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Dark Tourism: from Auschwitz to Dracula

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Dark Tourism: from Auschwitz to Dracula DARK TOURISM: FROM AUSCHWITZ TO DRACULA TUOMAS HOVI – T U R U N MATKAILUAKATEMIAN 10 - VUOTISSEMINAARI 2 5 . 1 0 . 2 0 1 3 ”DARK TOURISM” Hello? I can’t really speak right now, I’m on a trip and… …I’m in a pretty bad place right now (= in a tight spot) FINGERPORI, ©PERTTI JARLA 2007 DARK TOURISM • Travel to sites of death, disaster or the seemingly macabre (bad places) • Dark tourism, thanatourism • grief tourism, fright tourism, morbid tourism, black spot tourism, horror tourism, hardship tourism, tragedy tourism, warfare tourism, genocide tourism and extreme thanatourism, disaster tourism, “dark heritage”… • Dark tourism (synkkä turismi) mostly used • Research phenomenon older (1980s-1990s), but the term new, introduced in 1996 by Malcolm Foley and John Lennon • As a phenomenon Dark tourism can however be seen as much older • Pilgrimages, Pompeii, the battlefield of Waterloo (a tourist site since 1816), Roman gladiator games (?), public executions (?) DARK TOURISM RESEARCH • ”Dark Tourism. The Attraction of Death and Disaster”, John Lennon & Malcolm Foley (2000) • ”The Darker Side of Travel. The Theory and Practice of Dark Tourism”, Richard Sharpley and Philip R. Stone (eds. 2009) • Robert S. Bristow, A.V. Seaton, Carolyn Strange, Michael Kempa DARK TOURISM RESEARCH • “Dark tourism as an academic field of study is where death education and tourism studies collide and, as such, can offer potentially fruitful research avenues within the broad realms of thanatology.” • “Dark tourism offers a multi-disciplinary academic lens through which to scrutinise a broad range of social, cultural, geographical, anthropological, political, managerial, and historical concerns.” • Philip Stone (2013, 307–309) • Thanatology (scientific study of death), thanatoptic tradition (the contemplation of death) DARK TOURISM RESEARCH • Issues for investigation and understanding: • Ethical issues • Tsunami Memorial project 2006 • Marketing/promoting issues • Interpretation issues • Site management issues DARK TOURISM RESEARCH • The Institute for Dark Tourism Research (iDTR), based at the University of Central Lancashire (UK). Promotes ethical research into the social scientific understanding of tourist sites of death, disaster, and atrocities, and the tourist experience at these places. Dark tourism is not simply a fascination with death or the macabre, but a multi- disciplinary academic lens in which to scrutinise fundamental interrelationships of the contemporary commodification of death with the cultural condition of society. • http://dark-tourism.org.uk/ DARK TOURISM RESEARCH DARK TOURISM PLACES • Auschwitz-Birkenau (concentration camps) • Killing Fields of Cambodia • Ground Zero (WTC attacks) • Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall • Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park • Murambi Genocide Memorial Centre (Rwandan genocide) • Alcatraz (prisons) • Battlefield sites (American Civil War, I&II World War) • Dracula tourism (Whitby & Romania), themed attractions (London Dungeon, Jack the Ripper walks, Ghost walks) • Cemeteries, places of famous deaths (Diana, JFK) TEMPORARY PLACES • the wreck of the Costa Concordia • the wreck of SS Morro Castle (1930) • ruins of New Orleans (after Hurricane Katrina) • Ground Zero (WTC attacks) DARK TOURISM SPECTRUMS • A typology of dark tourist attractions presented in a darkest to lightest framework • Philip R. Stone (2006, 152–157) • Depend 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’. • Richard Sharpley (2005) • Seven dark suppliers – The dark tourism product • Philip R. Stone (2006, 152-157) A DARK TOURISM SPECTRUM: PERCEIVED PRODUCT FEATURES OF DARK TOURISM WITHIN A ‘DARKEST- LIGHTEST’ FRAMEWORK OF SUPPLY, Stone (2006, 151) ‘SEVEN DARK SUPPLIERS’ • 1. Dark Fun Factories • 2. Dark Exhibitions • 3. Dark Dungeons • 4. Dark Resting Places • 5. Dark Shrines • 6. Dark Conflict Sites • 7. Dark Camps of Genocide 1. DARK FUN FACTORIES • Sites, attractions and tours which predominately have an entertainment focus and commercial ethic, and which present real or fictional death and macabre events • Dungeon attractions,(the London Dungeon) • Dracula tourism (planned Dracula Park) http://www.thedungeons.com/london/en/ 2. DARK EXHIBITIONS • Exhibitions and sites which revolve around death, suffering or the macabre with an often commemorative, educational and reflective message • Body Worlds’ exhibitions (Heureka) • ‘Catacombe dei Cappucini’ in Palermo 3. DARK DUNGEONS • Sites and attractions which present bygone penal and justice codes to the present day consumer, and revolve around (former) prisons and courthouses • Alcatraz • the Old Melbourne Gaol • Bodmin Jail • Robben Island 4. DARK RESTING PLACES • Cemetery or grave markers as potential products for dark tourism • St Mary's, Whitby • Père Lachaise, Paris Patrick Frilet/Rex Features 5. DARK SHRINES • Often semi–permanent sites which essentially ‘trade’ on the act of remembrance and respect for the recently deceased • The gates of Kensington Palace/Althorp House (Princess Diana’s death) • Ground Zero 6. DARK CONFLICT SITES • War and battlefields and their commodification as potential tourism products • Battle sites • American Civil War • First & Second World War 9,000 Fallen Soldiers Etched into the Sand on Normandy Beach to Commemorate Peace Day http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2 013/09/the-fallen-9000/ 7. DARK CAMPS OF GENOCIDE • 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’ • Auschwitz-Birkenau (& other Holocaust sites) • Rwanda, Cambodia OTHER CATEGORISATIONS • Travel to witness public enactments of death or tourism to disaster sites • Travel to see sites of individual or mass deaths after they have occurred • Travel to memorials or internment sites • Travel to see evidence or symbolic representations of death at unconnected sites • Travel to re-enactments or simulation of death • A.V. Seaton in Richard Sharpley and Philip R. Stone (eds. 2009, 15–16) Ria Dunkley, 2005 http://pages.123-reg.co.uk/pstone1- 995478/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfil es/riadunkleypresentationTSeventlondo noct2006.pdf OTHER FACTORS • Time is a factor when defining the ”darkness” of a location • 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’ • According to John Lennon & Malcolm Foley in order for something to be dark tourism the events must be recent and it must introduce anxiety and doubt about modernity and its consequences (Lennon & Foley 2000, 11-12) • Media • News, films, books • Holocaust, WTC, JFK, Diana (Western media) • Culture • Ethnocentric REASONS FOR DARK TOURISM? • Allows death to be brought back into the public realm and discourse • May aid the social neutralisation of death for the individual tourist • Gives an opportunity to contemplate death and mortality • Tourists can experience horror and be scared in a safe environment Reasons for Dark tourism, Ria Dunkley 2005: http://pages.1 23- reg.co.uk/psto ne1- 995478/sitebuil dercontent/site builderfiles/ria dunkleypresent ationTSeventlo ndonoct2006.p df Disaster Tourism, http://www.disastertourism.co.uk/ CRITICISM • Offensive? • Disrespectful? • Unethical? • Commercialization • History as entertainment • Ethnocentric (Western) • Auschwitz and Ground Zero worse than The Killing Fields in Cambodia, the Rwandan Genocide or Hiroshima? CRITICISM • “Auschwitz-Land”, the prime location of “Holocaust tourism” • Tim Cole argues that the true message of remembrance is obscured by the masses of tourists who pass through Auschwitz to simply consume the holocaust. Guillaume Herbaut/Institute pour Télérama CRITICISM • “Not everyone agrees with the idea of the viewing platforms, though. Some New Yorkers say viewing the ruins of the World Trade Centre is ghoulish, while others who live close to the site say it is disruptive while they are trying to get their lives together.“ • – BBC News CRITICISM • Dark tourist or just a tourist? • Dark tourism, cultural tourism, history tourism or tourism? • Is every trip to a place that has connections to death or disaster dark tourism? • Depending on the motivations of the tourists? EXAMPLES FROM DARK TO LIGHTER DARK TOURSIM • Auschwitz-Birkenau • Dracula tourism (in Romania) AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU AUSCHWITZ • Auschwitz-Birkenau • Concentration and Extermination Camp 1940-1945 (Nazi Germany) • 1.1 million victims • 70-75 000 Poles • 21 000 Romani • 15 000 Soviet POWs Das Bundesarchiv / Stanislaw Mucha • 10-15 000 others AUSCHWITZ • Museum since 1947, UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979 • UNESCO name was changed in 2007 from "Auschwitz Concentration Camp” to ”Auschwitz Birkenau - German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945)” • 1.43 million people visited the site in 2012 (25 million have visited it since 1947) AUSCHWITZ http://en.auschwitz.org/z/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6&Itemid=8 Numbers of people visiting yearly: 1960: c. 380 000 1970: c. 610 000 1980: c. 650 000 1990: c. 440 000 2000: c. 410 000 2010: c. 1 400 000 http://en.auschwitz.org/z/index.php?option=com_con tent&task=view&id=56&Itemid=24 AUSCHWITZ Report 2012. http://en.auschwitz.org/m/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=620&Itemid=49 AUSCHWITZ
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