over the terms, but rather
acknowledge a commonly accepted general meaning of the term, as ap-
plied to tourism, only two definitions of thanatourism will be presented.
Seaton’s (1996, p. 240) from the mid-1990s was one of the first, where
thanatourism was defined as ‘travel to a location wholly, or partially, mo-
tivated by the desire for actual or symbolic encounters with death, partic-
ularly, but not exclusively, violent death,’ while Dann and Seaton (2001, p.
24) defined it as ‘heritage staged around attractions and sites associated
with death, acts of violence, scenes of disaster and crimes against human-
ity.’ Besides thanatourism and dark tourism, many other terms were de-
tected. As early as in the late 1980s, O’Rourke (1988) wrote about visit-
ing (post) conflict areas like Lebanon, Nicaragua, and Belfast (Northern
Ireland), and referred to them as holidays in hell. ‘Morbid tourism’ and
an ‘attraction-focused artificial morbidity-related tourism’ (Blom, 2000),
‘sombre tourism’ (Butcher, 2003; Hughes, 2008), ‘fright tourism’ (Bristow
& Newman, 2005), ‘atrocity tourism’ (Ashworth & Hartmann, 2005b),
‘grief tourism’ (Dunkley et al., 2007), ‘conflict heritage tourism’ (Mans-
feld & Korman, 2015), ‘genocide tourism’ (Dunkley et al., 2007), ‘trauma
tourism’ (Clark, 2006), ‘war-related tourism’ (Bigley et al., 2010), ‘post-
war tourism’ (Wise, 2011), ‘war tourism’ (Keyes, 2012), ‘warfare tourism’
(Šuligoj, 2016), ‘battlefield tourism’ (Dunkley et al., 2011; Ryan, 2007),
‘tourism of memory’ (Hertzog, 2012), ‘memorial tourism’ (Drvenkar et
al., 2015), or ‘memorable tourism’ (Kim, 2013) and others are just ad-
ditional detected terms related to the connection between tourism and
death, which are not fully synonyms. An interesting discussion about this
heterogeneity was made by González Vázquez (2018). Interestingly, at the
28
