Dark tourism is gaining traction around the world
Many tourists no longer look for white sands and the azure sea. As a matter of fact, experiencing different adventures triggering unique emotions seem to attract many. In search of these uncommon experiences, tourists are looking for lugubrious places such as Salem, Chernobyl, and tombs of celebrities, for example, leading to a rise in dark tourism. Every year, thousands of tourists travel to visit macabre destinations.
Tourists no longer want to sit by the pool
The tourism industry is one that can expand very fast, depending on the trends. According to the World Tourism Organization, between 1999 and 2016 the number of people choosing to spend their holidays abroad has doubled. Currently, bored with traditional vacation ideas, more and more people are looking to indulge in unusual and new experiences such as travelling to places historically associated with death and tragedy. This is known as dark tourism, black tourism or grief tourism and also includes the reasons tourists visit a particular site and not only the attributes of the place itself.
Dark tourism often refers to such ghastly places where atrocities were committed such as Auschwitz, extermination camps in Cambodia, and war-torn zones in Iraq or Afghanistan, as well as areas where nuclear disasters occurred such as Chernobyl in Ukraine and Fukushima in Japan. Other ghoulish places such as the home where OJ Simpson’s ex-wife was murdered are also on the list. These historically morbid places have become easy to find on the Internet and flights, seizing the opportunity for business, have made them more affordable. Dark tourism is still controversial and those taking selfies smiling at places where atrocities were committed are lampooned.
Witchcraft has always attracted people
Salem in Massachusetts is well-known for its witchcraft legends. Teri Kalgren is one of the locals thriving on it today. Owner of Artemisia Botanicals, she sells medicinal herbs and witchcraft items that add up rather quickly due to the high flux of tourists. Indeed, Salem has chiseled its reputation based on the 1692 trials when puritan hysteria entailed the execution of 20 people, as well as two dogs, for witchcraft. In 1982, the city decided to launch Haunted Happenings, a Halloween festival. Since that time, the celebrations have been growing and now they expand over the whole month of October. These festivals attract not fewer than 500 thousand tourists every year. Creating 800 direct jobs, tourism also brought $ 104 million to the city.
Visiting the eternal abode of celebrities
Scott Michaels, the founder of Dearly Departed Tours, has also invested in tragedy and death to flourish his business. His agency, based in Hollywood, takes visitors on a unique multimedia bus tour exploring celebrity cases such as Manson, Whitney, and Michael as well as celebrities who were less popular. The trip is peppered with crime scene photographs as well as audio clips such as 911 calls, making a hit among visitors. The latter get to see the homes where celebrities lived and died across the Los Angeles area.
