Page 33 - Dark Shades of Istria
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2.2 Dark Tourism Typology
• genocide tourism: visiting places of genocide, e.g. in Rwanda, Cam-
bodia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and suchlike;
• prison tourism: visiting former jails and prisons;
• communism tourism in the current and former communist coun-
tries;
• Cold War and Iron Curtain tourism: visiting traces and remains of
the Berlin Wall;
• disaster area tourism: visiting places of natural disaster;
• nuclear tourism: visiting sites of civil nuclear disaster;
• murderers and murderous places tourism, i.e. Jack the Ripper in Lon-
don, Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas;
• slum tourism in developing and underdeveloped countries;
• terrorist tourism: visiting areas like Ground Zero in New York City,
the Boston Marathon route;
• paranormal tourism: visiting crop circles, u f o sightings, haunted
houses;
• witches tourism, e.g. visiting the city of Salem in Massachusetts;
• accident tourism, e.g. visiting places such as the Paris tunnel Pont de
l’Alma;
• icky medical tourism, e.g. visiting Josephinum, the medical museum
with anatomical wax models in Vienna;
• dark amusement tourism: visiting amusement parks, e.g. the Dun-
geons exhibitions in London, the Dracula theme park.
Some of these types of dark tourism have a dubious connection with
dark tourism, as they do not show a clear link to death and suffering (or
definitions presented in sub-chapter 2.1 ‘The Concept of Dark Tourism:
Definitions, Recognisability and Critique’), e.g. paranormal tourism, or
icky medical tourism. In addition, some types are highly interconnected
and their separate presentation is questionable, e.g. witches tourism and
dark amusement tourism, communism tourism and Cold War and Iron
Curtain tourism.
In this context we can agree with Ashworth and Isaac (2015) and Jamal
and Lelo (2010) that some ‘typologies largely miss the point since sites or
places are not intrinsically (or objectively) dark.’ In this respect, a much
more consistent typology is that of Kendle (2008), although the author
did not approach it in a ‘scholarly way:’
• grief tourism, which includes visiting dark tourism sites related
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• genocide tourism: visiting places of genocide, e.g. in Rwanda, Cam-
bodia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and suchlike;
• prison tourism: visiting former jails and prisons;
• communism tourism in the current and former communist coun-
tries;
• Cold War and Iron Curtain tourism: visiting traces and remains of
the Berlin Wall;
• disaster area tourism: visiting places of natural disaster;
• nuclear tourism: visiting sites of civil nuclear disaster;
• murderers and murderous places tourism, i.e. Jack the Ripper in Lon-
don, Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas;
• slum tourism in developing and underdeveloped countries;
• terrorist tourism: visiting areas like Ground Zero in New York City,
the Boston Marathon route;
• paranormal tourism: visiting crop circles, u f o sightings, haunted
houses;
• witches tourism, e.g. visiting the city of Salem in Massachusetts;
• accident tourism, e.g. visiting places such as the Paris tunnel Pont de
l’Alma;
• icky medical tourism, e.g. visiting Josephinum, the medical museum
with anatomical wax models in Vienna;
• dark amusement tourism: visiting amusement parks, e.g. the Dun-
geons exhibitions in London, the Dracula theme park.
Some of these types of dark tourism have a dubious connection with
dark tourism, as they do not show a clear link to death and suffering (or
definitions presented in sub-chapter 2.1 ‘The Concept of Dark Tourism:
Definitions, Recognisability and Critique’), e.g. paranormal tourism, or
icky medical tourism. In addition, some types are highly interconnected
and their separate presentation is questionable, e.g. witches tourism and
dark amusement tourism, communism tourism and Cold War and Iron
Curtain tourism.
In this context we can agree with Ashworth and Isaac (2015) and Jamal
and Lelo (2010) that some ‘typologies largely miss the point since sites or
places are not intrinsically (or objectively) dark.’ In this respect, a much
more consistent typology is that of Kendle (2008), although the author
did not approach it in a ‘scholarly way:’
• grief tourism, which includes visiting dark tourism sites related
33
