Dark tourism, through product design and development, can increase destination economic benefits, establish a good tourism image, and enhance the comprehensive value of dark tourism sites.
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It creates jobs, strengthens the local economy, contributes to local infrastructure development and can help to conserve the natural environment and cultural assets and traditions, and to reduce poverty and inequality.
Reasons for why people engage in dark tourism vary. The same survey found that over half (52%) of those respondents value the educational aspect of visiting macabre or dark destinations. 48% claimed to visit sites of tragedy to pay tribute to the victims.
While the tourist motivations to visit sites of a sensitive nature may be diverse, dark tourism remains a morally relevant issue that involves a questioning of moral judgment (Rojek,1997; Stone, 2009). It has always raised issues of how morality is collectively conveyed and individually constructed.
The Dark Tourism market is estimated to reach US$ 30 Billion in 2022. As per the report, sales are forecast to increase at a robust 2% CAGR, with the market valuation reaching US$ 36.5 Billion by 2032.
Although an 'official' term did not exist until 1996, dark tourism is not a new practice. People have been visiting sites of death and tragedy for centuries. Early examples include viewing public hangings and decapitations, or spectators at gladiatorial games in the Colosseum.
Tourists' interest in places associated with death and tragedy may also be related to educational goals [9]. Curiosity and the need to learn and understand are entwined. Dark tourism develops curiosity and satisfies the desire for knowledge of past suffering and pain [26].
Destinations of dark tourism include castles and battlefields such as Culloden in Scotland and Bran Castle and Poienari Castle in Romania; former prisons such as Beaumaris Prison in Anglesey, Wales and the Jack the Ripper exhibition in the London Dungeon; sites of natural disasters or man made disasters, such as ...
The key to maximizing the economic effects of tourism and hospitality is to maximize the amount of revenue and jobs developed within the region. To attain this objective, some economic strategies have been adapted, such as import substitution, incentives, and foreign exchange.