dark tourism phd thesis

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Doctoral theses, the business of dark tourism: the management of dark tourism visitor sites and attractions with special reference to innovation.

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Institute for Dark Tourism Research (iDTR)

The Institute for Dark Tourism Research (iDTR) is a world-leading academic centre for dark tourism scholarship, research and teaching.

The iDTR promotes ethical research into the social scientific understanding of tourist sites of death, disaster or the seemingly macabre. The iDTR brings together researchers who seek to deliver internationally recognized research that contributes to the ethical and social scientific understanding of dark tourism and dark heritage.

The iDTR seeks to research, publish, and consult as to the appropriate development, management, interpretation and promotion of dark tourism sites, attractions and exhibitions, as well as understanding tourist experiences.

Dr Philip Stone, Executive Director of iDTR, was interviewed by BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service.

Expertise and subject areas

The iDTR will seek to:

• Build research capacity in the area of dark tourism in order to publish high-quality outputs.
• Enhance, influence and inform industry practitioners to help ensure the ethical implementation and management of dark tourism/heritage sites, attractions and exhibitions.
• Establish a global reputation as a centre of excellence for developing innovative interdisciplinary approaches to dark tourism research.
• Increase the level of local, national and international research collaborations with industry, academia and the media.
• Update and improve knowledge that informs the curriculum and the teaching of dark tourism as well as research methods.

Dark tourism- often referred to as ‘thanatourism’ in the academic literature -is the act of travel to sites, attractions and exhibitions of death, disaster or the seemingly macabre. Dark tourism is a broad-ranging and often-contentious consumer activity that can provoke debate about how death and the dead are packaged up and consumed within the modern visitor economy.

Dark tourism as an 'academic typology' or 'scholarly brand' has raised many research questions about fundamental interrelationships between contemporary society and the commodification of death. These include, but are not limited to, issues of commemoration, memorialization and ‘secular pilgrimage’. Importantly, dark tourism has historical pedigree and has arguably occurred ever since people have had the means and motivation to travel for leisure. For example, early ‘dark tourism’ might have constituted attendance at Roman gladiatorial games, or spectator events at medieval executions, or undertaking morgue tours of 19th century Europe, or even touristic visits to battlefields such as to Waterloo or Gettysburg in the immediate aftermath of the conflicts.

However, dark tourism today does not present death per se but, rather, represents certain kinds of death. As such, dark tourism and the commercialization of death and disaster is referred to as a contemporary mediating institution between the living and the dead. Therefore, touristic visits to former battlefields or to war sites, slavery-heritage places, prisons, cemeteries, particular museum exhibitions and 'macabre-themed' visitor attractions, Holocaust sites, or to natural and man-made disaster locations might constitute the broad realm of ‘dark tourism’.

Over the past decade or so, a growing body of interdisciplinary research has been undertaken that revolves around the concept of ‘death-related’ travel. At the same time media interest in the concept of dark tourism continues to grow, the juxtaposition of the words ‘dark’ and ‘tourism’ undoubtedly providing an attention-grabbing headline. However, to date, the academic literature remains eclectic and theoretically fragile. Our understanding of both production and consumption of dark tourism remains limited – especially considering the relationships between dark tourism and the cultural condition and social institutions of contemporary societies.

The Institute for Dark Tourism Research aims to shine a critical light on dark tourism activities. In so doing, our research can help provide a lens through which life and death may be glimpsed, thus revealing relationships and consequences of the processes that mediate between consumerism, heritage, and the tourist experience. Our research also aims to reveal the dynamics through which people are drawn to sites redolent with images of death, as well as the manner in which they are induced to behave there.

Particularly, our research focuses on providing critical insights into dark tourism and society, culture, politics, as well as ethics and morality.

Dr Philip Stone’s research paper ' Dark tourism and significant other death. Towards a Model of Mortality Mediation ' is in the Top 25 Most Cited papers (since 2012) in the 4* journal Annals of Tourism Research Dr Philip Stone and Prof. Richard Sharpley’s research paper ' Consuming dark tourism: A Thanatological Perspective ' is in the Top 10 Most Downloaded papers in the last 90 days in the 4* journal Annals of Tourism Research (April 2017)

Publications and Outputs

Stone, P.R (2013) Dark Tourism, Heterotopias and Post-Apocalyptic Places: The case of Chernobyl . In L.White & E.Frew (Eds) Dark Tourism and Place Identity. Melbourne: Routledge.

Stone, P.R. (2012) Dark Tourism and Significant Other Death: Towards a model of mortality mediation . Annals of Tourism Research, 39(3), pp. 1565-1587.

Stone, P.R. (2012) Dark tourism as 'mortality capital': The case of Ground Zero and the Significant Other Dead . In R.Sharpley & Stone, P.R (Eds) Contemporary Tourist Experience: Concepts and Consequences. Abington, Oxon: Routledge, pp. 71-94.

Sharpley, R. (2012) Towards an understanding of ‘genocide tourism’: An analysis of visitors’ accounts of their experience of recent genocide sites. In R.Sharpley & Stone, P.R (Eds) Contemporary Tourist Experience: Concepts and Consequences. Abington, Oxon: Routledge, pp. 95-109.

Stone, P.R. (2011) . Current Issues in Tourism, Vol 14, Issue 7, pp.685-701.

Stone, P.R. (2011) Dark Tourism Experiences: mediating between life and death . In R.Sharpley & P.R Stone (eds) Tourist Experience: Contemporary Perspectives. Abington Oxon: Routledge, pp. 21-27.

Stone, P.R. (2011) Dark Tourism: towards a new post-disciplinary research agenda . International Journal of Tourism Anthropology, Vol 1, No 3/4, pp. 318-332.

Stone, P.R. (2010) Death, Dying and Dark Tourism in Contemporary Society: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis . Doctoral Thesis (PhD), University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK.

Sharpley, R.& Stone, P.R. (eds) (2009) The Darker Side of Travel: The Theory and Practice of Dark Tourism . Aspects of Tourism Series, Channel View Publications: Bristol.

Stone, P.R. (2009) Dark Tourism: Morality and New Moral Space . In R.Sharpley& P.R.Stone (eds) The Darker Side of Travel: The Theory and Practice of Dark Tourism. Channel View Publications: Bristol, pp. 56-72.

Stone, P.R. (2009) "It's Bloody Guide" - Fun, Fear and a Lighter Side of Dark Tourism at the Dungeon Visitor Attractions, UK . In R.Sharpley & P.R.Stone (eds) The Darker Side of Travel: The Theory and Practice of Dark Tourism. Channel View Publications: Bristol, pp.167-185.

Stone, P.R. (2009) Making Absent Death Present: Consuming Dark Tourism in Contemporary Society . In R.Sharpley & P.R.Stone (eds) The Darker Side of Travel: The Theory and Practice of Dark Tourism. Channel View Publications: Bristol, pp.23-38.

Sharpley, R.& Stone P.R. (2009) Life, Death and Dark Tourism: Future Research Directions . In R.Sharpley & P.R.Stone (eds) The Darker Side of Travel: The Theory and Practice of Dark Tourism, Channel View Publications, Bristol, pp. 247-251.

Sharpley, R.& Stone, P.R. (2009) (Re)Presenting the Macabre: Interpretation, Kitschification and Authenticity . In R.Sharpley& P.R.Stone (eds) The Darker Side of Travel: The Theory and Practice of Dark Tourism. Channel View Publications: Bristol, pp.109-128.

Sharpley, R. (2009) Shedding Light on Dark Tourism: An Introduction. In R.Sharpley & P.R.Stone (eds) The Darker Side of Travel: The Theory and Practice of Dark Tourism. Channel View Publications: Bristol, pp.3-22.

Sharpley, R. (2009) Dark Tourism and Political Ideology: Towards a Governance Model. In R.Sharpley & P.R.Stone (eds) The Darker Side of Travel: The Theory and Practice of Dark Tourism. Channel View Publications: Bristol, pp.145-163.

Sharpley, R. (2009) Battlefield Tourism: Bringing Organised Violence Back to Life. In R.Sharpley & P.R.Stone (eds) The Darker Side of Travel: The Theory and Practice of Dark Tourism. Channel View Publications: Bristol, pp.186-206. [with F.Baldwin]

Stone, P.R.& Sharpley, R. (2008) Consuming Dark Tourism: a thanatological perspective . Annals of Tourism Research, 35(2), pp.574-595.

Stone, P.R. (2006) A Dark Tourism Spectrum: Towards a typology of death and macabre related tourist sites, attractio[Further Details / Download]ns and exhibitions . TOURISM: An Interdisciplinary International Journal, (54)2, pp. 145-160.

Stone, P.R. (2005) Consuming Dark Tourism: a call for research . eReview of Tourism Research, 3(5), pp. 109-117.

Sharpley, R. (2005) Travels to the edge of darkness: Towards a typology of dark tourism. In C.Ryan, S.Page and M.Aicken (Eds) Taking Tourism to the Limits: Issues, Concepts and Managerial Perspectives. London: Elsevier, pp. 215-226.

https://works.bepress.com/philip_stone/

Courses and Postgraduate Study

TL3067 (Level 5) – Dark Tourism and Thana-Events: Managing Macabre Attractions & Exhibitions

MPhil / PhD opportunities to research dark tourism are also available.

Dr Philip Stone

Executive Director of iDTR. Philip is a former General Manager and Management Consultant within the UK tourism sector. He spent 15 years in the private sector before joining the University of Central Lancashire in 2004. His primary research interests revolve around the production and consumption of dark tourism and its fundamental relationships with contemporary society. Philip has published in numerous international academic journals, presented at a variety of international conferences, as well as acting as media consultant on dark tourism to both press and broadcast institutions across the world. 

Professor Richard Sharpley

Associate Director of iDTR. Richard is Professor of Tourism and Development at the University of Central Lancashire. He has previously held positions at a number of other institutions, including the University of Northumbria (Reader in Tourism) and the University of Lincoln, where he was Professor of Tourism and Head of Department, Tourism and Recreation Management. His principal research interests are within the fields of tourism and development, island tourism, rural tourism, dark tourism, and the sociology of tourism. 

Related Projects

• exploration of tourist motivations to dark tourism sites
• the development of dark tourism within broader economic and cultural regenerations
• construction of secular morality at dark tourism sites
• political ideology at dark tourism sites and the examination of dark legacies
• dark tourism and heterotopias of space and place
• juxtapositions of the natural and supernatural in dark tourism landscapes
• consuming 'dark leisure' and the taboo in muselogical environments
• dark tourism, the act of mediation, and the role of the 'Significant Other Dead'
• dark tourism and the thanatological condition of contemporary society
• slavery-heritage and European (re)presentations of black culture in art and tourism

Motivations and intentions of tourists to visit dark tourism locations

Major Professor

Committee member, journal title, journal issn, volume title, research projects, journal issue.

Dark tourism is an increasingly popular research topic for the tourism industry, however it has been lacking in empirical research contribution. This study provides empirical research to demonstrate and analyze the relationships between four dark tourism constructs (i.e., dark experience, engaging entertainment, unique learning experience, and casual interest) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) constructs (i.e., attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral intentions). The purpose of the study was to gain a better understanding of the behaviors and intentions of tourists who have either previously visited or plan to visit a dark tourism location.

Utilizing a combination of the Push-Pull Factor Theory, the Theory of Planned Behavior, and dark tourism constructs, a new theoretical framework was created to determine the motivations and intentions of tourists visiting dark tourism locations. A total of 1068 usable questionnaires were sampled using Qualtrics Panels data collection service for data analysis purposes. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to verify satisfactory levels of reliability and validity in regards to the measurement of model fit. After the model fit was adequate, structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test the validity of the model and determine the positive and negative relationships between dark tourism constructs and the Theory of Planned Behavior.

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You are here: Home » Research » The Commodification of Dark Tourism: Conceptualising the Visitor Experience

The Commodification of Dark Tourism: Conceptualising the Visitor Experience

Grebenar, Alex (2018) The Commodification of Dark Tourism: Conceptualising the Visitor Experience. Doctoral thesis, University of Central Lancashire.

Official URL: http://clok.uclan.ac.uk

The study of ‘dark tourism’ has gained increasing traction over the past two decades or so. Visits to sites of, or associated with death, disaster, atrocity, or suffering are a pervasive feature within the contemporary tourism landscape. This thesis, therefore, critically examines dark tourism within the modern tourism industry in which ‘dark’ experiences are packaged-up and sold to consumers – a process known as ‘commodification’. As a result, the study appraises the effects commodification has on the visitor experience at sites of dark tourism. Drawing upon a multidisciplinary approach, this thesis examines key relationships between dark tourism supplier and consumer in order to evaluate the visitor experience. This includes the notion of mortality and, in so doing, the research considers how the process of commodification affects encounters with the fragile state and inevitable demise of the human being. Moreover, this relates to the so-called ‘sequestration of death’ whereby death, in modern life, is removed from daily life in order to protect the Self from undue upsetting thoughts. This thesis utilises a phenomenological research philosophy in order to understand the nature of visitor experiences. The study also adopts a supply-demand approach, and so through the instruments of semi-structured interviews and participant questionnaires, appraises the relationship between the provision and consumption of dark tourism experiences. The empirical research investigates two case studies within UK dark tourism: Lancaster Castle and the International Slavery Museum, Liverpool. Ultimately, this thesis argues that the commodification process denotes specific semiotics of a touristic and behavioural nature. In turn, this thesis offers an original blueprint model in which to locate commodification processes, which this study terms the ‘Semiotic Framework of Dark Tourism Experience’. It is concluded that, using supply-side entities such as tour guides, shops, interpretative materials and other such items, suppliers of dark tourism sculpt the experience and direct visitor behaviour, but crucially do not fundamentally change the nature of experience by providing those phenomena. Rather, commodification within dark tourism provides a specific context in which to encounter death, mortality and atrocity within authentic and ontologically secure boundaries.

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DARK TOURISM: PROFILES, NICHES, MOTIVATIONS AND EXPERIENCES AT A GLOBAL LEVEL

In response to the increasing demand among contemporary tourists for experiences and activities that trigger strong emotions and sensations this report focuses on the current understanding of dark tourism

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Tourism is a multifaceted sector, which is manifested in various forms, including dark tourism. Of late there seem to be an increase in the number of tourist opting for Dark Tourism. This paper studies the motivating factors that influence tourists to visit places that have a past which may be haunted, have a sinister past or is related to death.

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Dark tourism is a youngest subset of tourism, introduced only in 1990s. It is a multifaceted and diverse phenomenon. Dark tourism studies carried out in the Western countries succinctly portrays dark tourism as a study of history and heritage, tourism and tragedies. Dark tourism has been identified as niche or special interest tourism. This paper highlights how dark tourism has been theoretically conceptualized in previous studies. As an umbrella concept dark tourism includes than tourism, blackspot tourism, morbid tourism, disaster tourism, conflict tourism, dissonant heritage tourism and others. This paper examines how dark tourism as a distinct form of tourism came into existence in the tourism academia and how it could be understood as a separate subset of tourism in better way. Basically, this study focuses on deathscapes, repressed sadism, commercialization of grief, commoditization of death, dartainment, blackpackers, darsumers and deathseekers capitalism. This study generate...

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Korstanje M E (2016) Towards a new horizon of dark tourism studies". Korstanje M E & Handayani B eds Gazing at Death: Dark Tourism as an Emergent Horizon of Research. New York, Nova Science Pubs This chapter discusses on the needs of introducing new methodologies in dark tourism fields. At the same time, it is necessary to revisit the limitations and controversies in the current specialized literature. Because of dark tourism arose as an emergent theme in tourism academy, scholars have little information on this theme. We juxtaposed my own experience in the fieldwork as researchers with the outcomes of colleagues who have delved in dark tourism site. We discuss the preliminary outcomes of some authorative voices as Phillip Stone, Richard Sharpley and Anthony Seaton. They start from a biased diagnosis of Thanaptosis which merits to be discussed. In this essay we hold the thesis that knowledge-production in this field stagnated because of two main reasons. Firstly, scholars do not dissociate what is cognition from emotionality, confusing perception with interpretation. Secondly, fieldworkers over-valorize some obstructive methods as questionnaires or formal interviews over qualitative viewpoints. Helping to expand their current understanding of dark tourism, this work dissects on what are the next horizons for research. Dark tourism studies, nowadays, lack of concise epistemological discussion to understand " thanaptosis, " as well * [email protected].

Tourism Geographies

Dejan Iliev

A review of recent relevant literature related to dark tourism indicates that there is a growing academic interest in ‘dark tourism consumption’, ‘dark tourism motivation’ and ‘dark tourism experience’. Therefore, the objectives of the present research are threefold: to examine the progress of research on these three concepts; to give a critical analysis of recent research; and to identify research gaps and questions that require fuller examination. In order to adopt new research orientations, the use of a broader post-disciplinary research framework is in need. The findings reveal that the three concepts are evolving and advancing, and new researches push the boundaries of exploration into new directions. From the analysis of recent literature, it can be concluded that thanatopsis is a rare characteristic of tourist visits. This is in contrast to the early conceptual studies, which claim that death is the primary motive for visiting dark sites. The findings reveal that many visitors are motivated by the desire and an interest in cultural heritage, learning, education, understanding about what happened at the dark site etc. It is important to emphasise that these motivations are affected by internal conflicts that the experience generates. Tourist experience is more in line with that of a mainstream heritage sites. In general, if tourists do not experience a site as dark, then they cannot be called dark tourists. Hence, the present research appeals to a clearer distinction of the ‘dark tourists’ based on experience. Except for the ‘mortality mediation model’, ‘dystopian dark tourism’ and ‘Terror Management Theory’, there are limit efforts to understand tourists at dark sites. Therefore, scientists must propose new approaches and additional empirical researches to prove that interest in death is a key motive for visiting dark sites. Lastly, from the literature review, new directions for further research have emerged.

Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change

Journal of the Geographical Institute Jovan Cvijic, SASA

Nar Aditya Rai

Alex Grebenar

The study of ‘dark tourism’ has gained increasing traction over the past two decades or so. Visits to sites of, or associated with death, disaster, atrocity, or suffering are a pervasive feature within the contemporary tourism landscape. This thesis, therefore, critically examines dark tourism within the modern tourism industry in which ‘dark’ experiences are packaged-up and sold to consumers – a process known as ‘commodification’. As a result, the study appraises the effects commodification has on the visitor experience at sites of dark tourism. Drawing upon a multidisciplinary approach, this thesis examines key relationships between dark tourism supplier and consumer in order to evaluate the visitor experience. This includes the notion of mortality and, in so doing, the research considers how the process of commodification affects encounters with the fragile state and inevitable demise of the human being. Moreover, this relates to the so-called ‘sequestration of death’ whereby dea...

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