Dark tourism is a form of tourism that involves visitations of places that have been characterized by deaths, disasters and catastrophes. It involves individual touring places such as cemeteries and graveyards especially where famous people have been buried after death, horrific crash sites like the crash site of princess Diana battle fields and death camps among other places characterized by macabre or where such events are acted as a commemoration of horrible events that happened in the past.
London dungeons are one of the famous dark tourism destinations that are managed by entertainment. The purpose of this paper therefore was to find out the social impact of dark tourism in the London dungeons. It therefore sought to find out the meaning and examples of dark tourism, the negative and positive significances of dark tourism, London dragoons in particular and find out the relationship between death and macabre and dark tourism.
The research was mainly carried out using a literature survey due to time and resources limitation and the limited accessibility to the site. The paper found out that dark tourism has greatly enriched the culture and heritage of the places in which its located, encouraged cultural exchanges, offers entertainment to the local and foreign tourists, an opportunity for generation to learn about historical events among others. In addition the dark tourism is associated mostly with deaths and disasters hence it at times causes negative psychological effects to the visitors especially those who are affected since it may replay the act which they have been trying to forget.
Dark tourism is a form of special tourism that involves individuals visiting places that are associated with horrific and unpleasant events such as death and disasters (Tarlow, 2005). Just like any other form of tourism, dark tourism comes with massive significance and impacts greatly to the areas that visitations take place. In fact, dark tourism has both economic and psychosocial impacts (negative and positive) on the local communities as well as the region where the fundamental attractions and visitations exist.
The purpose of this paper is to provide a deeper understanding of dark tourism as a phenomenon and analyze it using SWOT. It gives an analysis to the social impact of dark tourism to the London dungeons and provides analysis of the relationship of death and macabre with dark tourism.
What is dark tourism?
The term dark tourism was first used in 1996 as an improvement of the Lennon’s black spots. It therefore refers to individuals being attracted to places where unpleasant events such as death and horror have taken place. Since then, different authors have generated varied forms of definition to the term (Lennon, 2000).
According to the later, dark tourism is a form of tourism that involves visitations of sites that are characterized by deathly and horrific scenes. Dark tourism is a form of tourism where people tour sites that have historically or in the recent past been associated with horrible events and bloody scenes leading to deaths or rather unpleasant outcomes. Such scenes include prisons and execution centers, battle fields associated with mass human deaths locations of historic origins, historical slavery dens to name but a few (Foley & Lennon, 1996).
Dark tourism involves touring Holocausts, horrific accidents sites, murder scenes, areas that have been destroyed by horrific (natural/ manmade) disasters cemeteries and graveyards (Tarlow, 2005). Lennon (2000) defined dark tourism as the actual consumption of macabre and horrific. Ideally, the latter are unusual tour attractions in that it is a travel activity that involves individuals touring sites and places that are associated with violent deaths and suffering or rather deathly scenes or history. Some authors such as Copper & Fletcher (2005) referred to dark tourism as grief tourism, perhaps due to the high level of horror and grief that is associated with the scene or sites that forms the fundamentals of its attractions.
The examples of dark tourism attractions
Attractions or sites that have continued to form the basis of dark tourism have been on the increase and are now very common in the world over. It is important to note that most of the attraction sites are related to death or disasters either historical or those which have recently taken place (Lennon & Foley, 2000). However, such places are increasingly becoming customized to appeal to a wide range of tourists (Stone, 2006),
such includes but not limited to the site that previously hosted the world trading center or rather the twin towers building and which has been nicknamed as the ground zero, the mass death region, where more than six million people were killed and which is famously referred to as the Nazi death camps, Lockerbie in Scotland the place where a TWA jumbo was blown up in 1988, the infamous Paris tunnel in which princess Diana died during the 1997 chase by the paparazzi the site that forms the grief memories of john Lennon who was assassinated outside the Dakota in 1980 and which is also referred to as the central park strawberry fields and the Hiroshima in Japan the historical point where the debutant atomic bomb was dropped (Lisle, 2000).
The history of dark tourism
Although dark tourism emerged as a field of study recently the discipline has existed over the years and thus it has a long history. For instance, the ancient roman gladiators formed an example of the historical site that used to attract masses of visitors during the mediaeval time and which the local hanging and execution of the errant and slaves formed the major attraction to the sites (Foley & Lennon, 1996).
Also, it can be remembered that during the mid 1880s, a team of British travelers under the leadership of Thomas cook toured the American civil war battlefields. In addition, a group that was led by Mark Taiwan visited the extensively damaged city of Sebastopol. In another form of ancient tourism, tourist in Victorian Britain organized and implemented a tour to the various mosques a move that opened a leeway to many individuals developing unmatched interest in and allure of visiting death and tragedy cites either to witness the occurrences themselves or to commemorate the unpleasant event. According to Stone, (2006), dark tourism existed even on the middle ages but rather intensified in the 1700 and 1800.
Objectives of Dark Tourism
Dark tourism has numerous objectives. First, individuals may tour an execution site with a sole objective of witnessing the public execution or killing of individuals an activity that is often referred to as gawking or to view a place that has the history of individuals or mass deaths that happened to take place in the past. For instance, individuals visit Gallipoli Cambodia and Soham all of which are sites where mass deaths took place.
Furthermore, individuals develops interest in touring memorial or funeral places where for instance famous people were buried such as the graveyards commemorative plaques, tombs and war memorials as well as the tours aimed at getting first hand evidence or representational feature of deaths e.g. the royal armories in Leeds (united kingdom) and worldwide museums and the famous London dungeons where variety of deaths and disasters exhibitions that occurred in the past either as a result of cruel sentencing and execution or disasters such as the great London fire are shown (Stone, 2006).
The dark tourism spectrum
Dark tourism can be classified into seven main categories which include dark fun factories, the dark exhibitions, the dark dungeons, the dark resting places, the dark shrines, the dark conflicts sites, and the dark camps of genocide. The latter and which is reoriented in the darkest area of the dark tourism spectrum refers to the sites of attraction that are associated with labor, execution and death camps where mass killings of people is believed to have in fact taken place.
Examples of such camps are the Cambodia and the Treblinka. The dark shrines are often temporary or semi permanent and involves use of floral tributes on the road sides and whose main objective of visitation is to commemorate or honor individuals who died recently (Lennon & Foley, 2000). According to stone (2006) dark shrines are increasingly becoming attractive and being developed to targets individuals with melancholic interest thus have become hob for the latter.
On the other hand dark resting places are mainly those areas that make the actual resting places of individuals who died or were killed (graveyards or places of burial) they form the places that are cemetery or graveyards, Dark fun factories on the other hand are taken to occupy the lightest area of the dark tourism spectrum and offers mainly entertainment opportunity for the visitors. They are highly illustrational and offer display of morbidity (Stone, 2006).
Dark fun factories are mainly a representation of the dungeon ideologies such as the London dungeons run by Merlin entertainment limited. This category of dark tourism is entertaining hence it is the most attractive and socially accepted form of dark tourism. Examples of dark fun factories include the York dungeon, the Black Death, Jack the ripper and the famous Dracula Park in Romania (Stone, 2006).
Social impact of dark tourism: the London dungeons
Just like the field of dark tourism is itself new, very little research has in the past been conducted on the social significance of this form of tourism to the region and the communality in which they actually takes place. Most of the analyses of dark tourism have tended to lean towards the economic impact hence the area of social significance had been quite neglected over the years. However, dark tourism has both negative and positive social effects. In effect, the dark tourism as a phenomenon offers a region with opportunity (positive effects) as well as threats (negative effects) the negative significance of the tourism can be looked as its weaknesses while the positive impacts are source of the tourism strengths.
Disasters and the emerging visitations that have emerged in the London dungeons have offered platform (opportunity) based on engagement between the visitors and the local communities creating an environment via which friendship and lasting social partnerships can emerge for mutual benefits. Such events as the natural catastrophes (the great London fire), and war that results in extensive destruction of regions leaves a region extremely depleted as a result.
The local community can therefore make advantage of the visitors who happens to be sympathizers of the place to form local strategic partnerships that will certainly help reconstruct the area and hasten the healing process (Stone, 2006). For example, the city of Belfast formed a local strategic partnership with the visiting tourist who succeeded in achieving its objective to enhance reconciliation and regeneration of the city after it had been hit by a disaster.
Areas that have been hit by natural catastrophes, deaths, and horrific incidences are usually characterized by a cloud of grief among the local survivors. Tourists who visit these areas assist the local’s recovery process through the psychological support that they offer to them. As a result this kind of dark tourism hastens the healing process among the affected locals. Also, the visitation after events such as wars between two or more warring communities can help reconcile them. In addition strategic partnership that is formed after the crises can spell joint effort by the affected communities to together handle the aftermath of the disasters as an integrated unit.
Dark tourism serves the purpose of opening up regions that had been previously secluded and unknown and which can now attract visitation simply because they have been hit by disasters. For instance Soham attracted public interest after the juvenile school girls were murdered.
As a result, a new page of social integration and relationship between the local communities and the tourists is opened up and offers a strategic opportunity for both groups to benefit both socially and economically from each other (Lisle, 2000). In addition, some dark tourist attractions of the London’s dungeons sites are believed to offer historical heritage to the place and society in which they exist. Touring such places therefore will offer the visitor an opportunity to an experience of such heritage and offers the local community a sure source of pride and history.
In addition, the sites have helped the Britain society to preserve such culture and heritage hence the future generation will have a chance to get in terms with the valuable history of the past events that happened in that particular place in the past. To the visitor, touring such place offers an opportunity of social incorporation via a thorough understanding of the world’s history and the world that surrounds them. Moreover, dark tourism or touring the site where something horrific happened especially by the affected however how distant one is will help the individual to get in to real terms of the event, grief and possibly heal or rather recover.
The positive economic impacts are also contributed to the social rejuvenation of the site, as well as the immediate community through creation of employment to the poor and previously unemployed local communities as well and the direct financial contributions can help rebuild the affected area and improving the psychosocial conditions of the local. The London dungeons have also been customized to offer a wide range of entertainment for people across the social groups. As a result it has offered an opportunity for tourist from far and wide to come and have differentiated fun at the dungeons offers a learning opportunity and where individual learn about the malpractices of the past thus hastening the process of civilization (Lisle, 2000).
However, dark tourism is believed to be interesting only to those individuals who are less affected by feelings. As a result those people who are highly emotional and horror averse will always avoid visiting such places hence the existence of such unbecoming scenes such as death and suffering will only attract tourists who are strong hearted and not horror phobic (Lisle, 2000). Visitation of such places especially by the weak social groups like women and children may have a far reaching negative psychological effect (to them) making them live in fear as well as developing psychological disorder.
For instance, a woman or a child who witnesses the real execution of killing human beings might be psychologically affected to the extents of being haunted by the memories of the scenes and perhaps having repeated nightmares (Lisle, 2000).
Such a person will forever live in fear and will always be mentally perturbed. Gawking to touring a place that have recently been affected by catastrophes especially where death is currently taking place or took place recently can have bad social impacts on the affected individuals. In fact this grim type of visitation (gawking) can make the affected to recall the bad event that they may be working hard to forget and move on. By visiting the site therefore one will be reviving the memories of the affected people and bring psychological grief and suffering to the latter (Stone, 2006).
A gangling tourist can be viewed as lacking respect and feelings for the affected i.e. insensitive to the feelings of others, a voyeur and an exploiter which is rather immoral. The London dungeons that are operated by Merlin entertainment is a site that offers a wide range of preservation mainly of death and macabre history. However, extensive humor and theatricals have been introduced in the site over the years so as to lessen the grim mood that used to engulf the site and make it more appealing for visitations especially by children. Following these developments, the dungeons can now attract large number of tourism from different parts of the world.
The death and macabre related to dark tourism
Right from the definition, it can be seen that the pedestal in which this form of tourism rests on is mainly the events and sites that are associated with death, horrific or disasters. As such death and horror or, macabre and dark tourism are one and the same since it is these unpleasant events that form the basic attractions. A review of the London dungeons reveals that almost all the events that attract visitors to the site are death or disaster related (Stone, 2006).
For instance, Jack the Ripper is a show of the horrific murdering of the harlots in the Whitechapel in 1888. The tourists are thus taken through the exhibitions of these brutal murders and even shown models of debilitated bodies of the victims and even a film of the last two culprits e.g. the horrific bodies with cut throats and pulled out intestines. Although all what transpires in the jack the ripper is all action, the actors make it appear as if it is happening in reality making the tourist breath in an air of death and horror.
Other event that takes place in the dungeons is shows about the great fire of London that burnt the greater part London, Traitor, the boat ride to hell, the imitations of the great plague of London among other scaring events. Although some attractions of dark tourism at time serves an entertainment purpose, most sites are commemoration or actual occurrences of death, bloody events such as deathly accidents, war torn regions and areas that have been hit by natural tragedies or catastrophes.
For instance Soham is related with the grisly murder of two school going girls and hence a dark tourism attraction site. The Paris tunnel attracts visitation mainly because it is where Princes Diana was killed , the Cambodia killing field, where more than 20 000 Cambodians were killed by a genocide in the 70s is also an attraction of dark tourist the Nazi death camps where more than six million people were killed to mention but a few (Lisle, 2000). This shows that dark tourism and its development is significantly associated with death disasters and killings.
Dark tourism has had and still has significant social effects on the London dungeon, a dark tourism sites that act as an archives of past deaths that resulted from historical injustices, murders and horrific disasters such as the infamous great fire of London. The tourism however has both the positive and negative social effects not only to the local community but also to the visiting tourism. However, the positive effects greatly outweigh the negative ones.
Among the most devastating effect of dark tourism is the psychological fear that the scenes and the apes of past horrible deaths are likely to cause especially among the weaker social groups mainly women and children tourists and locals. Also it has the effect of gawking which reminds the affected of the past horror which has a bad psychosocial effect. Moreover, dark tourism contributes massively to the economy and reconstruction of the affected place as the empathizing visitors tend to contribute towards the reconstruct and assistance of the affected locals.
In order to offset the negative psychosocial effect the stake holders should add more entertainment to the dungeons.
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