Dark Tourism: understanding the nature of such attractions Professor J John Lennon Moffat Centre for Travel and Tourism Business Development Glasgow Caledonian University www.moffatcentre.com
Dark Tourism Travel partly or mainly for encounters actual or symbolic with death and disaster
Dark Tourism The attraction of sites of mass killing, assassination, genocide, human loss. Significant fascination for many intrigued by dark past and tragic history Issues of education, historical function, heritage appeal and memory Global appeal and significance
A Global Phenomena
Dark Tourism Ancient Pilgrimage and Crusades, viewing London executions, battles Waterloo 1815 Modern tourism as a rational and educative, from Grand Tour to Museums interpreting war / atrocity so that visitors will learn from the past / understand / warnings about reoccurrence
Dark Tourism Post Modern - Role of Global Communications, collapsing space and time catalyst to interest in sites Objects of Dark tourism create anxiety about modernity and rational planning Educative and visitor elements of sites are accompanied by commodification and commercialisation
Interpretation and Omission What is interpreted and what is not commemorated The Watergate Hotel (USA) The Killing Fields of Cambodia
Tuolsleng (S21) and Choeung Ek Cambodia
Khmer Rouge 1975-79 Period of Democratic Kampuchea Revolutionary social order Closure of borders and imports/ exports Abandonment of technology, marketplace, family, religion Agrarian economy 2 m genocide in country of 7.3m
Heritage in Cambodia S 21 and loss of records Cheoung Ek one of 355 extermination camps of the Khmer Rouge era A period that achieve very limited cover in their education provision Very limited interpretation / orientation Those open operate with limited finances Choeung Ek ; Operation now franchised to a Japanese company
Heritage in Cambodia What does it mean to visit such sites view these places a repetition that offers neither warning or education? Representation and Presentation Shared past and our relationship with evil and mortality
1 Killing Field of 355 + 1 Security Office of 167+
Prime Minister Hun Sen
As tourism sites Visitation and Appeal Historical authenticity and detail (built heritage) Conservation or decay Centrality of memorial and record Primo Levi and the importance of retention
Retention or Decay Germany where so many sites are preserved, managed, publicly accessible Germany openness about the past can leave the visitor shell shocked and heartened Yet the debate about utilisation of scarce resources on conservation of buildings of this period is a serious one
Dark Heritage and Dark Tourism What does it mean to visit such sites view these places a repetition that offers neither warning or education? Representation and Presentation Shared past and our relationship with evil and mortality
Dark Architecture provides Intensely visual record remains of various periods; physical evidence Awareness heightened in film and media representation Ability of artefact and building to transmit a reality Intimation of our curious relationship with evil, tragedy and death
The Irish Context The Famine Independence : Kilmainham Gaol Northern Ireland and the Troubles The Maze The Murals Tours of the Troubles
The Irish Context It is possible to create interpretation of a site that is sensitive, neutral, historically accurate and educational Berlin: Topography of Terrors, House of the Wannsee Conference, Sachsenhausen KZ These sites are vital in conserving record, preserving memory and dealing with issues of denial and fake news.
The Irish Context Evidence merits a place Education and understanding is critical These narratives merit a voice
Dark Tourism in 2017 Populist Politics, Terrorism, Climate change, Natural disasters Dark Tourism a niche interest Society : abbreviated news feeds, hyperbolic electoral claims and increasing economic uncertainty Is this interface between history, ideology and tourism of relevance?
Dark Sites Primary objects, evidence, conserved, interpreted and marketed Part of the tourist gaze ; choreographed, composed and framed for consumption Some sites are critically important to documentation and historical record
Dark Tourism Sites Present evidence of selective interpretation and heritage commodification They illustrate the exclusion of minorities, ethics of selling the past Increasingly important in a society where truth has become a commodity Dark sites will continue to be dominated by moral complexities surrounding commemoration, education and interpretation.
Dark Tourism Sites Maintain their relevance by seeking to address ethical dichotomies and dealing with the selectivity in much of the historical narrative Contrasts with the immediacy of current communications in social and digital channels.
Dark Tourism Sites Can offer primacy of the object and authentic experience in contrast to simulated or virtual alternatives Most importantly offers us evidence of aspects of our collective and unacceptable shared past
Thank you Your comments and questions are most welcome jjle@gcu.ac.uk www.moffatcentre.com