Report on Tourism Defining Tourism Tourism can be defined as the temporary movement of people outside their normal place of work and residence, together with the activities undertaken during their stay at those destinations and the facilities created to cater for visiting tourists, Tourism is distinguishable from travel undertaken in the past by its mass character, and is now not a luxury only for the upper classes. Tourism is a luxury, with most people in the developed world and increasing numbers of people living in developing countries engaging in tourism at some time in their lives. Tourism is accepted and accustomed, and has become a good indicator of economic status and is considered necessary for good health and personal being. Tourism is a productive activity that encompasses human behavior, use of resources, and interaction with other people, economies and environments. It involves physical movement of tourists to locations other than their normal place of living. It involves consumption of goods and services provided by organizations in the process, and generate a mass productive activity, employment and income. Tourism is a highly complex productive activity. It involves the activities and interests not only of large transport undertakings, owners of tourist sites and attractions, and of various tourist services at the destination but also of all levels of government. Each of these serves the resident population and visitors. For countries delivering the tourist product it makes a significant contribution to GDP, employment, investment and FOREX earnings. It is a major catalyst for economic growth and structural change. It also diversifies employment prospects. Tourism is dependant on a large number of economic activities supplying inputs to the industries that directly cater for tourists and producing consumer durables used for tourist activity. Characteristics of tourism: - Constantly operating industry, seasonal fluctuations - Labor-intensive industry - Lack of barriers to entry - Small business predominates - Important medium for educational and cultural exchange - Sheer numbers - Growing levels of consumer expenditure - A few producers dominate - New tourist attractions are regularly opening - Mass tourist’s products have little differentiation. - The impacts of tourism are broad ranging (economic, social, environmental) Spatial Pattern
Travel and tourism is the world largest industry. Western Europe and North America dominate global tourist flows. Total world tourism grew throughout the 1980s and 1990s at around 4% per annum. The range of destinations now encompasses virtually all countries in the developed world and many of those in the developing world. There has been spectacular growth in the Asia-Pacific region. Countries which are good destinations have sufficient environmental safeguards and a trained workforce. Tourism has developed in many contexts. Modern mass tourism has origins in affluence of industrialized countries of West Europe, North America, and Japan. Tourism has also expanded significantly in East Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. It has developed in liberal and western societies and in a variety of physical environments. Tourism has also developed in a wide variety of physical environments, with many different environments within a country becoming favorable tourist destinations. These environments may include: - Islands - Alpine - Coasts - Countryside Factors affecting tourism The tourism industry is multi faceted. Many components of tourism are inextricably bound to other economic sectors, and other forms of accommodation to commercial development. The spatial interaction that arises out of the tourist’s movement from origin to destination and factors affecting it lend themselves to analysis. 1. The biophysical and built environment - A countries biophysical environment, cultural heritage and artistic life represent integral components of its tourist industry. Various types of tourism have differing requirements for favorable development and some countries will be more favorable for development than others. - The industry is ultimately located according to the spatial distribution of attractions and access to them, which is largely determined by environmental factors. The tourist destination must offer tings the tourist seeks and needs. - Tourist behavior patterns are influenced by environment conditions, and they may place constraints on types of developments. Natural characteristics are highly desirable and should complement infrastructure and attractions. - Climate is a special consideration, and favorable weather conditions are essential. For each tourist activity there is an optimal climate, and climate often determines the length and profitability of the holiday season at a resort. 2. Technological change - One of the most important variables affecting tourism is technological change. In the twentieth century, transport technology allowed the spread of mass tourism to a widespread array of destinations, which were previously not reachable by rail or ship.
- Manufacturers are constantly developing the capabilities of vehicles. Such developments influence places which can be reached, in terms of social and cost constraints. - The development of wide-bodied long haul jets i.e. Boeing 747 was a major impetus to the growth of tourism. 3. Socio-cultural Influences - Participation in tourism is affected by a number of demographic and social factors, such as age distribution, family life cycle, level of education, occupation structure, and population concentration. Demographic and social changes should profoundly affect the propensity of populations to indulge in tourism in the future. - Increased life expectancy and changing workforce composition is also important. Increasing participation rates of women have provided a boost to tourism, because two income families have higher discretionary income. There is also a growing number of DINK’s who frequently travel. 4. Economic factors - Tourism is among the strongest performing sectors of the global economy. Tourism is a major source of employment with the provision of accommodation, catering, transport, entertainment and other service industries important. There is also an enormous amount of productive activity generated indirectly by tourism. It is an important instrument for facilitating economic growth because of its wide multiplier effects. - Tourism is Australia contributes 17.3Bn in export earnings to the Australian economy. - Changing economic circumstances largely determine the magnitude of the tourist industry. With higher levels of development, the employment structure changes, and a more affluent society creates a demand for tourists products. 5. Cultural influences - Features of historical or cultural interest exert a powerful attraction for tourists. Three major forms of culture attract visitors: - Forms of culture that are inanimate such as monuments - Forms of culture reflected in the normal daily lives of a destination - Forms of culture at are especially animated and may involve events such as festivals. - Tourism is often accompanied by cultural exchanges and cultural enrichment. These contacts can have harmful effects where native cultures and traditional ways of life are weakened or destroyed. 6. Political influences - Governments at all levels and of all persuasions have recognized that while tourism is basically private sector, its impact requires government involvement. - Government profoundly affects the economic climate in which tourism operates. The government’s principal role is to foster the development of the industry that can best prosper consistent with broad economic, social and environmental objectives. The relationship between production and consumption
Tourism as a productive activity consists of three major components: the country of origin of tourists; destinations; and routes traveled between locations. 1. Tourism generating areas Represent homes of tourists. These areas represent the main tourist markets in the world and major marketing functions of tourism are found here. 2. Tourism destination areas Attract tourists by offering what isn’t available at home. Transit routes link these two areas of productive activity and are key elements. They are the main transport component of productive activity. As tourists travel they acquire an experience made up of many different parts. These activities are extremely interdependent. The changing nature of the production process The growth of tourism throughout the twentieth century was closely associated with rising living standards in the developed world. In the first half of the twentieth century the opportunity to travel remained largely the privilege of the wealthier people in society, but periods of rapid growth following WW2 enabled more people to travel. The car and aircraft became the main mode of transport. A number of important changes are associated with the development on the industry: • Internationalization of tourism Tourism has become globalised. The global transportation infrastructure is rapidly becoming an interconnected pathway all over the world. The level of globalization has increased as more countries participate in international travel. • Organizational developments The organization of tourism comes from two sources: the government and private sectors. Recognizing the contribution tourism makes towards a countries economic and social well being nearly all governments have organizations to promote tourism. The extents of their responsibilities vary. The opportunities which exist in tourism give rise to a mix of large and small scale operations catering for all the tourist needs from origin to destination. As with other productive activities there has been a significant growth of corporate involvement in tourism. Much of the growth in large tourism companies arises from the very competitive nature of many tourist markets and destinations and a drive for greater market share and economies of scale. Different impacts of tourism Social Impacts of tourism Tourism is driven by individual consumer decisions.
Package Tours The package tour is sold for an all inclusive price, and this is usually cheaper bringing holidays in reach of a much larger section of the market. Consumers have a wise variety of choice. Contiki tours are a good example of a company catering for 18-35 year olds world wide. Contiki has an arrangement with Cathay Pacific. Small group tours Small group tours are a popular alternative. They utilize local resources and services wherever possible. Individual travel Many tourists are actively planning their own travel experience. They prefer to individualize their own itinerary rather than be locked into a group tour. Experienced travelers are seeking to fulfill specific desires. This reflects the desire of travelers for new and different experiences. More specialized demands has seen tourism as a productive activity respond. Economic impacts of tourism Increasing the scale of production The profit motive has encouraged development of large scale operations and an increase in the size of the companies involved. Increasing scale is especially evident in the accommodation sector. The scale of operations in the hotel sector continues to expand. While large hotel chains can exploit economies of scale, the small independents can compete on the basis of cost, and personalized service. Horizontal and vertical integration Growth in the scale of production and increases in the concentration of ownership and control have generally come about through horizontal and vertical integration. A business may expand or develop by itself or seek to combine with other businesses. Transnational operations Integration in tourism has continued to point where operations become multinational or transnational in nature. The pattern of multinational development varies. Clearly a global marketplace provides greater market potential and opportunities to secure a competitive advantage. Companies wishing to diversify their portfolio will expand activities overseas. Technological impacts of tourism Tourism receives substantial research funds to facilitate the development of new technology. They change every area of this productive activity. Consumer choice
Tourist motivation and decision making are increasingly shaped by changing technology. The Internet has allowed a wealth of information to become available to tourists. Hotel facilities, reservations, and attractions to name a few. Transport Technologies Aircraft Future developments in aircraft will favor larger capacity aircraft, but still subsonic speed. The amount of power to propel aero-planes increases with speed. Therefore new aircraft are unlikely to travel any faster than existing, but they will have a greater range and more seating reducing the costs of travel. Land Transport Transport is now faster and more competitive over long trips. This has come hand in hand with infrastructure development. Sea Transport The cruise industry is growing particularly fast. The world’s cruise fleet has doubled in the last decade of the 20th century. Keeping track of people and possessions Computerization allows transport operators to work more efficiently, and generates a wealth of data which can be used for planning marketing activities. Global satellite networks have provided powerful new marketing tools. Technology has transformed the distribution process. Political impacts of tourism Most governments now actively seek to promote tourism to and within their countries and take steps to coordinate public and private tourism activities and to foster industry growth. Government support has been less forthcoming in some parts of the developed world. In many developing countries tourism is seen as a way of accelerating economic development. Some governments have also encouraged the development of international tourism to further their own political objectives. The changing political and economic environment - Collapse of the soviet union and opening up Eastern Europe - Switch from centralized economies to free market economies in China and India - Creation of NAFTA The nature of government involvement Tourism promotion Primary contribution of governments is to promote tourism both to and within their country. The most direct means is to establish tourism organizations to influence the path of tourism development. Australia’s ministry of tourism carries out this role, and its goals include: - Provide government with a clear statement for future development of industry
- Enhance community awareness of economic, environmental and cultural significance of tourism. Facilitating visitor entry Ease of access to a country is a key factor in attracting tourists. If visitor entry formalities are complicated tourism will suffer. Some countries now have visa free arrangements with certain countries. Transport policy The availability, pricing and ease of transport dictates the flow of tourists both within and between countries. The distribution of transport also influences the level of dispersal of tourists. Governments are generally responsible for the provision of transportation infrastructure and equipment. Many airlines have entered into alliances that enable them to reduce costs and increase passenger load. Governments are under pressure to deregulate international airlines further. General economic policy Government policies have direct and indirect implications. For example policies imposes when governments are grappling with high levels of inflation can reduce disposable incomes thereby limiting spending on tourism. Government taxes, chares and levies increase costs to tourists. Environmental and social impacts of tourism Two major issues threaten the long term survival of tourism: environmental degradation; and undesirable social impacts, which often accompany the growth of tourism. Tourism and the environment Tourist developments tend to be located near attractive or unique features of the biophysical environment. Exploitation for tourism often places a heavy strain on such natural resources. The greatest threat is to those which are most vulnerable to natural and human-induced stress. Tourism can contribute to: - A deterioration of air and water supplies - Destruction of natural landscape - Damage to vegetation - Threats to wildlife The challenge is to develop procedures to assess the potential environmental impacts of tourism related developments. Other mechanisms available to address the impact of tourism are regulations, the establishment and management of national parks, preservation of significant heritage sites, and enactment of legislation that helps conserve our cultural and natural resources.
The link between tourism development and environmental protection is critical for the future success of this productive activity. Uncontrolled development could well destroy attraction to visitors. With adequate planning by government the threat that environmental degradation poses to global tourism can be overcome. Future Directions Tourism is the world largest productive activity. It is embraced by governments as a result of its potential source of income and employment. The future pace and directions of tourisms explosive growth will be determined by: - Affordability Propensity to travel will remain closely aligned to prevailing economic conditions. - Accessibility As transport technology makes long hauls more affordable, more people will be able to participate in international travel. Destinations chosen will reflect perceived security. - Accommodation Tourists will be drawn to destinations which best meets their needs. The tourism industry is attempting to provide travel experiences to meet every budget and situation. - Attractions Technology will continue to develop and enhance the tourism experience. Market research will lead operators to promote new tourist products. - It is likely there will be few barriers to international travel. Tourists will be courted by both the developed and developing countries, for the economic developments. - Those involved in tourism will have to assume greater responsibility. Both the tourist experience and host population should be considered as does environmental quality. - A basic strategy in tourism development is to retain and preserve the aspects that set a destination apart. Environmental codes of ethics and development guidelines should be implemented to keep tourism sustainable and viable in the coming century. - As national boarders open up, the population ages and becomes more affluent, and tourism is promoted increasing numbers of people will travel. - As a productive activity, tourisms importance within the global economy will continue to grow. Classification of tourism A AADI MediTour Accessible tourism
Agritourism Archaeological tourism Atomic tourism B Benefit tourism Bicycle touring Birth tourism Boat sharing Bookstore tourism Booze cruise C Child sex tourism Christian tourism CouchSurfing Cultural tourism D Dark tourism Day-tripper Dental tourism Disaster tourism Drug tourism Dynamic packaging E Escorted tour Excursion Experimental travel Extreme tourism G Garden tourism Genealogy tourism Geotourism Ghetto tourism Grand Tour Guest ranch H Halal tourism Heritage tourism Humane travel L LGBT tourism Literary tourism
M Medical tourism Militarism heritage tourism Music tourism N Nautical tourism P Package holiday Pop-culture tourism Poverty tourism R Religious tourism Responsible Tourism River cruise Romance tours Rural tourism S Sacred travel Safari Scenic route Self-guided tour Setjetting Sex tourism Shark tourism Space tourism Sports tourism Spring break Staycation Suicide tourism Sustainable tourism T Tolkien tourism Tombstone tourist Tourism geography V Village tourism Virtual tour Volunteer travel W Walking tour War tourism Water tourism Whale watching
Wildlife tourism Wine tourism Introducing Dark Tourism
Deaths, disasters and atrocities in touristic form are becoming an increasingly pervasive feature within the contemporary tourism landscape. Indeed, the seemingly macabre within tourism includes people gazing upon former sites of war and battle, whereby organised violence is brought back to life by tour guides offering accounts of heroism, tragedy and personal torment. Similarly, the present day ‘tourist’ can take in Ground Zero, the site of mass murder and carnage on September 11, whilst on a trip to the Big Apple. Other examples of this death-related tourism include excursionists sightseeing in the ruins of New Orleans (after Hurricane Katrina), day-trippers touring the Gulags of the former Soviet Union, and visitors purchasing an ‘atrocity experience’ at former genocide sites such as AuschwitzBirkenau or the Killing Fields of Cambodia. Consequently, the phenomenon by which people visit, purposefully or as part of a broader recreational itinerary, the diverse range of sites, attractions and exhibitions which offer a (re)presentation of death, suffering and the macabre is ostensibly growing within contemporary society. Indeed, it is this seemingly proliferation of ‘tourists’ gazing upon death and ‘other’ suffering that has ushered in the rather emotive label of ‘dark tourism’ into academic discourse. Dark tourism, the generic term for travel associated with death, tragedy and disaster has, over the past few years, witnessed increasing attention from the academic community and media alike. As a result, the area of dark tourism has become a fascinating and important subject to research, both with its implications for the tourism industry, in addition to exploring fundamental relationships with the wider cultural condition of society. Nevertheless, to date, the dark tourism literature remains both eclectic and theoretically fragile. That is, various gaps in our knowledge of dark tourism remain, despite an increasingly number of academics who are beginning to turn their attention to this intriguing research area.
Indeed, many questions remain unanswered about both the production and consumption of dark tourism. Those questions often revolve around visitor typologies, consumption and the motivational drivers of 'dark tourists'. Importantly, questions are now being raised about the role and influence of contemporary society, and in particular, the nature of death and dying upon dark tourism consumption. In addition, dark tourism sites, attractions and exhibitions often present governing bodies and managers with complex moral and ethical dilemmas. Other issues surround the dynamics of commercial development and exploitation, the nature of political heritage and ideology, the act of remembrance, and the role of the media in reporting dark tourism. These issues are often compounded by the extent and type of interpretation and representation employed at 'dark sites'. Consequently, dark tourism raises questions about appropriate political and managerial responses to the range of experiences perceived by visitors, local residents, victims and their relatives. Hence, dark tourism is a fascinating, provocative and emotive concept and requires much more research in order to address some of the issues raised here. However that task is now well underway. There are an increasingly number of death-related visitor sites, attractions and exhibitions, often trading under the guise of remembrance, education and/or entertainment, which attract people eager to consume real and commodified death. Indeed, the act of touristic travel to sites of death, disaster and the macabre is becoming a pervasive cultural activity within contemporary society. From visiting Nazi death camps in eastern Europe as part of a wider holiday itinerary, to enjoying family picnics on battlefields of northern France, or purchasing souvenirs of genocide at Ground Zero, to allowing schoolchildren to gaze upon tools of torture from yesteryear at the London Dungeon, are all illustrations of the seemingly macabre. Consequently, the term ‘dark tourism’ (also know as ‘thanatourism’) has entered academic discourse and media parlance. Essentially dark tourism refers to visits, intentional or otherwise, to purposeful / non-purposeful sites which offer a presentation of death or suffering as the raison d'être (Stone 2005). Likewise, Tarlow (2005:48) identifies dark tourism as ‘visitations to places where tragedies or historically noteworthy death has occurred and that continue to impact our lives’. Of course, travel to and experience of events associated with death, pain or suffering is not a new phenomenon. Whilst religious pilgrimages, for emotional and spiritual reasons, have attracted people to sites of death and violence for centuries, tourists have long been drawn, intentionally or otherwise, to death-related attractions. Early examples may be found in the patronage of Roman gladiatorial games, public executions of the medieval period, guided morgue tours in Victorian Britain, or the early Chamber of Horrors exhibitions of Madame Tussaud's. Presently however, dark tourism is manifested in various forms and subsets. These include Holocaust tourism, battlefield tourism, cemetery tourism, slavery-heritage tourism and prison tourism. It is only recently that dark tourism, in its various shades, has become widespread and seemingly more popular. Whilst it remains unclear as to whether the proliferation of dark tourism is due to an increased supply of attractions and sites, or whether consumers are demanding more and more of the macabre, media inspired or otherwise, death in touristic form is an increasing feature of the contemporary landscape.
Consequently, research within dark tourism is growing and is attracting greater attention from the academic community and media alike. A particularly complex issue revolves around consumption of dark tourism and the motivational drivers of ‘dark tourists’. The question of why people visit such dark sites is intriguing and presents emotive and controversial ideas. Do people, within contemporary society, visit such places out of respect and remembrance? Or do people take a secret pleasure in gazing upon the macabre? Do we contemplate our own mortality at such attractions and exhibitions? Have people a morbid curiosity which triggers the ghoul in us? What is the role of the media and the wider socio-cultural influences upon dark tourism consumption? These questions and many more beside remain, by and large, unanswered. Types of Dark Tourism 1. Witness (war chasing, tornado following) 2. Death Sites (Kennedy, Martin Luther King) 3. Visiting Cemeteries/Internment Sites, Memorials 4. Visiting Museums & Exhibitions (Tussauds, Edinburgh Dungeon, Secret Bunker) 5. Re-enactment/Staged Events World Famous Dark Sites 1. Taj Mahal 2. The Pyramids 3. Pompeii 4. Xian Terracotta warriors 5. KZ Auschwitz Birkenau 6. Dallas 6th Floor Dark Tourism era: Ancient – Pilgrimage and Crusades, viewing London executions, battles Waterloo 1815 Modern – tourism as a rational and educative, from Grand Tour to Museums interpreting war / atrocity so that reoccurrence will be minimized Post Modern - Role of Global Communications, collapsing space and time – catalyst to interest in sites DARK TOURISM: DEFINITIONS AND PERSPECTIVES The term ‘dark tourism’ was first coined by Foley and Lennon (1996a,b), subsequently becoming the title of a book that, arguably, remains the most widely cited study of the phenomenon (Lennon and Foley 2000). Their work was not however the first to focus upon the relationship between tourism and death, whether violent, untimely or otherwise. Sites associated with war and atrocities have long been considered within a broader heritage tourism context, particularly from an interpretative perspective. For example, Uzell (1992) argues for the ‘hot’ interpretation of war and conflict (interpretation that is as intense or passionate as the site/event), whilst Tunbridge and Ashworth’s (1996) subsequent work on ‘dissonant heritage’ develops an important conceptual framework for the management of
such sites. More recently, Wight and Lennon (2007) examine selective interpreta- tion within particular dark heritage sites in Lithuania, suggesting that ‘moral complexities’ ensure important epochs of history remain unchallenged and un-interpreted in the nations’ collective commemoration of the past. Similarly, Muzaini et al (2007) address historical accuracy and interpretation at Singapore’s Fort Siloso, arguing that dark tourism privileges the ‘visual’ and ‘experiential’ over the need for historical rigour. However, Rojek (1993) first introduced the notion of dark attractions with the concept of ‘Black Spots’, or ‘the commercial [touristic] developments of grave sites and sites in which celebrities or large numbers of people have met with sudden and violent death’ (1993:136). Interestingly, Rojek commences his analysis by referring to the hordes of sightseers flocking to the sites of disasters, such as the shores of Zeebrugge in 1987 (the capsizing of the ferry Herald of Free Enterprise) and Lockerbie, Scotland (the crash site of Pan Am 103) in 1988, before going on to discuss three different examples of Black Spots—the annual pilgrimage to the place where James Dean died in a car crash in 1955, the (again) annual candlelight vigil in memory of Elvis Presley at Graceland in Tennessee and the anniversary of JFK’s assassination in Dallas, Texas. These he refers to as postmodern spectacles, repeated reconstructions that are dependent on modern audio-visual media for their continued popularity. Other attractions, such as national and metropolitan cemeteries, are categorized as ‘nostalgic’ sites and it is only later that he goes on to distinguish disaster sites as being ‘analytically distinct from Black Spots as sensation sites’ (Rojek 1997, 63). A similar distinction is made by Blom (2000:32) who defines ‘morbid tourism’ as, on the one hand, tourism that ‘focuses on sudden death and which quickly attracts large numbers of people’ and, on the other hand, ‘an attraction-focused artificial morbidity-related tourism’. Thus, the concept is at once rendered more complex by a number of variables. First, the immediacy and spontaneity of ‘sensation’ tourism to death and disaster sites may be compared with premeditated visits to organized sites or events related to near and/or distant historical occurrences. Second, a distinction exists between purposefully constructed attractions or experiences that interpret or recreate events or acts associated with death, and ‘accidental’ sites (sites, such as graveyards or memorials, that have become attractions ‘by accident’). Third, it is unclear to what extent an ‘interest’ in death is the dominant reason for visiting dark attractions. Finally, questions may be raised about why and how dark sites/experiences are produced or supplied—for example, for political purposes, for education, for entertainment or for economic gain (Ashworth and Hartmann 2005; Stone 2006). These issues are considered shortly but, for Foley and Lennon, the term ‘dark tourism’ relates primarily to ‘the presentation and consumption (by visitors) of real and commodified death and disaster sites’ (1996a:198); a broad definition later refined by their assertion that dark tourism is ‘an intimation of post-modernity’ (Lennon and Foley 2000:11). That is, firstly and reflecting Rojek’s (1993) position, interest in and the interpretation of events associated with death is largely dependent on the ability of global communication technology to instantly report them and, subsequently, repeat them ad infinitum. Secondly, they claim that most dark tourism sites challenge the inherent order, rationality and progress of modernity (as does the concept of postmodernity) and, thirdly, at most sites, the boundaries between the message (educational, political) and their commercialization as tourist products has become increasingly blurred. Consequently, attractions based on events that neither took place ‘within the memories of those still alive to validate them’ (Lennon and Foley 2000:12) nor induce a sense of anxiety about modernity do not qualify. Thus, for these authors, dark tourism is a chronologically modern (twentieth century onwards), primarily
Western phenomenon based upon (for reasons they do not justify) non-purposeful visits due to ‘serendipity, the itinerary of tour companies or the merely curious who happen to be in the vicinity’ (2000:23). As Reader (2003) suggests, this general lack of attention to motivation and, in particular, a reluctance to accept that tourists may positively desire ‘dark’ experiences, is a significant oversight. In contrast, Seaton (1996) argues that dark tourism has a long history, emerging from what he refers to as a ‘thanatoptic tradition’ (the contemplation of death) that dates back to the Middle Ages but that intensified during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries with visits to, for example, the battlefield of Waterloo (Seaton 1999). He proposes that thanatourism is the ‘travel dimension of thanatopsis’, defined as ‘travel to a location wholly, or partially, motivated by the desire for actual or symbolic encounters with death, particularly, but not exclusively, violent death’ (Seaton 1996:240). Importantly, he also suggests that thanatourism is essentially a behavioural phenomenon defined by tourists’ motives, and that a ‘continuum of intensity’ exists dependent upon the differing motives for visiting a site and the extent to which the interest in death is general or person-specific. Thus, visits to disaster sites, such as Ground Zero (Lisle 2004), are a ‘purer’ form of thanatourism (as long as the visitor was not related to a victim) than, say, visiting the grave of a dead relative. There are also, according to Seaton (1996:240–2), just five possible categories of dark travel activity, including: to witness public enactments of death; to sites of individual or mass deaths; to memorials or internment sites; to see symbolic representations of death; and, to witness reenactments of death. Given the difficulty in attaching an all-embracing label to the enormous diversity of dark sites, attractions and experiences, attempts have also been made to identify different forms or intensities of dark tourism. For example, Miles (2002) proposes that a distinction can be made between ‘dark’ and ‘darker’ tourism based upon the location of the site or attraction. Arguing that there is a difference between sites associated with and sites of death, disaster and suffering, then ‘journey/ excursion/pilgrimage to the latter constitutes a further degree of empathetic travel: ‘darker tourism’’ (Miles 2002:1175). Thus, a visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau is, according to Miles, ‘darker’ than one to he US Holocaust Memorial in Washington DC. Moreover, extending is analysis into the temporal dimension (and lending credence to Lennon and Foley’s ‘chronological distance’ argument), he suggests that ‘darkest tourism’ emerges where the spatial advantage of a site of death is amplified by either the recentness of events (i.e. within recent iving memory of visitors) or where past events are transported in ive memory through technology. Importantly, underpinning Miles’ argument is the assumption that a dark tourism experience requires empathy/emotion on the part of the visitor—such empathy is heightened by the spatial-temporal character of the site. Similarly, Sharpley (2005) suggests that, based upon differing intensities of purpose with respect to both supply and demand, different ‘shades’ of dark tourism may be identified. Dependent on both the degree of interest or fascination in death on the part of the tourist and on the extent to which an attraction is developed in order to exploit that interest or fascination, different sites/experiences may be either ‘paler’ or ‘darker’. Thus, darkest or black tourism occurs where a fascination with death is provided for by the purposeful supply of experiences intended to satisfy this fascination, one example being the $65 per person Flight 93 Tour’ to the Pennsylvania crash site of United Airlines 93—one of the 9/11 hijacked aircraft—established and run by a local armer (Bly 2003). The concept of different shades is also explored by tone (2006), who proposes a ‘spectrum of supply’ ranging from the ‘darkest’ to the ‘lightest’ forms of dark tourism. He highlights seven broad categories of ‘suppliers’ characterized by a variety of
spatial, temporal, political and ideological factors which, in turn, determine a perceived intensity of ‘darkness’ within any given dark tourism product Again, however, the fundamental motivational issue remains largely unanswered. In other words, despite the variety of perspectives on dark tourism in the literature, the question of why tourists seek out such dark sites has attracted limited attention. Generally, visitors are seen to be driven by differing intensities of interest or fascination in death, in the extreme hinting at tasteless, ghoulish motivations. More specific reasons vary from morbid fascination or ‘rubbernecking’, through empathy with the victims, to the need for a sense of survival/continuation, untested factors which, arguably, demand verification within a psychology context. Equally, no attempt has been made to explore dark tourism consumption within a sociological framework and, in particular, its fundamental relationship with the death process (Stone 2005b). It is to this that this paper now turns by exploring death and its contemplation in contemporary societies as a basis for developing a model of dark tourism consumption within a thanatological framework. Dark tourism demand and supply Needless to say, no analysis of dark tourism supply can be complete if tourist behaviour and demand for the dark tourism product are not acknowledged. Indeed, it is crucial to the understanding of this phenomenon that an ability to extract and interrogate the motives of socalled dark tourists exists. This is particularly so within a variety of social, cultural and geographical contexts. It is perhaps this fundamental requirement of nderstanding the underside’ and extricating onsumer motivation that is propelling the current darktourism debate (Stone 2005a). Nevertheless, the purpose of this paper is to address, though not necessarily solve, the issue of dark tourism from a supply perspective, which in turn will lay a theoretical underpinning in order to better explore consumer demand. It could be argued of course, that dark tourism is simply a manifestation of consumer demand. As such, Seaton (1996) suggests dark tourism is essentially a behavioural phenomenon, defined by tourist’s motives as opposed to particular characteristics of a site or attraction. However, Seaton’s view rather restricts dark tourism to a demand orientated phenomenon, whilst overlooking important supply aspects. Consequently, Sharpley (2005) suggests it remains unclear as to whether the dark tourism phenomenon is attraction-supply driven or indeed consumer-demand driven. Thus he argues it is important to consider both demand and supply elements in attempting to construct any framework of this phenomenon. Whilst the author indeed accepts this notion, complex demand motivators for the dark tourism product are explored elsewhere, especially with regard to consumer experiences of dark tourism and the meaning of death and dying within contemporary society (Stone and Sharpley forthcoming). Importantly therefore, prior to the more fundamental task of extracting and interrogating consumer demand, the need to appreciate dark tourism supply more fullyis evident. As a diverse and fragmented set of dark tourism suppliers exists, so equally diverse are the motives of tourists who visit and consume these products. However, the argument is that before one can systemically address the fundamental question of why people visit such places, a recognised and structured framework of dark tourism
supply is required to aid the identification, and subsequent research of potential visitors and their experiences to these dark tourism products. Firstly however, it is necessary, through a brief review of the literature, to draw together extant concepts and knowledge of dark tourism as a basis for subsequent discussions. CONSUMING DARK TOURISM: A Thanatological Perspective Travel to and experience of places associated with death is not a new phenomenon. People have long been drawn, purposefully or otherwise, towards sites, attractions or events linked in one way or another with death, suffering, violence or disaster (Stone 2005a; Seaton, Forthcoming). The Roman gladiatorial games, pilgrimages or attendance at medieval public executions were, for example, early forms of such death-related tourism whilst, as Boorstin (1964) alleges, the first guided tour in England was a train trip to witness the hanging of two murderers. Similarly, MacCannell (1989) notes visits to the morgue were a regular feature of nineteenth century tours of Paris, perhaps a forerunner to the ‘Bodyworlds’ exhibitions in London, Tokyo and elsewhere that, since the late 1990s, have attracted visitors in their tens of thousands (Bodyworlds 2006). It is also a phenomenon that, over the last century, has become both widespread and diverse. Smith (1998:205), for example, suggests that sites or destinations associated with war probably constitute ‘the largest single category of tourist attractions in the world’ (also, Henderson 2000), yet war-related attractions, though diverse, are a subset of the totality of tourist sites associated with death and suffering (Dann 1998; Stone 2006). Reference is frequently made either to specific destinations, such as the Sixth Floor in Dallas, Texas (Foley and Lennon 1996a) or to forms of tourism, such as graveyards (Seaton 2002), the holocaust (Beech 2000), atrocities (Ashworth and Hartmann 2005), prisons (Strange and Kempa 2003; Wilson 2004), or slavery-heritage tourism (Dann and Seaton 2001). However, such is the diversity of death-related attractions from the ‘Dracula Experience’ in Whitby, UK or Vienna’s Funeral Museum to the sites of ‘famous’ deaths (Alderman 2002), or major disasters (for example, Ground Zero), that a full categorization is extremely complex (but, see Dann 1998; Stone 2006). Despite the long history and increasing contemporary evidence of travel to sites or attractions associated with death (Perry 2007), it is only relatively recently that academic attention has been focused upon what has been collectively referred to as ‘dark tourism’ (Foley and Lennon 1996b; Lennon and Foley 2000). In particular, a number of attempts have been made to define or label death-related tourist activity, such as ‘thanatourism’ (Seaton 1996), ‘morbid’ (Blom 2000), ‘black-spot’ (Rojek 1993) or, as Dann (1994:61) alliterates, ‘milking the macabre’. Additionally, attempts have been made to analyse specific manifestations of dark tourism, from war museums adopting both traditional and contemporary museology methods of (re)presentation (Wight and Lennon 2004), to genocide commemoration visitor sites and the political ideology attached to such remembrance (Williams 2004). Attention has also been focused, though to a lesser extent, on visitor motivations to seek out such sites or experiences, (Tarlow 2005; Wight 2005), including proposed ‘drivers’ which vary from morbid curiosity, through schadenfreude (Seaton and Lennon 2004), to a collective sense of identity or survival ‘in the face of violent disruptions of collective life routines’ (Rojek 1997, 61). Nevertheless, the literature remains eclectic and theoretically fragile. That is, a number of fundamental issues remain, not least whether it is actually possible or justifiable to categorize
collectively the experience of sites or attractions that are associated with death or suffering as ‘dark tourism’. More specifically, it remains unclear whether dark tourism is demand or supply driven or, more generally, the manifestation of what has been referred to as a (post)modern propensity for ‘mourning sickness’ (West 2004) or what has been termed ‘grief tourism’ (O’Neill 2002). Other questions are also raised, but go unanswered. For example, has there indeed been a measurable growth in ‘tourist interest in recent death, disaster and atrocity . . . in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries’ (Lennon and Foley 2000:3) or is there simply an ever-increasing supply of dark sites and attractions? Are there degrees or ‘shades of darkness’ that can be related to either the nature of the attraction or the intensity of interest in death or the macabre on the part of tourists (Miles 2002; Stone 2006; Strange and Kempa2003)? And, does the popularity of dark sites result from a basic fascination with death, or are there more powerful motivating factors and, if so, what ethical issues surround the exploitation of tragic history (Lennon 2005)? In order to address many of these questions it is necessary to possess some understanding of tourist behaviour with respect to dark sites and attractions. In other words, the analysis of dark tourism cannot be complete without a consideration of why tourists may be drawn towards sites or experiences associated with death and suffering. As noted above, a variety of motives are proposed in the literature, most comprehensively by Dann (1998) who identifies eight influences, including: the fear of phantoms (i.e. overcoming childlike fears); the search for novelty; nostalgia; the celebration of crime or deviance; basic bloodlust; and, at a more practical level, ‘dicing with death’—that is, undertaking journeys, or ‘holidays in hell’ (O’Rourke 1988; Pelton 2003), that challenge tourists or heighten their sense of mortality. However, as Dann (1998) accepts, these categorizations are largely descriptive and may be related more to specific attractions, destinations or activities rather than individuals’ motivations. Conversely, Krakover’s (2005) study of the attitudes of tourists at the Yad Vashem Holocaust commemoration site in Israel considers, to a limited extent, visitor motives. Nevertheless, much of the literature remains supply-side focused whilst the motivation(s) for dark tourism has yet to be revealed and systematically interrogated (Stone 2005b; Seaton and Lennon 2004). The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to address this gap in the literature. Drawing upon contemporary sociological theory related to death and grief in modern societies, it seeks to establish a theoretical foundation for exploring the consumption of dark tourism experiences. More specifically, it proposes a thanatological paradigm of the relationship between contemporary socio-cultural perspectives on death and mortality, consequential responses to the inevitability of human mortality, and the potential role of dark tourism consumption in confronting death and dying. In so doing, it establishes a basis for subsequent theoretical and empirical research into dark tourism in particular, whilst contributing to the contemporary sociology of death more generally. First, however, it is necessary to review briefly the extant literature as a framework for the subsequent discussion. Death and contemporary society Sociology has been traditionally concerned almost exclusively with the problems of life, rather than with the subject of death (Mellor and Shilling 1993). However, Berger’s (1967) seminal text suggested death is an essential feature of the human condition, requiring individuals to develop mechanisms to cope with their ultimate demise.
According to Berger, to neglect death is to ignore one of the few universal parameters in which both the collective and individual self is constructed (Berger 1967). Hence, although death and the discussion of death within the public realm was once considered taboo (DeSpelder and Strickland 2002; Leming and Dickinson 2002; Mannino 1997), or at least proclaimed to be taboo (Walter 1991), commentators are now challenging death taboos, exploring contexts where the dead share the world with the living. In particular, Harrision (2003) examines how the dead are absorbed into the living world by graves, images, literature, architecture and monuments. Similarly, Lee (2002) reviews the disenchantment of death in modernity and, suggesting that death s making its way back into social consciousness, concludes that the ime has come to dissect death without prejudice. He goes on to advocate hat death is ‘coming out of the closet to redefine our assumptions f life’ (2004:155), thus breaking the modern silence (and taboo) on eath. Therefore, although the inevitability of death continues to be disavowed, particularly in contemporary society, it can never be completely denied (Tercier 2005). Indeed, contemporary society increasingly consumes, willingly or unwillingly, both real and commodified death and suffering through audio-visual representations, popular culture and the media. Of course, ‘contemporary society’, or the cultural framework within which (Western) individuals construct coping mechanisms to deal with human finitude, is itself a contested term, particularly within sociological discourse relating to modernity and postmodernity (Lee 2006). According to Giddens (1990; 1991), however, it is misleading to interpret contemporary societies as evidence of a radically new type of social world, whereby the characteristics of modernity have been left behind. He suggests that social life is still being forged by essentially modern concerns, even though it is only now that the implications of these are becoming apparent. Moreover, a Giddensian perspective points in particular to a significant characteristic of contemporary society that can be correlated with death and mortality: namely, an individual’s perceived erosion of personal meaningfulness and rational order which, in turn, is often propelled by the privatization of meaning and sequestration of death within public space. At the same time, when discussing mortality and its contemplation, a critical feature of Western society may be seen in the extensive desacralisation of social life which has failed to replace religious certainties with scientific certainties (Giddens 1991). Whilst the negation of religion and an increased belief in science may have provided people the possibility of exerting a perceived sense of control over their lives (though, crucially, it has not conquered death), it fails to provide values to guide lives (after Weber 1948), leaving individuals vulnerable to feelings of isolation, especially when contemplating death and an end to life projects. Hence, that the ‘secularization of life should be accompanied by the secularization of death should come as no surprise: to live in the modern is to die in it also’ (Tercier 2005:13). Further to this, Giddens (1991) suggests a privatization of meaning in contemporary society, where both experience and meaning have been relocated from public space to the privatized realms of an individual’s life. Consequently, this has served both to both reduce massively the scope of the sacred and to leave increasing numbers of individuals alone with the task of establishing and maintaining values to guide them and make sense of their daily lives. Ultimately, therefore, people require a sense of order and continuity in relation to their daily social lives, to which Giddens (1990; 1991) refers to as ‘ontological security’
Making absent death present: Dark Tourism Neutralization and de-sequestration The social neutralization of death, which may be considered a means of bracketing dread and boosting ontological security, can help to assuage the disruptive impact of death for the individual. At the same time, dark tourism, as reviewed above, is an increasingly pervasive feature in the popular cultural landscape (e.g. Atkinson 2005). Indeed, depending upon the social, cultural and political context (Stone 2006) it may be considered fascinating, educational or even humorous. However, whilst the consumption of death appears to be in inverse ratio to our declining direct experience of death itself, dark tourism, within a thanatological framework, may help explain contemporary approaches to mortality and its contemplation and vice versa. The manner in which this may occur is summarised in the conceptual model in Figure 1. Drawing on the preceding death sequestration and ontological security debates, it demonstrates how, in general, dark tourism may provide a means for confronting the inevitably of one’s own death and that of others. More specifically, dark tourism allows the re-conceptualization of death and mortality into forms that stimulate something other than primordial terror and dread. Despite modern society’s diminishing experience with death as a result of institutional sequestration, Tercier (2005:22) suggests that, whilst people are now spectators to more deaths than in any prior generation, driven by both real and represented images, ‘we see death, but we do not ‘touch’ it’. With this in mind, it is argued that individuals are left isolated in the face of death and, thus, have to call upon their own resources when searching for meanings to cope with the limits of individual existence. Therefore, dark tourism, in its various guises and with its camouflaged and repackaged ‘Other’ death, allows individuals to (uncomfortably) indulge their curiosity and fascination with thanatological concerns in a socially acceptable and, indeed, often sanctioned environment, thus providing them with an opportunity to construct their own contemplations of mortality.
With a degree of infrastructure and normality that surrounds the supply of dark tourism, albeit on varying scales (Stone 2006), the increasingly socially acceptable gaze upon death and its re-conceptualization for entertainment, education or memorial purposes offers both the individual and collective self a pragmatic confrontational mechanism to begin the process of neutralizing the impact of mortality. Consequently, this can help minimize the intrinsic threat that the inevitability of death brings. This neutralizing effect is aided by dark touristic exposures to death, where the process of continued sensitization of dying ultimately results in a sanitization of the subject area. This creates a perceived immunity from death, in addition to a growing acceptance that death will ultimately arrive. Thus, both sensitizing and sanitizing death allows individuals to view their
own death as distant, unrelated to the dark tourism product which they consume, and with a hope that their own death will be a ‘good’ death (Hart et al 1998; Tercier 2005). Furthermore, it can be argued that dark tourism further individualizes and, thus, fragments the meaning of death. Indeed, whilst consuming the dark tourism product, people are generally exposed to the causes of death and suffering of individual people in individual circumstances, thus perhaps encouraging the view of death as avoidable and contingent. As Bauman (1992:6) points out, these kind of deaths are ‘therefore reassuring rather than threatening, since they orient people towards strategies of survival rather than making them aware of the futility of all [life] strategies in the face of mortality’. Of course, given the enormous diversity both of dark tourism places and of the needs, experience and expectations of visitors, in addition to various socio-cultural circumstances of individuals, the potential effectiveness of dark tourism consumption as a mechanism for confronting, understanding and accepting death will vary almost infinitely. It may be argued, for example, that war cemeteries, sites of mass disasters, memorials to individual or multiple deaths/acts of personal sacrifice and so on may be more powerful and positive means of confronting death than more ‘playful’ attractions, such as ‘houses of horror’. Certainly, a visit to Gallipoli, where the mass graves of the fallen (including that of a young British soldier who died before reaching his 17th birthday) lie above the beaches and cliffs, is an inevitably emotive and meaningful experience, verifying, perhaps, the cultural and popularised representations (both visual— the Mel Gibson movie Gallipoli—and musical) of that tragic event. Similarly, the proposed Tsunami ‘Mountains of Remembrance’ memorial in Khao Lak-Lam Ru National Park in Thailand may provide a focus for contemplation, mourning, hope and survival (Gerfen 2006). Conversely, contemporary visitors to places such as Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps, perhaps the epitome of a dark tourism destination, may come simply ‘out of curiosity or because it is the thing to do’ (Tarlow 2005:48) rather than for more meaningful purposes (but, see Marcuse 2001). Importantly, this latter point may result in any potential meaning of mortality within contemporary society as consequential to the visit. In other words, tourists may implicitly take away meanings of mortality from their visit, rather than explicitly seek to contemplate death and dying as a primary motivation to visit any dark site. Additionally, the level of mortality meaning to the individual will undoubtedly depend upon their socio-cultural background, and of course, to the varying ‘intensities of darkness’ perceived in any given dark product and/or experience Nevertheless, as this paper has already suggested, the present cultural condition of contemporary Western society calls for a revaluation of meaning systems which, in general, permit individuals to confront mortality. Hence, the re-conceptualization of death through dark tourism allows for the reconstruction of a replacement meaning system, whereby the reflexive deconstruction of religious orders are being relocated and reconstructed by the consumption of image and the pseudo. Accordingly, dark tourism may offer a revival of death within the public domain, thereby desequestering mortality and ensuring absent death is made present, transforming (private) death into public discourse and a communal commodity upon whichto gaze. For this reason, dark tourism may offer a new social institution whereby the functional value of death and mortality is acknowledged, its precariousness is appreciated, and efforts to assure ontological well-being and security become a source of not only playfulness, humour and entertainment but also education and memorial.
Indeed, its consumption may allow the individual a sense of meaning and understanding of past disasters and macabre events that have perturbed life projects. This new understanding may, in turn, help shore up the fragility of the self’s survival strategy. Thus, dark tourism can potentially transform the seemingly meaningless into the meaningful through the commodification, explanations and representations of darkness that have impacted upon the collective self. This, in turn, may allow the individual to confront and contemplate their own mortality by gazing upon macabre illusions and images. Subsequently, the confrontation of death and contemplation of mortality, within a socially acceptable dark tourism environment, may potentially bracket out some of the sense of dread death inevitably brings, by insulating the individual with information and potential understanding and meaning. Of course, it may be also the case that particular dark sites do not provide the sense of ‘meaning’ that a particular visitor may be seeking, thus negating the effectiveness of the overall bracketing process and the ability to keep any ‘dread threats’ at bay. Nonetheless, within dark tourism, death becomes real (again) for the individual. Consequently, the real is represented so that the represented might become real. In other words, real actual death is (represented and commodified within dark tourism sites in order for it to become existentially valid and therefore inevitable for the individual who wishes to gaze upon this ‘Other’ death. Dark Tourism: Attraction of death, disaster and macabre As mortal finite beings, as we shall live so we shall die. It is this very premise of the human condition that lies at the crux of the dark tourism concept. It could be argued that we have always held a fascination with death, whether our own or others, through a combination of respect and reverence or morbid curiosity and superstition. However, it is (western) society’s apparent contemporary fascination with death, real or fictional, media inspired or otherwise, that is seemingly driving the dark tourism phenomenon. Further to this, Marcel (2004) noted the range and diversity of dark tourism supply when she examined whether ‘death makes a holiday’, and consequently suggested that dark tourism is the dirty little secret of the tourism industry. Nevertheless, before the democratization of travel dark tourism had a number of precursors, and indeed death has been an element of tourism longer than any other form of tourism supply, often through religious or pilgrimage purposes (Seaton 1996; also see Sharpley and Sundaram 2005). Early examples of dark tourism may be found in the patronage of Roman gladiatorial games. With death and suffering at the core of the gladiatorial product, and its eager consumption by raucous spectators, the Roman Colosseum may be considered one of the first dark tourist attractions. Other precursors to dark tourism may be seen in the public executions of the medieval period up until the nineteenth century. As public spectacles, executions served as visible reminders of deterrence and retribution. Yet with the advent of more formalised arrangements to accommodate visiting voyeurs, public executions increasingly took on the characteristics of a spectator event. Indeed, execution sites such as Tyburn in London boasted specially erected grandstands to offer better vantage points to see the condemned die.
In a similar vein, this fascination with ‘Other Death’ may be seen in the alleged first guided tour in England, whereby in 1838 a railway excursion in Cornwall took in the hanging of two convicted murderers (Boorstin 1987). Other early examples of dark tourism may be found in the guided morgue tours of the Victorian period, the Chamber of Horrors exhibition of Madame Tussauds, or in ‘correction houses’ of the nineteenth century where galleries were built to accommodate fee-paying visitors who witnessed flogging as a recreational activity. However, dark tourism over the last century has become more widespread and varied. Smith (1998) for example, suggests that sites or destinations associated with war probably constitute ‘the largest single category of tourist attractions in the world’ (also see Henderson 2000). Yet war-related attractions, though themselves diverse, are a subset of the totality of tourist sites associated with death and suffering (Dann 1998). Additionally, within the literature, reference is frequently made either to specific destinations, such as the Sixth Floor in Dallas, Texas (Foley and Lennon 1996) or to forms of tourism, such as visits to graveyards (Seaton 2002) and celebrity death sites (Alderman 2002), holocaust tourism (Ashworth 1996), prison tourism (Strange and Kempa 2003), or slaveryheritage tourism (Dann and Seaton 2001). Such is the diversity of macabre-related attractions, from fictional death in the ‘Dracula Experience’ in Whitby, UK, or recreated death in the London Dungeon, UK, to the sites of real ‘famous’ deaths (James Dean, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley – see Alderman 2002) or major disasters (Ground Zero and New Orleans), that a full categorisation of supply is complex and multifaceted. However despite the apparent difficulties, Dann (1998) does offers a comprehensive, if not playfully constructed inventory of dark tourism main forms. In particular, he presents a multitude of examples under five principal categories, namely perilous places, houses of horror, fields of fatality, tours of torments and themed thanatos. Within these principal categories, Dann further lists eleven sub-categories which again reveal the diversity of contemporary sites, attractions and exhibitions that are referred to as dark tourism. Nevertheless, despite the long history, the varied nature of products, and increasing contemporary evidence of travel to sites or attractions associated with death, it is only relatively recently that academic attention has been focused upon what has been collectively referred to as ‘dark tourism’. In particular, a number of attempts have been made to label macabre-related tourism activity, such as the previously mentioned ‘thanatourism’ (Seaton 1996; also see below), ‘morbid tourism’ (Blom 2000), ‘black-spot tourism’ (Rojek 1993) or, as Dann (1994: 61) alliterates, ‘milking the macabre’. In particular, these attempts have been to analyse specific examples or manifestations of dark tourism, from battlefields to hyper-real experiences. Attention has also been focused, though to a much lesser extent, on exploring the reasons or purposes underpinning tourists’ desire to seek out such sites or experiences, the proposed ‘drivers’ of dark tourism, which to date are suggested to vary from a simple morbid curiosity or a malicious indulgence in another person’s suffering, through schadenfreude (Seaton and Lennon 2004), to a collective sense of identity or survival ‘in the face of violent disruptions of collective life routines’ (Rojek 1997: 110). Despite the term ‘dark tourism’ being first coined by Foley and Lennon (1996), their work was not the first to focus upon the relationship between tourism attractions and an interest in death and the macabre. In particular, Rojek (1993:136) considers the concept of ‘Black Spots’, or ‘the commercial developments of grave sites and sites in which celebrities or large
numbers of people have met with sudden and violent death’. Interestingly, Rojek introduces his analysis by making reference to the hordes of sightseers flocking to the sites of disasters, such as the shores of Zeebrugge in 1987 (the capsizing of the ferry Herald of Free Enterprise) and Lockerbie, Scotland (the crash site of Pan Am 103) in 1988, before going on to discuss three different examples of Black Spots – the annual pilgrimage to the place where James Dean died in a car crash in 1955, the annual candlelight vigil in memory of Elvis Presleyat Graceland in Tennessee, and the anniversary of JFK’s ssassination in Dallas, Texas. These he refers to as ostmodern spectacles, repeated reconstructions that are dependent on modern audio-visual media for their ontinued popularity. Other attractions, such as national and metropolitan cemeteries, are categorized as’ nostalgic’ sites and it is only later that he goes on to distinguish disaster sites as being ‘analytically distinct from Black Spots as sensation sites’ (Rojek 1993:63). A similar distinction is made by Blom (2000:26) who defines ‘morbid tourism’ as, on the one hand, tourism that ‘focuses on sudden death and which quickly attracts large numbers of people’ and, on the other hand, ‘an attraction-focused artificial morbidity-related tourism’. Thus, the concept of dark tourism and its production is immediately rendered more complex by a number of variables, including: • The immediacy and spontaneity of dark ‘sensation’ ourism to sites of contemporary death and suffering, compared with premeditated visits to structured and organized attractions or exhibitions which portray recent and /or distant historical occurrences. • The distinction between purposefully constructed sites, attractions or exhibitions, that interpret or recreate events or acts associated with death and the macabre and so-called ‘accidental’ or non-purposeful sites. That is, those sites, such as cemeteries, memorials, or disaster sites that have become tourist attractions ‘by accident’ because of their relationship with turbulent and tragic events. • The extent to which an ‘interest’ in death and suffering (to witness the death of others, to dice with death in dangerous places (Pelton 2003), to learn about the death of famous people, and so on) is the dominant reason for visiting dark attractions, and how supply caters for this apparent ‘interest’. • The fundamental reasons why and how dark sites/ experiences are produced or supplied – for example, political reasons, for remembrance purposes, for education, for entertainment or for economic gain. These issues are considered shortly when the paper discusses a typological framework for dark tourism supply, but firstly to return to the work of Foley and Lennon, their use of the term ‘dark tourism’ relates primarily to the presentation and consumption (by visitors) of real and commodified death and disaster sites (1996). This rather broad definition is later refined by their assertion that dark tourism is ‘an intimation of postmodernity’ (Lennon and Foley 2000:11). That is, firstly, interest in and the interpretation of events associated with death is to a large extent dependent on the ability of global communication technology to instantly report macabre and death-related events and, subsequently, repeat them ad infinitum (hence compression of time and space). Secondly, they claimed that most dark tourism sites challenge the inherent order, rationality and progress of modernity – as does the concept of postmodernity (see Best and Kellner 2001) and, thirdly, at most sites, the boundaries between the message (educational, political)
and their commercialisation as tourist products has become increasingly blurred and thus dedifferentiated. As a result of these rather strict, selfimposed parameters, sites, attractions and exhibitions based on events that neither took place ‘within the memories of those still alive to validate them’ (Lennon and Foley 2000:12) nor induce a sense of anxiety about modernity do not qualify as dark tourism. Thus, for these authors, dark tourism is subject to ‘chronological distance’ (i.e. where people still living can validate ‘dark events’), and is primarily a western phenomenon based upon non-purposeful visits due to ‘serendipity, the itinerary of tour companies or the merely curious who happen to be in the vicinity’ (2000:23). As Reader (2003) suggests in his review of Lennon and Foley’s work, this lack of attention to much wider geographical contexts, or to motivation in general and an evident reluctance to accept that tourists may positively desire ‘dark’ experiences, and thus perhaps allowing supply to develop to cater for demand, overlook essential dimensions of dark tourism studies. In contrast to Lennon and Foley’s somewhat restricted focus, Seaton (1996) argues that dark tourism has a long history, emerging from what he refers to as a ‘thanatoptic tradition’ (i.e. the contemplation of death) that dates back to the Middle Ages but which intensified during the Romantic period of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He cites a number of attractions, including graves, prisons, and public executions and, in particular, the battlefield of Waterloo to which tourists flocked from 1816 onwards. He also cites Pompeii, scene of destruction and natural disaster in ancient times as ‘the greatest thanatoptic ravel destination of the Romantic period’ (Seaton 1996). eaton goes on to argue that dark tourism is the ‘travel imension of thanatopsis’ (hence thanatourism), defined s ‘travel to a location wholly, or partially, motivated y the desire for actual or symbolic encounters with eath, particularly, but not exclusively, violent death’(1996:15). Based on this behavioural perspective, Seaton suggests five categories of dark travel activities: • Travel to witness public enactments of death – though public executions now occur in relatively few countries. However Rojek’s (1997) sensation tourism at disaster ites may fall under this heading. • Travel to see the sites of individual or mass deaths after they have occurred. This embraces an enormous variety of sites, from battlefields (e.g. Gallipoli), death camps (e.g. Auschwitz) and sites of genocide (e.g. Cambodia’s ‘Killing Fields’) to places where celebrities died (such as the site of James Dean’s death in a car crash referred to above), the sites of publicized murders(e.g. Soham in the UK where two young girls were murdered in 2002), or the homes of infamous murderers(e.g. 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester UK, where Fred West and his wife committed serial murder and sexual crimes). • Travel to memorials or internment sites, including graveyards, cenotaphs, crypts and war memorials. The reasons for such visits are diverse, from an interest in brass-rubbing or epitaph collection (see Seaton 2002) to pilgrimages, or to the resting place of the (in) famous. • Travel to see evidence or symbolic representations of death at unconnected sites, such as museums containing weapons of death (e.g. the Royal Armouries in Leeds, UK) or exhibitions that reconstruct specific events or activities. As Dann (1998) notes, these ‘morbid museums’ may focus on selected themes and thus, be’ less concerned with historical accuracy’.
• Travel for re-enactments or simulation of death. As Seaton (1996) suggests, this originally took the form of plays or festivals with a religious theme though, over the last century, ‘secular derivations’, such as the reenactment of famous battles by groups or societies, have become increasingly popular. Importantly, Seaton (reflecting Lennon and Foley’s (2000) position) also suggests that the role of the media has been central to this growth in tourism to sites, attractions and exhibitions associated with death, principally through increasing the geographical specificity of murder and violent death and, more recently, through global communication technology that televises events almost as they happen into people’s ‘living rooms’ around the world (also, Seaton and Lennon 2004). Dark tourism spectrum As dark tourism products are multifaceted, complex in design and purpose, and diverse in nature, it is perhaps clear that the universal term ‘dark’ as applied to tourism is too broad and does not readily expose the multilayers of dark tourism supply. Therefore, it is perhaps prudent to argue for an analysis that accounts for multiple shades of dark tourism, with respect to identifiable product traits, characteristics and perceptions. One such study that has begun this task is Strange and Kempa’s (2003) examination of product design of two former penal institutions, and the specific influence of external political bodies upon interpretation within these institutions. In particular they examine the former US prison of Alcatraz, where infamous criminals were once held and where now Hollywood tutored visitors consume a product fondly known as ‘the Rock’. In comparison, Strange and Kempa also analyse Robben Island in South Africa, a former penal complex for political prisoners of the Apartheid era (including Nelson Mandela). In essence, they suggest that despite the two former penal institutions having certain design features in common, the political and cultural agendas that surround the two sites, have a profound influence upon ‘memory managers’ who seek to interpret the sites’ dark pasts. Ultimately, they suggest that whilst Alcatraz’s presentation is already overshadowed by commercial and entertainment values, Robben Island has yet to succumb to its ‘theme park marketing potential’ (Shackley 2001) and possesses a higher degree of political influence in its design and interpretation, and as such promotes a product of remembrance, commemoration and education. Thus, the implication is that Robben Island is perceived a ‘shade more serious’ in its contemporary representation of penal (in)justice than its Alcatraz counterpart. Consequently, despite the main draw of these products being a highly emotional and politically charged heritage product – easy to market yet tricky to interpret (Shackley 2001; Strange 2000), some commentators suggest the heritage sector in general is an inappropriate and even immoral vehicle for the presentation of death and human suffering (Hewison 1987; McConnell 1992; Urry 1995; Walsh 1992). As a result, questions have been raised about the distinction between authentic and inauthentic history. Indeed, one of the main contentions is how ‘dark history sites’ (e.g. Auschwitz-Birkenau), with a dominant conservational and commemorative ethic are portrayed as real, whilst it is the heritage industry, with a commercial orientation and a tendency to seemingly romanticise
and thus distort past dark deeds (e.g. Galleries of Justice, UK), that is often seen as the guardians of the real. Macdonald (1997: 156-157) in particular, calls for more attention to be paid ‘to the authorial intentions and authenticating devices at work in heritage sites’. However, despite the notion of entertainment and co modification of (dark) history for mass consumption (e.g. spooky tours of the London Dungeon, UK), which often leads to the charge of trivialization and product in authenticity, it does not preclude the presentation of counter-hegemonic stories, tales of injustice or dark deeds committed in recent or distant memory. As Seaton (1999) notes, production of the dark and disturbing past is not only driven by consumer tastes, which are often media influenced, and by commercial marketing ploys on behalf of the supplier, but is also subject to changes in the wider political and cultural climate. Therefore, shades of darkness within the dark tourism product can shift as events (such as wars, acts of terrorism, or the fall of a regime) transpire, and as new ‘files of representation’ (movies, novels, memoirs, etc.) lend moral meanings to sites of death and the macabre (Rojek and Urry 1997). Further to this notion of a perceived shift of ‘darkness’ between products, Miles (2002) suggests that a ‘darkerlighter tourism paradigm’ does indeed exist. He argues there is a distinction between ‘dark’ and ‘darker’ tourism, that is, a greater notion of the macabre and the morose can exist between sites. Based upon the temporal dimension and spatial affinity with a site, Miles proposes there is a crucial difference between sites associated with death and suffering, and sites that are of death and suffering. Thus, according to Miles, the product (and experience) at the death camp site at Auschwitz-Birkenau is conceivably darker than the one at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC. The main contention is that the US Holocaust Memorial Museum is merely associated with death, whilst Auschwitz-Birkenau is of death and possesses a crucial locational authenticity within its product design. Consequently, he suggests that dark touristic sites must engender a degree of empathy between the sightseer and the past victim (or product). This empathy, as maintained by Miles, is amplified through the spatial affinity in the dark tourism product design. In addition, he advocates the temporal dimension of dark sites will also add to the empathy of visitors, and thus important in how the product is perceived, produced and ultimately consumed. In particular, and supporting the notion of ‘chronological distance’, as outlined by Lennon and Foley (2000), Miles suggests that recent death and tragic events that may be transported in live memory through survivors or witnesses are perhaps ‘darker’ than other events that have descended into the distant past. Thus, those dark events which possess a shorter time frame to the present, and therefore can be validated by the living and which evokes a greater sense of empathy, are perhaps products which may be described as ‘darker’. In a similar vein, Sharpley (2005) suggests that, based upon differing intensities of purpose with respect to both the supply of and consumption of dark tourism, then different ‘shades’ of dark tourism may be identified. That is, dependent on both the degree of interest or fascination in death on the part of the tourist and on the extent to which an attraction or exhibition is developed in order to exploit that interest or fascination, different sites / experiences may be either ‘paler’ or ‘darker’. Thus, accordingly to Sharpley, darkest or black tourism occurs where a fascination with death is provided for by the purposeful supply of experiences intended to satisfy this fascination.
He then suggests an example being the $65 per person ‘Flight 93 Tour’ to the Pennsylvania crash site of United Airlines 93 – one of the 9/11 hijacked aircraft – established and run by a local farmer (Bly 2003). However, whilst further practical examples of the ‘blackest’ form of tourism may be difficult to locate, it is suggested that supply which is non-purposeful, that is, the original intent of the site was not to attract visitors and as such provides a comparably limited tourism infrastructure (e.g. the sites of murder such as in Soham, UK) may be considered ‘darker’- a notion which supports Miles claim that a sites’ spatial affinity and ultimately ‘purposefulness’ may be correlated to perceived ‘darkness’ within the product design. Considering the idea that some sites may now offer a darker product (and experience), depending upon product traits and perceptions, it is possible to begin to formulate a conceptual framework in which to locate arious types of ‘dark suppliers’. The idea of a ‘spectrum’,as outlined in Figure 1, takes into account possible shades of darkness, that is, a perceived level of‘macabreness’ within a overall dark tourism product. Ranging from
‘darkest’ through to ‘lightest’ products, which are characterized by dominating design features, such as whether a product has an educational or commercial ethic, or whether a product has spatial affinity with a site, or whether a higher level of political influence and ideology is apparent within the product purpose and interpretation, and so on, one may be able to locate a product and typify it, albeit, in a rather ‘loose’ and fluid manner. Whilst the implications (and limitations) of this ‘spectrum of supply’ are outlined in the concluding discussions of this paper, it is possible, using the parameters of this conceptual framework, to begin the task of building a typological foundation for dark tourism supply, and it is this that attention is now turned to by outlining ‘Seven Dark Suppliers’. Seven dark suppliers–the dark tourism product i) Dark Fun Factories A Dark Fun Factory alludes to those visitor sites, attractions and tours which predominately have an entertainment focus and commercial ethic, and which present real or fictional death and macabre events. Indeed, these types of products possess a high degree of tourism infrastructure, are purposeful and are in essence ‘fun-centric’, and may occupy the lightest edges of the ‘dark tourism spectrum’. Essentially Dark Fun Factories offer sanitized products in terms of representation and are perhaps perceived as less authentic.
London Dungeon Visitor Attraction, UK, A socially acceptable environment to gaze upon the macabre ii) Dark Exhibitions Dark Exhibitions refer to those exhibitions and sites which essentially blend the product design to reflect education and potential learning opportunities. With a Dark Fun Factory offering a commercial and more entertainment based product, Dark Exhibitions offer products which revolve around death, suffering or the macabre with an often commemorative, educational and reflective message. Thus, these products are perhaps perceived as more ‘serious’ and possess a ‘darker edge’, and thus may be typified towards the darker periphery of the ‘dark tourism spectrum’. iii) Dark Dungeons
Dark Dungeons refer to those sites and attractions which present bygone penal and justice codes to the present day consumer, and revolve around (former) prisons and courthouses. These product types essentially have a combination of entertainment and education as a main merchandise focus, possess a relatively high degree of commercialism and tourism infrastructure, and occupy sites which were originally non-purposeful for dark tourism. Consequently, it is suggested that Dark Dungeons may occupy the centre-ground of the ‘dark tourism spectrum’ with a mixture of dark and light elements.
Old Melbourne Gaol,Visitors touring the former prison landings iv) Dark Resting Places Dark Resting Places focuses upon the cemetery or grave markers as potential products for dark tourism. Consequently, the cemetery within contemporary society is acting as a romanticised, if not rather macabre, urban regeneration tool. In particular, tourism planners often use the cemetery as a mechanism to promote visitation to an area, conserve the structural integrity of landscape and architecture, and sustain the ecology of local environments. With an increasing infrastructure being built around these Dark Resting Places, mainly through association groups, the use of the internet and dedicated guide tours, the cemetery is fast becoming a place where the living are ‘charmed’ by the dead.
Weaste Cemetery, Salford, UK
Pere-Lachaise Cemetery, Paris,Visitors amongst the gravestones
v) Dark Shrines Dark Shrines are those sites which essentially ‘trade’ on the act of remembrance and respect for the recently deceased. Hence Dark Shrines are often constructed, formally or informally, very close to the site of death and within a very short time period of the death occurring. Thus, it is suggested that Dark Shrines may occupy the darker periphery of the ‘dark tourism spectrum’. In addition, these types of events dominate the media agenda for relatively short periods of time, hence attaching a higher level of political awareness and influence to a particular Dark Shrine site during the ‘media period’.
Death of Diana, Princess of Wales, Temporal Shrine to a Dead Princess vii) Dark Conflict Sites Activities, sites or destinations associated with warfare are a major component of the wider tourist attraction market. Thus this category, termed here Dark Conflict Sites, revolve around war and battlefields and their commodification as potential tourism products. Indeed, Dark Conflict Sites essentially have an educational and commemorative focus, are history-centric and are originally non-purposeful in the dark tourism context.
War semetary
War Bunkers, Ypres , Preserved to Remind / Conserved to Retell
vii) Dark Camps of Genocide Dark Camps of Genocide represents those sites and places which have genocide, atrocity and catastrophe as the main thanatological theme, and thus occupy the darkest edges of the ‘dark tourism spectrum’. Mercifully, genocide sites are not particularly common, but do exist in
places such as Rwanda, Cambodia, and Kosovo. However, those sites which do exist for touristic consumption, such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, are macabre in the extreme, despite offering limited site interpretation.
Gas Chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Tourists gazing upon former machinery of death
Auschwitz-Birkenau
Dark Camps of Genocide are produced to provide the ultimate emotional experience whereby visitors ‘sightsee in the mansions of the dead’. With a product design revolving around education and commemoration, and unlike Dark Exhibitions, are located at the actual site of the death-event, Dark Camps of Genocide tell the terrible tales of human suffering and infliction and have a high degree of political ideology attached to them. Celebrity Death Sites A list of celebrities, whose deaths were the result of murder or suicide, including the location of their death sites O. J. Simpson Murder Case. O.J's wife Nicole Simpson was found in a pool of blood outside of 875 (now renumbered 879)S. Bundy Drive, Brentwood on 12th. June 1994 at Midnight, her throat had been slashed. Also found stabbed to death there was her friend Ron Goldman. Simpson was later tried but found not guilty of her murder. River Phoenix. The Viper Room. 8852 Sunset Blvd. River Phoenix collapsed and died of a drug overdose on the pavement outside of this Rock Club on Halloween night 1993 he was 23 years old. Don Simpson. 685 Stone Canyon Rd, Beverly Hills. Don Simpson was one of Hollywood's most successful producers of the 80's & 90's with hits like Top Gun - Bev/Hills Cop Flashdance - The Rock etc Died of a drugs overdose here in a upstairs bathroom on 19th Jan 1996. His story being the subject of the film You'll Never Make Love in This Town Again. Phil Hartman. 5065 Encino Avenue, Encino. It was here that Phil was shot to death in his sleep, by his wife Brynn on 28th. May 1998. He was 49 years old, his wife later committed suicide. Brian Keith. 23449 Malibu Col. Rd. Malibu. It was here at his Malibu home that actor Brian Keith committed suicide by shooting himself on 24th. June 1997.
Margaux Hemingway. 139 Fraser Street, Santa Monica. Granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway who committed suicide with an overdose of pills on 2nd. July 1996. This was the anniversary of Ernest Hemingway's own suicide. Haing S. Ngor 945 N.Beaudry Ave. Downtown, Los Angeles. Oscar winning actor of "The Killing Fields" was robbed and shot to death outside his home on 25th. February 1996. Ray Combs. 1509 E. Wilson Terrace. Glendale Adventist Hospital where game show host Ray Combs committed suicide by hanging himself with bed sheets, in his room on 2nd June 1996. Del Shannon. 15519 Saddleback Rd. Canyon Country. Singer famous for the hit Runaway committed suicide here at his home, by shooting himself in the head, on 8th February 1990. John Belushi. 8221 Sunset Blvd. It was here in March 1982, in bungalow 3 of the Chateau Marmont, that actor John Belushi star of such movies as Animal House & The Blues Brothers died of a drugs overdose aged 33. Marvin Gaye. 2101 S. Gramercy Place. The family home where motown singer Marvin Gaye was shot dead by his father during an argument in April 1984. I Heard it Through the Grapevine was perhaps his biggest hit, his minister father was later sentenced to 5 years probation for voluntary manslaughter. Dorothy Stratten 10881 Clarkson Rd, Westwood. The house where Playboy centerfold Dorothy was murdered on 14th.August 1980 by her husband, after he had learnt of her affair with director Peter Bogdanovich. Dennis Wilson. Basin C of Marina Del Ray. Beach Boys drummer Dennis drowned on 28th.Dec.1983 aged 39 whilst swimming under his boat "Emerald" in basin C. William Holden 535 Ocean Avenue, Santa Monica. Was found dead here in his apartment on the 5th.floor after apparently falling and striking his head then bleeding to death in 1981. Dominique Dunne 8723 Rangely Ave, W/Hollywood. The home of actress Dominique who played the older sister Dana in Poltergeist. She was strangled and murdered here, by her ex boyfriend John Sweeney, on the driveway in October 1982, she was 22 years old. Frank Christi. 6969 Woodrow Wilson Drive. Bad guy actor of TV series such as The Rockford Files & Charlie's Angels also appeared in The Godfather. Gunned downed here in his carport by drug dealers in 1982. Tim Hardin. 625 Orange Drive, Hollywood. Singer/Songwriter Tim writer of songs such as Reason to Believe & If I was a Carpenter died here of a drug overdose on 29th.Dec.1980. Janis Joplan. 7047 Franklin Ave. Hollywood. Landmark Hotel. (now called Highland Gardens) is where Janis died of a drugs overdose in room 105 on 4th. Oct.1970 she was 27 years old.
Freddie Prinze. 86575 Comstock Ave. Westwood. It was in this apartment that comic Freddie committed suicide by shooting himself in 1977 he was 22 years old. Sal Mineo 8563 Holloway Drive. W/Hollywood. It was here that actor Sal Mineo was robbed and stabbed to death in Feb.1976 at the age of 37 in the carport of his apartment building. Sal together with his co-stars of Rebel Without a Cause, James Dean - Natalie Wood and Nick Adams all died of a violent or unusual death. Jack Cassidy 1221 N. King's Rd, W/Hollywood. Where actor Jack Cassidy former husband of Shirley Jones and father of singer David died in an apartment fire in 1976. He had gone to sleep holding a lighted cigarette, igniting the couch on which he had fallen asleep. Pete Duel. 2552 Glen Green Terrace, Hollywood Hills. The house where actor Pete, who played Joshua Smith in the TV series Alias Smith & Jones put a gun to his head and shot himself in 1971. Marilyn Monroe. 12305 Fifth Helena Drive, Brentwood. Marilyn's last home where she was found dead of an apparent drugs overdose on 5th August 1962. An overdose which as been disputed to this day in many books and articles. Sam Cooke. 9137 S. Figueroa Street. Hacienda Motel (now called The Star Motel) was where soul singer Sam Cooke was shot and killed by the manager in December 1964. Robert Kennedy. Ambassador Hotel. 3400 Wilshire Blvd. It was here in the pantry that Robert Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968 by Sirhan Sirhan. He had just finished his victory speech for the Californian Primary and was just leaving when he was gunned down. Sharon Tate. 10050 Cielo Drive, Beverly Hills. The house where Sharon Tate was living when she and 5 others were slaughtered by Members of the Charles Manson Family on 9th Aug 1969. This house was demolished in 1994, rebuilt and the number changed to 10066. Dianne Linkletter 8787 Shoreham Drive, W/Hollywood. The 6th. floor apartment from which Dianne daughter of Art jumped to her death in 1969 whilst on LSD. Nick Adams. 2126 El Roble Lane, Beverly Hills. The home of actor Nick Adams who died of an overdose here in 1968 The Black Dahlia On January 15, 1947, Elizabeth Short's body was discovered on a vacant lot of the 3800 block of South Norton Avenue in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, cut in half at the waist and mutilated. Lenny Bruce. 8825 Hollywood Blvd. W/Hollywood. It was in this home that Lenny killed himself of a drugs overdose in 1966. Portrayed in the 1974 film Lenny by Dustin Hoffman he was 41 years old. Carole Landis. 1465 Capri Drive, Pacific Palisades. This is where actress Carole killed herself in 1948 with a drugs overdose her affair with Rex Harrison had just ended and her career was on the skids. rex Harrison found her body on the bathroom floor she was 29 yrs. old.
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel 810 Linden Drive, Beverly Hills. It was in this house that Bugsy Siegel was shot & killed through the window by hit men on 20th June 1947 he was aged 41. Bugsy had just built the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas with mob money, the building costs had run so over budget Bugsy was thought to be skimming money for himself. Meyer Lansky & Lucky Luciano therefore ordered the hit on their childhood friend. His story was told in the 1991 film Bugsy in which Warren Beatty played Bugsy. Peg Entwistle. The Hollywood Sign. On the night of 18th.Sept.1932 English actress Peg Entwistle climbed to the top of the 50ft.high letter H of the sign. Then whilst the signs lights glittered jumped to her death. She was and still is the only person to have committed suicide by jumping from the sign. Gettysburg – The Sacred Ground Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania, the scene of the largest conflict ever fought in the Western Hemisphere, is considered by many to be the final turning point of the Civil War. For three days, the brave armies of the North and South fought against each other, each equally strong in their beliefs, and each reluctant to accept defeat. In the rolling hills and wooded areas of the battlefield, the Union army gathered their forces atop Cemetery Hill and drove the remaining Confederate soldiers into the Valley of Death. This was the grim scene at Gettysburg on the first three days of July 1863, where 51,000 men lay dead, wounded, captured, or missing. As might be expected, the Union soldiers were honored with proper burial soon after the battle and in Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address, the National Soldiers Cemetery was dedicated. Some seven years later, the bodies of Confederate soldiers were moved from burial plots on the field to their rightful place in the Cemetery. However, within the battlefield area itself, there are only two national monuments in honor of the courageous soldiers of the South. Immediately after the battle, relatives and friends on the Union side were allowed permission to search for their loved ones; yet, the invitation was not extended to the defeated South. A few years later, in an effort to bring in tourism, the railroad was extended from nearby major cities and a casino, photography studio, and dance pavilion were built upon the sacred ground. Overrun by pleasure-seeking tourists, out for a good time, Gettysburg soon fell prey to the prostitutes and the gamblers, the vendors and the barkeepers, each seeking to profit from the tourist trade. The past, after all, was the past and there was money to be made. The automobile made it just that much easier and quicker to reach Gettysburg, a chance to get out of the city for a few days. Through the ongoing efforts of veterans, private citizens, and a few concerned public officials, the preservation of Gettysburg slowly took shape. Today, there are over 1,600 monuments, plaques, and memorials on the battlefield, the majority of which are in honor of the Union army. In reality, this over abundance of memorials seems to lose their significance when one considers that the entire battlefield is in itself a memorial. In 1895, President Cleveland established Gettysburg National Military Park, which is now preserved and maintained by the U.S. Department of the Interior. For a while, the veterans of the Civil War frequently returned to Gettysburg, to express their grief and sorrow for the tragedy, but in time, there were few, and then ultimately, no survivors remained. The 50th anniversary, which included a reenactment of “Pickett’s Charge,” was a reunion of 40,00 veterans and by 1938, only 1,845 of the 8,000 survivors were able to attend the reunion. Of these, only 65 had actually fought at the Battle of Gettysburg. President Franklin D. Roosevelt honored this
reunion with the lighting of the eternal flame at the National Peace Memorial on Oak Hill. Tourism to Gettysburg was revived again in the late 1950’s and the 60’s, as families and tourists took to the road, hoping to recapture one of America’s greatest moments. Today, Gettysburg, the site of two historic landmarks, Gettysburg National Military Park and the Gettysburg National Cemetery, draws over two million tourists a year, eager for variety and a chance to be entertained. As we drive through the 6,000 acres of sacred ground, now alive and green, the air is filled with the sounds of music and laughter, replacing the once pungent odor and grey smoke of gunpowder and the battle cries of victory and defeat. While children fight imaginary battles wearing Union and Confederate caps and wave tiny flags on Cemetery Ridge and Little Round Top, adults browse through the bookstore picking up a few of the numerous items for sale including audio-visual recordings, maps, books, games, and collectibles to take back home. A few moments of reflection, perhaps, on the sacrifices and the purpose of Gettysburg, and visitors are happy to return to the comfort of their homes or nearby accommodations at the end of a hot summer day. Entrance fees to the Park are free and the grounds and roads are open from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., and 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., November 1st – March 31st. The Gettysburg National Cemetery is open from dawn until sunset and the Park buildings are closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Tourists begin their visit at the National Park Service Visitor Center, with an “Electric Map,” which provides a 30-minute orientation on the three days of the battle, including commentary on the primary participants. Fees for the presentation are $4.00 for adults (ages 17-61), $3.00 for children (ages – 6-16), and $3.00 (seniors, 62 and over). Children under 6 are free and group rates are $3.00 for adults. The Museum at the Visitor Center has the George Rosensteel collection of uniforms, artifacts, and weapons from the Civil War. The Cyclorama, a 360-foot long panoramic painting by Paul Philippoteaux depicting the famous “Pickett’s Charge” and the end of the battle, is being restored and scheduled to reopen in 2008. Edward Everett’s Gettysburg Oration on November 19, 1863 carries little significance in history, but the words might well be contemplated as we visit the sacred ground ” no lapse of time, no distance of space, shall cause you to be forgotten. ” A pilgrimage to Gettysburg seems to be a part of the American way of life, a powerful ritual that must be observed. The fascination of Gettysburg lies not so much in its historical significance, but in its escapism and excessive commercialism. While historians and writers examine and reconstruct the battle scene and others reenact the events in elaborate period costumes, tourists arrive by the carload for a chance to “play” at war. In this curious compulsion and fanfare of tourism, we can only hope that this battlefield will be remembered, as it should be, as a sacred “sepulchre of illustrious men.” Islands of Salvation: Diable, Royale, and St. Joseph Three islands, Diable, Royale, and St. Joseph, are collectively known as the Iles du Salut, an obvious misnomer for islands that offered no salvation or rehabilitation for prisoners. Located about 6 miles off the northern coast of French Guiana in the Caribbean Sea, all three once housed infamous prison settlements. Established in 1852 by Emperor Napoleon, the first prisoners were sent here from Brest, Toulon, and Rochefort, France. Over 80,000 criminals were imprisoned, and most died on these islands during the estimated 100 years that the prisons were in existence. The smallest and most notorious is Ile Diable, better known as
Devil’s Island. Surrounded by rough currents and voracious sharks, it has often been compared to Alcatraz where escape by sea was almost impossible. In fact, tourists today can only view Ile Diable from the other islands, as rough waters prevent boats from landing on its shores. Occasionally, a fisherman can be paid well and convinced to make the trip, although the island is considered off limits. The much larger Ile Royale housed prison guards, administrators, and the death row inmates. The entire complex included a hospital, meat market, bakery, church, and a small cemetery for children and wives of the guards. Few prisoners lived more than a short time in the dark and forbidding environment of harsh conditions, prevalent disease, hard labor, and severe punishment. Death by guillotine was the fate for many, and burial rites were non existent, as the dead were tossed to the hungry sharks circling the island. Five to eight year sentences were the minimum, and these were doubled, as prisoners had to serve an equal amount of time by remaining on French Guiana even after release. Many would never leave, as those with sentences over 8 years were forced to stay on French Guiana. The French government brought in the first 28 female prisoners in 1889, in hopes of their marrying released prisoners and thus adding to the population. This effort was eventually abandoned, and no other women were sent here after 1914. The remote and isolated prison site, Camp Reclusion, on Ile St. Joseph was known as the Devourer of Men by prisoners placed there in solitary confinement, or locked away as criminally insane. Remnants of steel bars and chains used to secure prisoners to their beds lie scattered across the bare dirt floors of the cells. Today, Camp Reclusion is home for hundreds of monkeys, where towering coconut palms grow through the iron grates above the cells, mosquitoes and spiders thrive in the damp and humid jungle air, and vines cling to empty prison bars. The prisons housed the worst incorrigibles, the thieves and murderers, but many were exiled from France for political reasons, the most noteworthy being Alfred Dreyfus. In 1894, Captain Dreyfus was convicted on false charges of treason and sentenced to life in prison in the Green Hell of Devil’s Island. He spent 5 years of a miserable, lonely existence in a 13foot, one-man cell, with only a bench to sit upon and wait for freedom from across the sea. The Dreyfus Affair is well known in history for the unparalleled political, religious, and moral controversies that occurred, goaded by the media and divided public opinion – support of Alfred Dreyfus was well presented in Zola’s “J’accuse” in 1898. Eventually pardoned by former President Loubet and completely exonerated of these crimes in 1906, he was reinstated to major and awarded the French Legion of Honor. Although many prisoners tried and failed, we know of three inmates who managed to escape and live to tell their stories. Clement Duval, a political anarchist, was tried and sentenced to death in 1886. Although he served time in hard labor and contracted smallpox, he managed to escape from Devil’s Island in 1901. Duval spent the rest of his life in New York City, where he wrote about the evils of the prison in his book “Revolte.” Henri Charrière has given us a fascinating tale of his 12 years on the Iles and his carefully planned escape from Devil’s Island. From a rocky inlet, he had determined that the current was strong enough in every 7th wave to carry someone to shore. Charrière and a fellow inmate floated for days on a crudely built raft of large bags filled with coconuts and eventually reached the mainland. Whether his memoir, “Papillon,” (French word for butterfly, the tattoo on Charrière’s chest) detailing his adventures is entirely factual has
always been questionable, but it does provide interesting insight into his experiences and prison life. In fact, so intriguing is his narrative that the film on which it was based is still considered a classic and often compared to the “Shawshank Redemption.” Much later, René Belbenoît was convicted of stealing a set of pearls in 1920 and sent to Devil’s Island to serve 8 years. His first attempt to escape in a canoe failed, when he was recaptured and sentenced to solitary confinement. Although he was able to spend a year as a gardener in Panama on a prison pass, he foolishly decided to return to France. Here, he was arrested again and returned to Ile St. Joseph. Finally released from prison in 1935, he fled from French Guiana and eventually made his way to Los Angeles. Belbenoît wrote two memoirs of his frightening experiences during those years, “Dry Guillotine” and “Hell On Trial.” Fortunately, this incredible mass destruction of humanity and cruel punishment such as this ended when the prisons were eventually closed in 1946. Today, tourism has become the economic redemption for these islands. Ile Royale, a resort destination, is a picture perfect tropical paradise of abundant wildlife and lush vegetation where South America cruise ships dock regularly, airlines fly frequently, and tourists come to visit, relax, and explore. A museum of exhibits and history has been established in the old administrator’s house, but the religious murals by Francis Lagrange, former inmate convicted of counterfeiting, have almost completely disappeared from the walls of the small chapel. An interesting 2-hour guided tour (in French) of the island may be available which includes the abandoned prison buildings where monkeys chatter and play in the ruins, and the original lighthouse built in 1914, which is still in operation. Hours: 10:30am – 4:30pm, Tues thru Sun. Admission: $6.00 For a much more realistic, but depressing visit to the grim past, there is no charge to wander through the rusted iron gates into the Crimson Barracks, so named for the blood shed as prisoners frequently attacked and killed each other. The old foundation of the guillotine remains a tragic reminder of the cruel executions that took place in front of the entire prison population. Beheadings were ordered often at the whim of the guards, and carried out by a fellow inmate. Once this so-called justice was done, proof of the executions was required, and the heads were carefully preserved in jars of alcohol and shipped back to France. Accommodations: The inn (Auberge) on Ile Royale offers simple guest rooms for 60 Euros, rooms with terrace for 70, and hammock only for 10 Euros. Restaurant, gift shop, and bar onsite, and daily catamaran service to and from the islands and the mainland. Transportation: Catamarans depart around 8am from Kourou, the main port on the mainland, and return around 4pm. Service on the 2-hour boat ride often includes rum punch and other amenities. Popular boats: La Hulotte visits Ile Royale and St. Joseph and sails around Ile Diable, price $55 U.S. Royale Ti’Punch, owned by the inn (no extra charge for overnight stays), price $57 U.S. Sothis, ferry to Ile Royale, one-way $35. Tropic Alizés leaves from Kourou or Cayenne, price $55. (Cayenne, the capital, is a popular tourist city, with numerous hotels, restaurants, and shops.)
At certain times and dates, you may be able to view another popular tourist attraction while visiting these islands and French Guiana. The Guiana Space Centre has been in operation near Kourou since 1968 and serves as an excellent location for European, Russian, and commercial launches. Its proximity to the equator, as well as speed and maneuverability, provides an effective cost saving spaceport. Since this area encompasses the Iles du Salut, evacuation takes place during launch times. For visitors interested in seeing the actual launch, there are a limited number of viewing seats available in the spaceport itself. You must be 16 years or older to view the launch from a 4-mile distance, and at least 8 to view from a distance of 7 miles. Seats are free, but reservations are needed well in advance. There are no age or reservation requirements to view the launch from the beach at Kourou. The Guiana Space Centre averages 10 space launch missions each year. Disaster at Sea – Wilhelm Gustloff Through the years, countless ships have been lost at sea, the Titanic being the most familiar and much later the Andrea Doria. Yet, there were other lesser known, but even greater disasters that history would like to forget – the Wilhelm Gustloff is one. The ill-fated ship had the dubious honor of being named after the leader of the Nazi party in Switzerland, who was assassinated by David Frankfurter, a Jewish medical student, in January 1936. It was officially christened by Gustloff’s widow on May 5, 1937 in a flurry of Fascist cheers, flags, and salutes as Hitler and other party members watched from above. This was the grandest ship of the Kdf “strength through joy” fleet of luxury cruise liners created for loyal Nazi followers to enjoy. There was no class division among the passengers; all cabins had a view and were of equal size. From its maiden voyage on March 24, 1938, to just before WWII, carefree vacationers from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland mingled freely with each other and the crew on cruises to the Mediterranean and the North Sea. Cruise fares were reasonable and within the budget of most of the working class in keeping with Hitler’s false promises of a perfect world. Free entertainment was provided; daily activities were structured, and Hitler’s propaganda circulated freely among the passengers who seldom went ashore. Prior to the annexation of Austria by the Nazis, it was also used as a floating voting station for citizens of Austria and Germany, who were then living in England. They were ferried 3 miles offshore to the ship, many unaware they were casting their vote in approval. Other than transporting German troops from Spain after Franco’s victory in 1939, the Gustloff remained a pleasure ship carrying over 65,000 passengers on at least 50 different excursions. The pleasure ended, however, with the final cruise in August 1939, when she was converted to a hospital ship in September 1939. Serving a less humanitarian purpose during the war, it was camouflaged to house U-boat sailors in training. At the end of WWII, on January 30, 1945, the Gustloff was put into service this time as a part of Operation Hannibal, a massive wartime relief effort. Over 10,000 refugees, navy personnel, and the wounded, including an estimated 4,000 women and children, sought refuge on the ship from the advancing Soviet Red Army. Although the Operation itself evacuated over two million people, the most successful wartime evacuation in history, the ones who made it to the Danzig port and the Wilhelm Gustloff were not so lucky. Leaving many behind, the ship left port without ceremony heading for Kiel on the mainland of
Germany. Although thousands had escaped the atrocities of the Russian troops, none could know what lay ahead. The ship and its crew were ill prepared for the mass of people that overflowed the decks and cabins below. As the Gustloff made its way through sleet and snow, there was little protection from the weather or the enemy. The ship was virtually alone on the Baltic Sea with only one small escort boat. However, the U-boat detection equipment on the Lowe had frozen, and the boat was relying primarily on lookouts. While anti-aircraft guns and the few lifeboats also remained frozen and inoperable on the deck of the Gustloff, the people suffered terribly in the packed quarters of a ship built to accommodate about 1800 passengers. Some 9 hours later, disaster struck, as three torpedoes labeled For Leningrad, the Soviet people, and the Motherland were fired from an undetected Russian submarine. After a direct hit on the ship‘s bow, the forward part of the ship was sealed off, and many of the crew were then unable to get to the lifeboats or carry out emergency procedures. The lavish swimming pool amidships was now filled with floating bodies, broken metal, and flying tile. After the 3rd and final torpedo destroyed the engine room, the Wilhelm Gustloff lost all power and communications. The scene was one of total chaos, resembling the panic of the Titanic on a much larger scale. Only a very few were rescued, as over 9,000 lives were lost in the sinking of the Gustloff, by far the greatest number in a single disaster at sea. A journey that promised safety had ended in indescribable tragedy. A second refugee ship, the General Steuben, was also hit on the same mission carried out by the Russian submarine commander Marinesko and his crew, raising the total lives lost to over 10,000. Ironically, Marinesko was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union by Gorbachev in 1990, officially giving him credit for supposedly destroying German armed forces, but neglecting to mention the loss of innocent refugees and their families. Unlike the Titanic, the shipwreck’s position in relatively shallow water was accurately recorded, so there is little mystery involved. The Polish government retains control over this designated area, but there are few visitors or memorials to such a burial site. A team of Polish divers, headed by Mike Boring, explored the shipwreck in May 2003 on a salvage expedition. No evidence was found of a so-called Amber Room, or a secret treasure worth over $350 million stolen during the war years. It is possible that some, if not all, the loot was recovered by the Russians soon after their deadly mission was accomplished. (David Frankfurter was later pardoned, released from exile, and managed to live out the rest of his life in Israel.) (The wreck is a war memorial and her location is disguised by Polish navigational charts that register her only as Obstacle No 73 – 180 feet deep in the Baltic. However, she is easy to find and most of the diving clubs between Gdansk and Kolobrzeg offer trips to the wreck.)(In Germany, the Wilhelm Gustloff has become a focus for war remembrance. Germans are lobbying to build a museum or a shrine on the Polish coast to mark the 60th anniversary of the disaster, on January 30.) Some scary places to visit as Dark Tourism attraction: With Halloween just around the corner, I wondered what were considered to be the most haunted places in the world. There is no shortage of sites that claim to list some of the most
haunted places – this web site lists a dozen of the most haunted in the US, including such predictably eerie places as Gettysburg battlefield, Alcatraz prison and the quirky Winchester House, near San Jose, Ca. New Orleans is generally considered to be the most haunted city in the United States – at least 10 hotels in the city are reported to be haunted, and several companies offer ghost themed walking tours. I have been on one of the ghost walks and it was quite fascinating. It also seems as though New Orleans is quite a place to spend Halloween! Other cities with more than their fair share of ghostly inhabitants include Charleston, SC, Savannah, Ga and Salem, Ma, famous for the witch trials held there during the 17th century. Salem is also quite a place in which to celebrate Halloween, with witch and ghost themed events happening throughout October, culminating with the town’s official Witches Ball on Halloween night. But the most haunted place in the world is apparently the city of York in England which has a total of 504 recorded ghostly sightings, according to the Ghost Research Foundation International. And York is also home to the oldest ghost – the famous Roman Legionnaires that are supposedly seen marching through the Treasurer’s House. At least six companies offer ghostly walking tours of York, costing around $8 per person – although they don’t actually guarantee a ghost sighting. But if you really want to communicate with the other side, you should visit the small community of Lily Dale, NY. This town is populated and run entirely by spiritualists – over 40 registered mediums live and work in the town. Lily Dale attracts around 22,000 visitors each year. Alcatraz – The Darkness Within Alacatraz prison, officially closed in 1963, sits on an island of 22 acres, surrounded by freezing waters and rapid currents. Juan Manuel de Ayala, who gave it the name of La Isla de las Alcatreces, “the Island of the Pelicans,” discovered the island in 1775. In 1850, Alcatraz, better known as “the Rock,” was established as a Federal prison and remained a fortress until modern warfare replaced its usefulness. Subsequently, Alcatraz housed prisoners from the Civil and Spanish-American Wars, as well as
Alcatraz Island Prison, USA, Young tourist in a former cell conscientious objectors from World War I. Perhaps one of the saddest events in the history of Alcatraz was the imprisonment of American Indians. The crimes, punishable then by hard labor, could hardly be considered evil. They were simply outcries for rights to
freedom from government interference with education, language, and religion. In 1906, it served as a temporary shelter for civilians escaping the catastrophic San Francisco earthquake. Some of the most dangerous and incorrigible criminals in history such as Al Capone, Henry Young, George “Machine Gun” Kelly, and Robert Stroud, “The Birdman of Alcatraz,” spent time for crimes of espionage, kidnapping, murder, and robbery. For prisoners, the ferry to Alcatraz was the end of the line, a one-way trip for which there would be no return, a descent into what has been described as a “hell hole” to await their fate. Although many escape attempts were made, none have been documented as successful. Five prisoners from Alcatraz, however, still remain unaccounted for and are presumed drowned. Today, tourists, spurred on by the media, the movies, the books, and the history, flock to Alcatraz in huge numbers by the boatloads. Over one million curious thrill seekers visit Alcatraz each year, certainly not for pleasure and probably with no significant grief or sadness. Tickets for all-day tours to Alcatraz, including side trips to Sausalito and the Muir Woods, sell for $68.95 for adults, $47.95 for children, ages 5 to 11, and under 5 are free. The tour includes a short 10-minute ferry ride, free admission to the park and the museum, and a walk around the island. Other day and evening excursions to Alcatraz are available, as well, ranging in price from $16.00 and up, leaving daily at 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., from Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. Visitors take a virtual tour of “the Rock” via slide shows, sound clips, videos, and pictures. There is an eerie feeling of the unforeseen upon arriving at Alcatraz and stepping off the ferry onto the same dock as the prisoners walked. Immediately opposite the dock, the old barracks building now houses a theater, bookstore, and numerous exhibits within its 10-foot brick walls. The Guard Tower, with six towers manned at one time by armed guards, has been restored. Audio headsets are provided for the tour through the Cell Block. The halls, once filled with the sounds of clanking chains and shackles, are empty and dark. We see no prisoners reaching out from between the steel bars nor do we hear their cries of anger and pain. We shudder at the thought of voices echoing from the walls, and yet, we are caught between guilt for feeling empathy and the reality of the evils that once existed. Leaving the gloom and dark of the Cell Block, we are eager to feel the freshness of outdoors. The walk along the Agave Trail takes us through the beautiful bird sanctuary and lovely gardens, now flourishing in the California sunshine, and we pause to take in the amazing views across the Bay. Alcatraz tours include free entrance to the museum, the bookstore, and walks around the island. The museum houses a collection of items including artwork and objects made by its notorious inmates, historic photographs, documents, and prison materials from 1859 to the 1969 -1971 occupation by the American Indians of all Tribes. All types of souvenirs are available in the bookstore, including books, mugs, keys, t-shirts, and even packages of greeting cards. Returning from one of the Golden Gate’s most popular tourist attractions, we look back at an island now carefully preserved by the National Park Service, a place where spectacular wildlife multiply and thrive and time has erased the fear and grief of years past. Here, even the once dangerous, man-eating sharks seem to have deserted the waters. How strange it seems to visit today and find there is so much beauty, where once there was none. As the sun sets upon the isolation of Alcatraz, a single light from the abandoned lighthouse
continues to glow across San Francisco Bay. Perhaps, we may suppose that it remains a symbol of hope for those who knew and felt the darkness within. Ground Zero – Tragedy and Terror September 11, 2001. Never before had the peace and security of the United States been threatened with such evil and disaster. This was to be no ordinary day for any of us and tragically, for some, it would be the last day of their lives. It all began at 8:45 A.M. (EDT) when hijacked American Airline Flight 11 out of Boston, Massachusetts hit the first tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. As the tower burned and crumbled to the ground, it left a 70-foot deep pit at Ground Zero, amid the broken walls and foundation. Less than an hour later, a second plane, United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the second tower. People trapped within the buildings panicked in a rush to safety down crowded stairwells, making frantic calls to families and loved ones, while others jumped to their death from the burning buildings. The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center as we once knew them were gone. Across the street, more buildings caught fire as the nation and the world saw yet a third attack on the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. A final, fourth attack, the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93, failed and crashed in Pennsylvania.
Ground Zero Shrine, New York, 911 Land or a Mark of Respect? New York City came to a standstill, as airports, tunnels, and bridges were immediately closed and air traffic was shut down. Emergency vehicles and rescue workers were hurriedly dispatched to help or search for people who lay dead or dying in the streets or buried under piles of debris. The Center for Disease Control stepped in, along with hundreds of fire fighters and police attempting to contain the fire and rescue as many as possible. Five warships and two aircraft carriers were deployed to protect the East Coast from further attack; the entire nation was on high alert. Mass evacuations from the City and Ground Zero were put in place, but for many it was too late. Over 3,000 people died on September 11 and countless others lived to mourn their loss. In the months following, demolition, excavation, and recovery never ceased, as we watched and listened to the heroic efforts and the tragic reports of death, survival, and grief. A year later, visitors, primarily relatives and friends of those who perished in the tragedy, slowly returned to Ground Zero. The few tourists who were there to view the disaster found there were no words to describe the emotions or the sadness they felt. Gradually, tourism was once again revived with the determination of a city and its people. Broadway Theater contributed their efforts in an all-out campaign to bring tourism back to New York. Within three years, sidewalk vendors were once again vying for space to hawk their wares and complaining
about the restrictions around the now sacred Ground Zero. Today, double-decker buses filled with tourists arrive to view the tragedy, where sidewalk stands of souvenirs, ice cream, and hot dogs have replaced the dust and ashes of September 11. Grief tourism has turned into commercialism, as it invariably will.
Ground Zero, New York People’s memories tend to fade in time, but for those of us who were there on that fateful day, the images will remain forever. For others who only viewed the widespread devastation, there are now collections and exhibits in museums and memorials around the world. The Museum of the City of New York at 1220 Fifth Avenue houses a remarkable, permanent collection of Ground Zero by noted photographer, Joel Merkowitz. The Museum is open Tuesday – Sunday, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Monday holidays. Admission is $9.00 for adults, seniors and students $5.00, and for neighboring East Harlem, admission is free. The World Trade Center Memorial, Reflecting Absence, is scheduled to be completed and opened in September 2009. The tree-filled plaza, 30 feet below street level, will have two recessed pools designed to simulate the pits of the Twin Towers at Ground Zero. Ramps for visitors will lead to the pools where the victims’ names will be inscribed and the shields of the heroic firefighters and police will be displayed. Each of the pits is linked by an underground passageway where tourists can enter the sacred area, light candles, hold memorial services, or simply spend time in quiet reflection upon the enormity of such a tragedy. In the pit below what was once the North Tower, a stone vessel will be placed in commemoration of the remains of those as yet still unaccounted for. When we visit this grandiose Memorial, we may find that enjoyment and pleasure, normally found in a major tourist attraction, have given way to insurmountable grief. Perhaps, we’ll pause to ponder the proposal of a single journalist for a more fitting tribute to Ground Zero a cemetery where the dead speak more eloquently to the living where a memorial of ashes, stone, and memories will withstand the tests of wind and rain and time.” Despite the remarkable progress that has been made, the familiar skyline of New York City will never be quite the same nor will our country, the world, or its people ever completely recover from this tragedy. The harsh reality of our vulnerability beneath the dark and ominous cloud of terror will be with us forever. Tragedy at Soham & Tourism in Cambridgeshire, England
The town of Soham in the English county of Cambridgeshire is a peaceful village of approximately 9,000 people. Since 1944, crime of any sort was practically non-existent, and certainly, the media had taken little notice of Soham until August 4, 2002. The disappearance of two local 10-year old schoolgirls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman and the discovery of their badly decomposed bodies two weeks later in a remote area near RAF Lakenheath Suffolk, changed the quiet town to a scene of tragedy. Holly and Jessica attended St. Andrews Primary school where Ian Huntley was a caretaker at the Soham Village College and his girlfriend Maxine Carr was a teaching assistant at St. Andrews. Three years before the crime, the police had identified Huntley as a dangerous serial sex attacker. He had been charged with 11 different allegations of sexual assault, but sadly enough, the reports were erased and Huntley was cleared for his caretaker job at Soham Village College. London court convicted Huntley of the crime in December 2003, after hearing his confession, and he began serving two concurrent life sentences, with no eligibility for parole for 40 years. Maxine Carr, on the other hand, received a much lighter sentence of three and a half years, for the obstruction of justice in providing an alibi for Huntley’s whereabouts on the day of the girls’ disappearance The tragedy soon became a media circus, as the tabloids went wild with photographs, conflicting reports, and graphic details of the horrific crime at every newsstand in England. People arrived by the busloads, carrying stuffed toys, cards, and gifts, in a frenzy to be the first on the scene. Some brought flowers and candles; others brought lawn chairs and picnic lunches. It was, for many, the most exciting event that had happened in some time, the perfect outing for a summer day. The town of Soham was fast becoming a bigger tourist attraction than Cambridge itself. Silent contemplation, genuine grief, and sympathy were lost in the crowds of gawkers and vicarious thrill seekers. Guardian.co.uk published the following picture of tourists checking out some floral tributes to the murdered girls: The scene of a tragedy was now a carnival, a tawdry and unbelievable display. By the time the memorial service was held at the end of August, many of the tributes had disappeared, including books of condolence messages, stolen apparently by some curious onlooker. It wasn’t until April 2004 that Ian Huntley’s house and the hangar where he had cut up and hid the girls’ clothes on the grounds of Soham Village College were finally destroyed. The site that was once viewed by the thousands as a tragedy is now a serene, beautifully landscaped area of green, enclosed with iron railings and protected by increased security. The crowds are gone and there is little to remind us of the heinous crime. In May 2004, Maxine Carr was released on probation to assume a new identity under the witness protection law. Attempts by the media to revive interest in the Soham tragedy through reporting on Carr have been banned, so far, only in England and Wales. The village of Soham today has resumed a normal way of life, for the most part, although there are a few who continue to return, those with an incurable and insatiable curiosity about the darker side of life. Just what it is they are looking for or hope to find, we can’t be sure. The grieving parents, on the other hand, are left with only the memories and silent memorials of two young girls whose lives ended far too soon. As far as the media and the public are concerned, they seem to have moved on, perhaps to wait for the next tragedy to occur. Presentation of Dark Tourism: TeWairoa, The Buried Village
The appeal of visiting “dark” sites is not new and indeed such sites have drawn tourists from far and wide for centuries. Ancient Greeks and Romans visited Egyptian pyramids in part because they were the tombs of dead pharaohs. Pompeii is another example of an ancient dark tourism site, the city buried alive. Numerous cases have been presented all around the world, recently none more so than Ground Zero, the site of the September 2001 terrorist attacks in NewYork City, which is nowsimultaneously both a personal/public memorial and dark tourist attraction. These anecdotal accounts are not a new field for tourism research, though it is only recently that the interest in the field by researcher and tourist alike has grown significantly. It has been strongly argued that tourist interest in sites associated with death, disaster and depravity has recently grown significantly (Lennon & Foley 2000). Lennon & Foley (1999; 2000) have labelled this phenomena “dark” tourism, however it has also been referred to in the literature as “fatal attraction” tourism (Rojek 1993), “disaster” and “conflict” tourism (Warner 1999) and “thanatourism” (Seaton 1998). It appears however that in contemporary tourism literature the field is most commonly referred to as dark tourism. In tourism literature, until as late as 1999, the term dark tourismwas used interchangeably and synonymously with another prominent term, thana tourism. Both “dark tourism” and thana tourism were defined in a fairly broad manner. Dark tourism has been defined as “sites associated with death, disaster and depravity” (Lennon & Foley 1999: 46) and thana tourism as “travel to a location wholly, or partially motivated by the desire for actual or symbolic encounters with death” (Seaton 1996: 240). Perhaps due to the imagery and connotation so simply and graphically illustrated through the use of a single everyday word, the term dark tourism appears to have become the most commonly used word in describing the concept of travel to sites associated with death, disaster and depravity (Warner 1999). More recently, however, Lennon & Foley (2000) have tightened the reins on what they consider to be suitable for inclusion as part of the dark tourism concept. Lennon & Foley (2000) now maintain that events (for example the death or disaster) should have taken place within the memories of those still alive to validate them (they suggest 100 years), and the events should posit questions or introduce anxiety and doubt about modernity and its consequences (for example the infallible science and technology at the sinking of the Titanic). The authors of this chapter argue, however, that this definition of dark tourism is too restrictive in that it essentially excludes sites that have previously been referred to as dark by tourists and the literature, such as the site of the Battle of Waterloo which took place in 1815 (Seaton 1996). Ashworth (2002) in a review of Lennon & Foley (2000) also acknowledges these two criticisms or concerns with their revised definition of dark tourism. Ashworth (2002: 19) argues that even within Lennon and Foley’s ownselected cases that the framework surrounding modernity is “distinctly stretched” and he goes on to disagree with their claim that only recent events can generate dark tourism —“living memory helps but it is not the sine qua non of the attractive power of dark events.” Beyond this controversy of definition much literature in the field of dark tourism is largely case based, and like Lennon & Foley’s book (2000) it tends to focus more on the “what” than on the “why” (Ashworth 2002). There has been a tracing of the history of dark tourism or thanatourism (Seaton 1996), and many case examples of dark tourism, for example Waterloo (Seaton 1998),Vietnam (Henderson 2000), Northern Ireland (Anson 1999), North Cypress (Warner 1999), and the Jewish Holocaust (Lennon & Foley 1999; 2000). There is little mention in the literature however, of dark tourism in relation to motivation of tourists to visit these sites. In fact the literature has identified that dark tourism is often demarketed and may be more about the perceived “immoral” promotion of death and disaster. Lennon&Foley (2000) do comment on the lack of marketing, or de-marketing of holocaust related tourism
attractions by some European towns. The tourist brochure for the town of Oswieczim for example, resists mentioning nearby Auschwitz by name, illustrating it with a photograph or giving directions despite the fact that Auschwitz generates 750,000 visitors for the town annually (Lennon & Foley 2000). Conversely Warner (1999) discusses the merits of possibilities of “using” dark tourism (and other special interest tourism) as part of a strategy to develop alternatives to the traditional “sun, sand and sea” tourism image of North Cypress. Despite these examples an extensive search of relevant literature has found no specific reference to dark tourism and the concept of image marketing or tourist motivation research. Based on such discussion this chapter presents a re-extended definition of dark tourism that incorporates both the supply and demand sides of dark tourism. From the literature debate there are two primary elements that are integral to the definition of dark tourism, The first is the touring of a site of death or disaster (as per Lennon & Foley 1999; Seaton 1996; 1998;Warner 1999). Maintaining this definition to touring the sites of death or disaster would be a valid supply side interpretation of the term dark tourism. Nonetheless, the authors would stress that tourists would have to identify the significance and meaning of the site— specifically have knowledge of the death or disaster and interpret the site as dark—for it to be a dark tourism site. The second element derived from this, which will be expanded below, is the personalisation of that death or disaster. This focuses on tourists’ emotive responses of anxiety, nervousness or doubt to the sites as stressed by Lennon & Foley (2000). This also incorporates the delimiting parts of the Lennon and Foley definition of living memory and modernity. Hurricane Katrina: fear and grief tourism The states along the Gulf Coast of the U.S. have a reason to fear the onset of hurricane season and the inevitable disasters that occur. Storm warnings had been issued from Florida to Louisiana and yet, many thought this would be just another hurricane. On August 29, 2005 Katrina came ashore, bringing a storm surge of 35 feet of water and a 30-mile eye wall. In less than eight hours, entire towns along the coastline were gone, leaving no trace of homes, businesses, and roads in a 70-mile path of destruction. Power and communication lines lay broken in the tide while animals, people, personal belongings, homes, and vehicles were swept away. The wetlands vanished in the hurricane’s wrath and over 80% of New Orleans was virtually under water. People clung to rooftops, branches of trees, and each other in desperation, as rescue attempts were made. From the poorest to the rich and famous, Katrina made no discrimination. Those with no vehicles, no money, and not even a TV to warn them of the mandatory evacuation watched in horror as their few possessions and loved ones were swept away. The few who chose to remain could only watch the widespread devastation in helpless frustration, a tragedy beyond their control. At the convention center in New Orleans, crowds of people filled the arena until the roof began to leak, sanitary facilities became inoperable, and people were turned away at the front doors. Highways became roadways of more disaster, as people fled inland to higher ground. Others stood in line for hours in stifling heat, without water and food, fighting for seats on emergency buses, as shelters and hospitals overflowed. The National Guard was sent in to control the looting and the drug-related violence, as people panicked in the streets and fought for food and survival. We listened to the urgent pleas for help in finding the missing and opened our homes and our hearts to thousands of displaced people, doing what we could to somehow ease their grief and suffering.
In the aftermath of Katrina, suicide rates tripled and stories of more grief and sadness began to surface, the people left behind, too ill to evacuate, unconfirmed reports of mercy killings in hospitals, bodies in coffins awaiting identification, and families separated from their loved ones. Slow progress is being made toward recovery, as people return to grieve their losses. Many others have no way to return and 60 percent of the residents of New Orleans remain in exile. In some towns and cities, optimism and resilience have replaced despair, but in so many others, the shock, the agony, and the emptiness still remain. While New Orleans’ huge tourist industry collapsed following Katrina, there were a few who wanted to see the destruction with their own eyes. The bars, restaurants, and souvenir shops are now open to tourists, eager to view the scene of a tragedy. While the sounds of jazz fill the streets of the French Quarter, the plaintive sound of a trumpet echoes somewhere in the darkness and desolation of the Big Easy. The Katrina Memorial in Biloxi Mississippi, dedicated to those who perished in the tragedy, opened February 15, 2006 at a candlelight vigil. At the time of its opening to visitors, piles of debris and damaged buildings still lay on the ground. Within the 12-foot high Memorial stands a glass-enclosed case containing objects collected by the survivors, a faded photograph, a watch that no longer runs, a string of pearls, bits and pieces of a lifetime. In time, the names of the victims, many still missing and unaccounted for, will be inscribed on the Memorial. The National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. plans to open an exhibit in 2008 displaying 60 artifacts from Katrina, including a parking lot exit sign from New Orlean’s flooded 7th Ward, a blue and white hurricane sign posted on Broad Street with an arrow to safety, and a rosary used by a weathercaster forced to abandon his station. Much of the grief we feel is in the failure of the government to act responsibly, the lack of accountability, and the apparent miscommunications. Somehow, the apologies and excuses we listen to do little to lessen the sadness that we feel. A year later, as another hurricane season approaches, we hear that some levees have been repaired and rebuilt and some towns have resumed some semblance of normalcy. Yet, the people along the Gulf Coast live in fear, wondering if they really are any better prepared than they were last year, or will it be the same tale of grief and sorrow. Buildings and towns can be rebuilt and floodwaters can be drained, but we are left to ponder in our grief the words of Rabbi Wolpe, “those who only watched the devastation must remember the vivid images of lives upended, dreams shattered, homes and hearts swept up in the storm. Those who lived through it have the far harder task of clinging to what does last: to memory, to hope, to each other.” Tsunami disaster tourism: Phuket, Thailand On the morning of December 26, 2004, Phuket, the largest island of Thailand, felt the first shock of the 9.0 earthquake that brought the “Andaman Wave” to the shores of the Andaman Sea on the Indian Ocean coastline. Hotels along the waterfront were filled with tourists on vacation for the Christmas holidays, unaware of what lay ahead. As the tsunami surged and pounded the waterfront, crowds of people ran for the safety of higher ground. Vehicles were overturned, power lines lay broken, fishing boats were thrown ashore, and flying debris filled the flooded streets and buildings. Adding to the panic and confusion were repeated warnings and rumors of the approach of even larger waves, which for the most part, did not occur. Rescue efforts were hampered and hospitals were soon swamped with casualties, as the water continued to rise. Communication and emergency help for the victims became
increasingly difficult and within a two-hour period, areas of Phuket no longer resembled the peaceful tourist destination it once was. In the aftermath of the tsunami, many of the first visitors returning to Phuket in 2005 found complete devastation of fishing villages, fishing boats, and beachside property extending inland approximately 400 yards or more from the waterfront. . Thatched roof huts lay like broken matchsticks on the ground, along with wrecked boats and the ruins of shops, restaurants, and bars. The air was filled with the sounds of hammers and saws as makeshift shelters were being built from driftwood and smashed boats. Hundreds of women and children were living in relief camps or tents, while fishermen mourned the loss of their livelihood and volunteer divers recovered tons of debris from the beach and the sea. A beach resort near Patong, where waves had flooded ground floor rooms, smashed tiled swimming pools, and uprooted trees, was under reconstruction. At Khao Lak, a village on Phuket that suffered extensive damage, visitors discovered wrecked boats, uprooted trees, grass brown with seawater, and mere shells of hotels were all that remained between the village and the sea. In a world where tragedy buys tourism, the morbidly curious and the bargain hunter mingled with grieving relatives and friends, seeking information and identification of their loved ones. Although it is estimated that over 1,000 people were severely injured, 200 died, and 700 were among the missing on the first day of the tsunami, there is no possible way to estimate the amount of suffering and grief that resulted from this disaster The ongoing recovery of Phuket since December 2004 is due to the remarkable perseverance of the Thai people. Some of the beaches and resorts were restored within a day, and others, such as Kata, Patong, and Karon, in less than a year. Hotels are showing a 90% occupancy and airlines are meeting the increased demand for more direct international flights. Tourists returning to Phuket today, expecting to find a scene of complete disaster and loss, are discovering that the seas are clearer than ever before, marine life has returned, and the warmth and hospitality of the Thai people still prevails. Bangladesh’s of attraction on regard of Dark Tourism Shaheed Minar The Shaheed Minar is a national monument in Dhaka, Bangladesh, established to commemorate those killed during the Language Movement demonstrations of 1952. On February 21, 1952, dozens of students and political activists were killed when the Pakistani police force opened fire on Bengali protesters who were demanding equal status to their native tongue, Bangla. The massacre occurred near Dhaka Medical College and Ramna Park in Dhaka. A makeshift monument was erected on February 23 by students of University of Dhaka and other educational institutions, but soon demolished on February 26 by the Pakistani police force.
The Language Movement gained momentum and after a long struggle, Bangla was given equal status as Urdu. To commemorate the dead, the Shaheed Minar was designed and built by Hamidur Rahman, a Bangladeshi sculptor. The monument stood until the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, when it was demolished completely during Operation Searchlight, during which the Pakistani Army estimates they inflicted 26,000 civilian deaths, while other organizations such as National Geographic estimate casualties numbering over 3 million. [citation needed] After Bangladesh gained independence, it was rebuilt. Today, the Shaheed Minar is the centre of cultural activities in Dhaka. Every year, the Language Movement is remembered at the monument. The First Shaheed Minar The first Shaheed Minar was built immediately after the events of February 21. According to Dr. Sayeed Haider, a main planner and the designer of the first Shaheed Minar, the decision to build it was first taken by the students of Dhaka Medical College.
The planning started at midnight on February 22 and the work started the next day.This Minar was sponsored by Pearu Sardar, one of the old dhaka panchayet sardars when some of the students asked his help at the midnight of 22 February to contribute the raw materials needed to build the monument. Although curfew was in place, students started building the Minar in the afternoon of February 23. They worked through the night and finished it at dawn. A hand written paper was attached to the Minar with ‘Shaheed Smritistombho’ written on it. The original Minar measured 10 feet (3.0 m) by 6 feet. The Minar was inaugurated by the father of Sofiur Rahman, killed during the massacre. It was demolished within a few days by the police and Pakistani Army. Current Shaheed Minar
The current Shaheed Minar design mainly follows the original plan of 1957. The minars are constructed with pure marble stone upon a 14 feet (4.3 m) high stage. The stairs and railings are painted white to create a heavenly appearance. The fence on both sides is highlighted with lines from poems of famous poets in iron letters. The entrance of the monument includes two statues. The previous plan of Watch house, library and other statues were also included.The plan was again accepted on May 5, 1973 and Hamidur made a rough agreement to submit to the Purto Secretary for sanction. Previously, in February 1973, the government had hurried to repair the Shaheed Minar. As a result the Minar was constructed incorrectly. The height of the column was shorter and the head bent more than originally planned, and the proportions of different parts of the monument were not propertly maintained. Repair of the Shaheed Minar was again started during the Ershad regime. This time the main stage and the columns were unchanged, but the stairs were extended forward and the huts at the bottom of the Minar were closed. The front premise was also made higher. As a result, the area of the premises and the stairs was increased. Liberation War Museum: Liberation War Museum, Bangladesh established in 1996, commemorates heroic struggle of Bengalee nation for democracy and national rights which following genocide unleashed by military rulers of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, turned into armed struggle with emergence of Bangladesh as Secular Democratic State in December 1971. Museum is housed in a two-storied building with displays in six galleries. Currently, Museum collection number 10,732 (May 2004) objects, which include rare photographs, documents, media coverages and materials used by freedom fighters and martyrs of liberation war. However the museum can display around 1300 objects due to paucity of space and its midterm plan includes purchase of a land for building a proper museum. Liberation War Museum, excavated two killing fields in Dhaka suburbs, preserves one site and these human remains have added dimension to the displays. Liberation War Museum is outcome of citizen's effort and is run by a Board of Trustee. It is now recognized, nationally and internationally, as credible institution on history of Bangladesh independence. The museum through its special programmes endevours to link history of liberation war with contemporary pressing social and human right issues. LWM is founder member of International Coalition of Historic Site Museum of Conscience and institutional member of American Association of Museums. Visitors to the museum realize how through popular struggle and human sacrifices fundamental principles of democracy, secularism and nationalism of Bangladesh constitution (1972) evolved. Attempts have been taken through displays and regular programmes to create a living museum where visitor/participants can
draw contemporary relevance for building national unity and a tolerant society against human rights abuses. The Six Display Galleries of the museum: Gallery I: Presents the history and rich heritage of syncretistic culture of Bengal, advent of colonial rule and the uprisings against foreign domination, communal tension culminating in creation of Pakistan (1947). Gallery II: Presents history of the Pakistan period (1947 - 1971) and united struggle of the people for secular democracy upholding national culture with the victory of nationalist forces in the general election of 1970. Gallery III: Depicts the events leading to the Liberation War; the denial of election verdict by Pakistani rulers, non-violent, non-cooperation movement (March 1971), genocide unleashed by military authority, declaration of independence by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, refugee camps, and establishment of provisional government by elected representatives. Gallery IV to VI: Presents history of the armed struggle led by Sector & Brigade Commanders, objects used by martyrs and freedom fighters, international support by different governments, public leaders and media, role of religious fundamentalist collaborators of the military regime, killing of intellectuals, excavated human remains, final thrust of the Allied Forces and victory in December 16, 1971. Visitors to the museum discover the events that led to the peoples’ upheaval and resistance to Pakistani military’s atrocities and the human sacrifices that gave birth to the fundamental principles of democracy, secularism and nationalism of the Bangladesh Constitution (1972). Efforts have been taken through displays and regular programs to create a living museum where visitors/participants can draw contemporary relevance for building national unity as well as a tolerant society against human rights abuses. ►Mukti Bahini / Head quarters: Mujibnagar Immediately after start of genocide on March 25, 1971 Bangali members of armed forces, East Pakistan Rifles, Police and Ansars together with patriotic youth built up local resistance, wherever they could. On April 4, high ranking officials of the Armed Forces involved in the resistance movement in the Eastern part met at Teliapara Tea Gardens, Sylhet for planning coordinated actions. The Cabinet Meeting of the Bangladesh Government on July 11, 1971 appointed Col. M. A. G. Osmany as the Commander-in-Chief, Lt. Col. Abdur Rab as Chief of Army Staff and Group Captain A. K. Khandker as Deputy Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Air Force. In this meeting, Bangladesh was divided into Eleven Sectors under the command of the Sector Commanders. The 10th. Sector was directly placed under Commander-in-Chief and included the Naval Commandos and C-in-C’s special force. Sector Commanders basically led the guerrilla warfare; later three regular army brigades were formed. On December 4, 1971
the Joint Command of the Bangladesh Liberation Force and The Eastern Command of the Indian Army was formed which won ultimate victory on December 16, 1971. ►Rayerbazar killing field where the cries never stop In 1971, almost the whole of Bangladesh was transformed into a boddhobhumi (place of mass execution) and it’s widely accepted that both in and outside Bangladesh, a total of three million Bengalis were killed by Pakistani troops and their local allies. The UN Human Rights Association report said, even if a lower range of 1.5 million deaths were taken to be true then killings occurred at a rate of between 6 and 12 thousand per day, through the 267 days of carnage. There are several places where bodies were dumped and one such place is the boddhobhumi of Rayerbazar where a smriti shoudho now stands in memory of those who were killed. The area covers approximately 3 km and the assassinations at this place were preplanned. The hands and eyes of the victims were tied and they were exposed to inhuman torture for sometime before being killed; often they were made to stand in a line to be killed under brush fire. During nine months of war, no Bangladeshi dared to tread on the road of Rayerbazar brickfield.
The boddhobhumi was discovered on 18 December, 1971 and on that day numerous scattered corpses were discovered from the recesses of Rayerbazar. These corpses were chiefly of professors, journalists, litterateurs and doctors. Some of these bodies had become so terribly battered and deformed that they could not be recognized; those who could be identified included Professor Munir Chowdhury, Selina Parvin and Dr. Fazle Rabbi. Large expanses of land starting from Kalushah Pukurpar to Gol Masjid of Rayerbazar were grimly dotted with skulls and bones. Renowned physician Mohammed Fazle Rabbi was arrested from his residence in Shiddeshwari. On 15 December, his house was encircled by Albadar, Razakar and Pak soldiers. They took Md. Rabbi to the Physical Training Institute in Lalmatia and from there to the Rayerbazar brickfield along with other intellectuals where they faced an abrupt and horrifying end. Selina Parveen, a beautiful young lady who edited the literary journal ‘Shilalipi’ was first raped by the soldiers and later killed in Rayerbazar.
In the evening of 14 December, Professor Munier Chowdhury was taken at a torture centre dressed in panjabi and a lungi; his hands were tied. He was kept in a cell with several other Bengalis and Biharis. When he was asked whether he had written any book on Rabindranath Tagore, he didn’t hesitate to admit that he had. The Paks became equally ferocious at Professor Mofazzal Haider because of his boldness and putting Munier Cowdhury’s head below their feet, the soldiers hit him on his head and his back with a rod; Mofazzal Haider was also tormented in the same way. Munier Chowdhury murmured Kalema Taiyab under his breath but nobody could rescue them. At about 12 a.m. they were taken to Rayerbazar where some were killed by bullets and others by the bayonet. The only person who survived the mass murder in Rayerbazar was Mohammed Delwar Hossain, chief accountant of Mercantile Company in 1971. He had taken primary training from Major Salehuddin to fight in the liberation war along with his brothers. ►Jalladkhana killing field In a sleepy neighborhood on the outskirts of Dhaka stands an empty lot called the Jalladkhana — Bengali for "Butcher's Den." A courtyard, flanked by a red brick wall and lined with potted plants and marble plaques, leads to a small two-room building. Inside, it is quiet and tranquil; a few candles flicker. Kept there are tiny traces of an untold horror that took place nearly 40 years ago: a pair of broken spectacles, a sandal with its straps torn, human skulls and bones. "They speak," says Mofidul Hoque, a trustee of the museum that preserves the site, "of an immeasurable silence." No one knows the exact number killed during Bangladesh's bloody struggle for independence in 1971 when the territory of East Pakistan severed its unnatural bonds with then West Pakistan, a thousand miles away on the other side of India. At the close of the Liberation War, as it's called by Bangladeshis, TIME reporters suggested the death toll was above a million. Ask people in Dhaka today and they'll tell you the true figure of Bengali civilians murdered by West Pakistani troops and death squads guided by collaborators was three times that. Bangladesh sits atop an alluvial plain, so those bent on genocide needed only to dump bodies in rivers or, as at the Jalladkhana, down the wells and conduits of local water-pumping stations, where corpses were literally flushed away into the sea. "These are crimes so horrible that even God wouldn't forgive you," says K.M. Safiullah, a retired general who led the independence war effort. "There cannot be unity without this being solved."
Most of the last century's greatest atrocities have had a just, if painful, reckoning. The Holocaust found its redemption in the trials at Nuremberg, Rwanda's genocide in an
internationally backed war-crimes tribunal, and some of the architects of Cambodia's killing fields are finally reaping what they sowed. More the shame, then, that possibly the most brutal massacre since World War II remains unrecognized at home and unremembered abroad. But today there's growing momentum in Dhaka for some sort of restitution. Since its traumatic birth, Bangladesh has weathered coups, assassinations and a legacy of largely corrupt and ineffectual leadership. Now war veterans such as Safiullah and other members of civil society are urging Bangladesh's current government, a caretaker administration of technocrats propped up by the military, to establish a fact-finding commission that could go about the long-overdue work of collecting testimony and starting prosecutions. In recent weeks, they've called for the banning of suspected war criminals and collaborators from the polls due to be held in December, but they face stiff resistance. The real authority in the country, General Moeen Uddin Ahmed, said earlier this year that the current period — as his regime overhauls the nation's politics and prepares for elections in December — was not the moment to sort out the weighty baggage of the past. Yet the sheer scale of the carnage cannot be denied. Sydney Schanberg, then the New York Times's South Asia correspondent, described the month-long Pakistani crackdown in March 1971 as "a pogrom on a vast scale" in a land where "vultures grow fat." (He would famously win a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting five years later on Cambodia's killing fields.) Passing through the charred husks of villages razed by West Pakistani troops, he heard whispered story after story of mass executions of Hindus, college students and anybody suspected of Bengali nationalism. Neighborhoods were gutted as Bangladesh's main cities fell to a fifth of their existing population; 10 million refugees fled west to India. Almost every Bangladeshi household has a tale of loss and suffering. Around 400,000 women, by some estimates, were raped. At the Jalladkhana, Hoque fights simply to keep the memory of those days alive. He reckons that there are thousands of other sites like this dotting Bangladesh's lush countryside. By one such spot north of the capital, he recalls, a stone epitaph erected there is inscribed with a bare message: "Passerby," it reads, "please stand here a moment." Controversies in Dark Tourism Dark Tourism is a dynamic global phenomenon: an agent of change and a significant factor in social, cultural, and technical evolution. Such evolution, especially those driven by tourism, is almost certainly followed by a variety of induced controversies. A look at the current spectrum of dark tourism studies illustrates the importance, timeliness, and even necessity to set these controversies out for serious debate beyond the simplicities of journalistic headlines. A critical analysis of the contexts, causes, and consequences is required. Failure to comprehend the basis of a dark tourism controversy may (more than not) produce myopic tourism development policies of the sort seen in countries ranging from Turkey to Kenya. The ‘classic’ controversies derived from and rooted in tourism (such as dark/thanatourism, tourism development, tourism planning, employment in tourism, malpractice with tourism statistics, dark heritage tourism, sustainable dark tourism, sport and mega events, tourism and sex, gaming, events and authenticity or commodification of culture) are well established in the tourism literature, whereas contemporary, or emerging examples (such as medical
tourism, political tourism, tourism related to poverty, volunteer tourism, wildlife tourism), are less documented and under-researched in academia. Example of controversies in dark tourism Development Spretnak (1999) and Shiva (1999) ask whether the discourse of development and action a matter of economics rather than livelihood. The real effect of modern ‘development’ policies has been a substantive increase in the suffering of the local community. Does dark tourism in less developed countries exacerbate or alleviate poverty, due to Western interventions and development policies? Does tourism represent an effective or realistic means of achieving development? Who benefits from development? (Sharpley, 2002). Employment and human resources Issues and controversies in relation to employment in dark tourism are by no means new. One of the challenges which any discussion of human resources in international tourism is how to resolve the many contradictions that are evident within the industry, considering the contradictory tensions between, on the one hand, the process of empowerment and on the other, pressure toward standardization and de-skilling in the delivery of products and services (e.g. Ritzer’s notion of McDonalization). Tourism investment Ethical investment and dark tourism projects: There can be controversies over investment in dark tourism in foreign countries by entrepreneurs from countries that are seen as undesirable by the international community (Swarbrooke, 1999). Dark Heritage tourism On-going controversies epitomize the nature of the conflicts in heritage-related tourism: one side supports the project for economic and social reasons (ie., jobs) and the other side opposes them for cultural or ecological reasons (damage to the integrity of the cultural or natural heritage). One side is interested more in bringing in tourists; the other is more interested in the intrinsic value which heritage has for the community (Ollrich, 1994). Sustainability Thendran and Baum (2000, p. 404) noted that the concept and practice of sustainability are “mired in contradictions and controversies”, when discussing preservation and development issues. Among several other (e.g., Buttler, 1996; Maclellan, 1997) Callins and Baum (2003) asked whether sustainability as a concept has been “hijacked by the dark tourism industry through eco-labeling and eco-selling”. Authenticity and festivals As a recent tradition the rebirth of Carnival has given rise to controversies in cities where festivals have either been revived or sometimes even newly invented. This gives rise to questions of authenticity, commercialization, and a balance between residents and tourist involvement and needs (Smith and Forest, 2006). Planning Even in tourism planning controversies often arise. Gunn et al. (2002, p. 26) argued that because of tourism complexity, planners at the destination should encompass several interest
groups –residents, businesses, arts and humanities, cultural and natural resources, protection advocates, civil leaders, and professional designers/planners. CONCLUSION This paper has attempted to construct a conceptual framework in which the supply of a diverse and fragmented dark tourism product may be located. Taking the idea that dark tourism possesses varying ‘degrees’ or ‘shades’ of intensity of darkness, and building upon the work of Strange and Kempa (2003), Miles (2002) and Sharpley (2005), a ‘spectrum of supply’ was outlined with a subsequent seven type categorization of dark tourism supplier. Essentially, the Dark Tourism Spectrum is a fluid and dynamic continuum of intensity which is anchored by various, though not necessarily exclusive, product features and characteristics. That is, it would be foolhardy to suggest that all dark tourism products possess all of the defining traits which would allow them to be plotted precisely on this ‘spectrum of supply’. Indeed, it is accepted that many products will be multi-layered, and will be perceived differently amongst different groups of people in different parts of the world. In addition, as noted by Seaton (1999), changes in the micro and macro environments, such as the manipulation of ‘dark heritage’ for political purposes or the selective interpretation of particular events, may cause ‘shifts’ in how a product is both supplied and perceived by the consumer, and as a result may cause suppliers to ‘move’ and ‘slide’ along the Dark Tourism Spectrum, from darker to lighter, and vice versa. Moreover, many products may display a hybrid of characteristics outlined in this paper, and thus may not fit easily within the overall supply framework and the subsequent product typology. Nevertheless, it is suggested that the Dark Tourism Spectrum framework, and the Seven Dark Supplier categorization, does allow much needed clarity and a setting of parameters which may be applied to the eclectic dark tourism product range. Further to this, concern has been expressed on the terminology used by academia and the media to describe diverse facets of dark tourism supply, and the implications this may have upon the wider dark tourism market (Stone 2005b). In particular, those practitioners who supply dark tourism sites, attractions and exhibitions may dislike the actual term ‘dark tourism’ being applied to them, perhaps because of wider morbidity undertones and morality subtexts. They may even dismiss the view that they belong to the wider tourism industry. Of course further research will clarify this position. The implications of using emotive terminology should be readily apparent. Specifically, if one considers the implications of using terms to describe a particular industry, with some aspects of that industry not readily accepting or fully understanding its meaning and connotations, then dark tourism research and the field exercises it must entail is made all the more difficult. Indeed, Freeman (2005:2) whilst interviewing those who have led the dark tourism debate thus far suggested that ‘not even the experts believe it’s a case of one size fits all.’ Therefore, it is suggested that the parameters of the term ‘dark tourism’ have been clarified by the framework of supply outlined in this paper. However, more importantly, this framework of supply allows future research to begin to locate and identify the types of ‘dark tourists’, within each of these products types, and commence the fundamental task of extracting and interrogating the motives and experiences of dark tourism consumers. It remains to be seen as to the extent and type of experiences that so-called ‘dark tourists’ feel when they consume dark tourism products. Indeed, it is unclear whether spirituality, in its various forms, and subject of this special journal issue, is a primary experience or motivation for dark tourism consumption. Future empirical research will perhaps, following on from this paper, begin the task of plotting ‘shades of spirituality’ within the dark tourism experience and note the varying degrees of intensities within dark tourism demand and motivation. It is only when
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