The rise of dark tourism

THE emergence of “dark tourism” as a lucrative business model over the past decades has led to the development of a Khmer Rouge theme park, a Croatian “Hiroshima”, and several “attractions” in Vietnam such as the My Lai massacre site, the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, the Cu Chi tunnels (a network of around 201 kilometres of underground passageways), and the Vietnamese Demilitarised Zone.

The phenomenon of dark tourism – travel destinations connected to death or disaster, or in some way macabre – is still not very well understood. Researchers have tried to find answers to questions such as: Is dark tourism driven by visitor demand? Is it supply-driven? Or is it fuelled by both, which seems the most likely. Then there are moral questions to be considered, such as whether it is ethical to develop, promote, or offer dark sites and attractions for the consumption of tourists.

In most cases, governments and tourism departments are consciously presenting such dark sites as part of their national histories, perhaps in an effort to present the involvement of their own soldiers in a righteous war, and the enemy as barbaric invaders.