History of Tourism
The term tourism is often used to refer to the temporary movement of people to new destinations for pleasure, business, among other reasons. Tourists visit different places in the world seeking to enjoy unique phenomenon which might be political, historical, social-cultural and natural creations. Tourism started in the early precolonial days, but in the 19th and 20th centuries it advanced into new levels due to many technological innovations by man. It became easier and cheaper to travel to distant lands for leisure. Dark tourism is a form of tourism whereby people visit sites where deaths or memorable tragedies took place. For instance terror attack sites, places where genocides took place and other places where suffering was experienced in the world history. Dark tourism is one of the oldest forms of tourism which is gaining popularity in the recent times. Its origin can be traced in the 11th century when the pilgrimages often visited death sites, cemeteries or assassination sites. During this time, people used to visit sites which have a religious significance to them such as Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified, battlefields such as the popular Gettysburg where a bloody American civil war took place in 1863 and more other sites related to tragedy and deaths.
In the history of many countries, many tragedies have taken place causing havoc and unforgettable memories. These sites become tourist attraction sites. In the UK, there are many dark tourism sites such as, The Tower of London, Cross Bones Graveyard, Southwark and Highgate cemetery which are located in London the capital of UK (Collard 2014). This kind of tourism is growing rapidly attracting a lot of attention from the media and the public.
According to Vonow (2017), though dark tourism sites are remembered for tragedies and deaths, they are important both politically and historically. Stones and Sharpley (2008) Argued that dark tourism informs how the modern society operates and represent their deceased dear ones and that dark tourism elaborates more about life and living.
Dark tourism destinations can be categorized into various types depending on the memorable tragic events that took place on specific sites. Some of the sites attract people because of the atrocities and death that took place; others are sites built to commemorate the tragic events in history. Dark tourism destination can be more educative or mainly for entertainment.
According to Graham (2001), dark tourism can be categorized as follows;
i. Visiting places known for mass murder and genocides. People visit places known for mass murder and genocides. Such sites include Auschwitz, Rwanda, place where terrorist attacks took place such as Ground Zero in the US. These sites are remembered because many people lost their lives in the tragedies that occurred there (Hartley 2017)
What is Dark Tourism?
ii. Visiting museums based on deaths.Museums are displayed with war-related events such as genocide museums. An example of such a museum is the Imperial War Museum in London which exhibits the war history of the United Kingdom
iii. Touring graveyards and cemeteries. According to Gothic literature, dark tourists are fascinated by being in the presence of death and death related symbols. According to Collard (2014), Highgate Cemetery in London, where famous dead people such as Karl Marx, George Eliot, and Douglas Adams were rested is a good example of such dark tourism destination.
iv. Visiting dungeons for entertainment reasons is the fourth type of dark tourism. According to Sciandra (2016), the dungeons remind people of the dark history of their nations. The dungeons remind of the punishments for crimes, executions, and torture which were practiced in the past. An example of a dungeon in the UK is the London Dungeon
v. Touring the battlefields is the fifth type of dark tourism in which tourists visit specific places where battles were fought. According to Andres (2016) tourists enjoy the experience of standing where the soldier fell, and their blood was shed which brings an experience of war to the dark tourist. Most of the dark tourists visiting the battlefield are war veterans in respect of their fallen soldiers.
vi. The sixth type of dark tourism is visiting areas known for slavery. The most popular site in this type of dark tourism is the trans-Atlantic slave trade sites. In Africa, these types of tourism inform the tourists about the suffering and the tragedies that faced the slaves. Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle in Ghana are the well-known destinations for this type.
vii. The seventh type of dark tourism involves taking part in enacting the events being remembered. According to BBC (2016), The Battle of Hastings in the UK is an annual re-enactment event that takes place in East Sussex UK, the site of the historical battle on the weekend nearing the 14th In this type of dark tourism the tourist, take part in the enacting the historical event being commemorated.
According to Dieke.P.U.C, et al.(2011), in the recent times, dark tourism is increasingly growing in popularity with many tourists around the world getting interested in visiting dark tourism destinations and taking part in its events. Robinson (2016) suggests that one of the main attractions to dark tourism is the increased interest in death and macabre. The fact that death is inevitable creates the interest in many people to explore it. However, apart from curiosity, dark tourism is motivated by many factors most of which are complex.
Types of Dark Tourism
According to Sharpley and Stone (2009), investigations in plethora studies have outlined several driving motives towards dark tourism which include; curiosity, entertainment, empathetic identification, pilgrimage, education, naturalistic attractions among others. The diversity of the motivations behind dark tourism is the major reason why there many types of dark tourism. Sharpley and Stone, further argue that apart from the reasons above, dark tourism is also motivated by a desire to understand our age, emotional attraction to nature, barbarism, desire to feel a national identity, spiritual reasons and natural attraction of people to horror.
Baran (2012), Suggests that curiosity of the consumer to visit a dark site is at time irrelevant to the tourist’s decision to visit, and the dark site is not often driven by ill motives but the desire to understand a situation. He further argues that, in dark tourism, the motive to make a trip should be more serious rather than one based on curiosity.
According to Biran, et al. (2011), many tourists are motivated by the belief that “to see it believe.” The media is the major force behind this belief. The tragic phenomenon that the media presents in their news captures the interests of many people to visit the site of the tragedy. Some of the news seems unbelievable and forcing people to visit the actual place to have a firsthand experience of a tragic occurrence.
According to Paris (2016), many dark tourists visit dark tourism destination each year; it is observed that many behave in some ways that might be seen as inappropriate, such as talking too loudly or even dressing in a strange way and they take a lot of ‘selfies.’ This phenomenon that Professor Lennon a lecturer in dark tourism from Glasgow Caledonian University London explained to be motivated by the desire to have actual or symbolic experience with death. According to Paris (2016), dark tourists are not only interested in experiencing the deadly tragedies, but they want to commemorate the victims of the tragedy which is another motivating factor behind dark tourism.
According to Johnson (2012) another reason why people tragedy site is their desire to explore the truth and find answers for many unknown facts about the tragedy. For instance, they may want to know how Hitler could initiate the Holocaust. The desire to feel the experience of the victims and what led to the perpetration of the tragedy. According to Hobenhaus (2017), the tourists also desire to commemorate the liberation that resulted from the tragic events that took place in history, for instance, the Afro-Americans, the descendants of a slave, who were taken in America have struggled and ensured that slavery was well represented in the history of America. By so doing, the Southern memorials were established where the plantation sites tell the history of the owner as well as the history of the slave families that worked on those sites.
Motivations for Dark Tourism
Experience Travel group Ltd is a hospitality and travel company that organizes weekend coach breaks for group travel organizers. They offer services to groups of friends and any other social associations (Experience Travel Group 2017). Dark tourism in the United Kingdom has gained popularity in the recent times with media as the highest contributor. The number of tourists visiting the country is increasing each year. This has awakened the attention of the Hospitality and travel industry to take advantage of the situation.
According to UKessay (2015), the United Kingdom has a diverse hospitality industry which is an encouragement to the investors. The hospitality industry is broad bearing many products and services to the consumers. Hospitality mainly focuses on accommodation, refreshments, and meals. The investors in this industry focus on investing in establishing motels and lodgings which offer short term accommodation to the visitors. The Experience Travel Group offer hospitality services and transport services to its customers. They also organize events for various social groups. This gives them a competitive advantage over it competitors who mainly focus on hospitality. In relation to dark tourism, many tourists travel for long distances and even from different countries, and therefore they require accommodation services as well a transport services to the destinations.
According to the British Hospitality Association (2010), the UK hospitality industry is expanding year by year despite the recession and the number of tourists visiting the UK is continuously increasing with time goes. They also noted that there is an increasing trend on the visitors’ expenditure while in the country. This creates an opportunity to the companies’ offering hospitality and transport services in the UK such as The Experience Travel Group. According to a report by British Hospitality Association (2010) hospitality industry was noted to be among the fastest growing industries in the world. With an approximately 46,000 hotels in the UK, the hospitality industry remains to be a significant player in the economy of the country.
The dark tourism industry is growing rapidly, and therefore the industries dealing with traveling and accommodation services in the UK should come up with strategies on how they can tap into this form of industry.
According to a report by Euromonitor International (2012), domestic travel in the UK is increasingly growing. This is mainly attributed to the growth of the domestic tourism industry in the country. This has also led to increased spending on trips and local tourism. According to this report, online travel booking has been adopted by many travelers. The industry has also been able to adapt to this change where they advertise their services online as well as update the customer on traveling prices. Most travelers in the recent times highly depend on social media to gather information from the service providers without necessarily having to physically the staffs. Mobile communication technology has led to the growth of self-services mostly in the travel industries.
Exploring the Truth
According to Vonow (2017), the media is playing an important role in building the popularity of dark tourism in the world. Today the media is propagating information efficiently, which reaches a huge audience all over the world. The dark tourism sites can now be advertised easily while tragic occurrences reach many people, especially through the television. This can easily create the interest in many people to visit these sites.
The presence of popular dark tourism sites in the United Kingdom especially in its capital London attracts a lot of people to visit the country. Also, availability of many hotels and motels and good transport systems motivates many tourists to visit the country. The country is likely to experience a higher number of dark tourists since in the recent time’s many people are getting interested in this form of tourism.
London the United Kingdom’s capital is a tourist destination for many tourists from all over the world which creates good opportunities for hospitality and travel industries. London hosts major destinations which exhibit World War II and other historical rivalries and other political animosities in history example the site of the Tyburn Tree at the foot of Edgware Road which is a small island where the majority of the executions in the History of UK took place.
According to Hartley (2017), after visiting dark tourism sites, some of the tourists document their experiences through writing, and they share it with the public. These experiences help in making many people curious hence arousing their desire to visit dark tourism sites.
Most of the people may associate Dark tourism with ill motives, and therefore they may not want to visit dark sites.
With the industry growing many companies will think of investing in the industry thereby increasing competition.
The diversity of the products of the dark tourism industry in the UK is likely to attract more tourists in the country.
The desire of scholars to learn more about dark tourism also puts the UK at the forefront of receiving many tourists who have a motive to explore more on the industry.
According to Hobenhaus (2010), modern technological advancement in communication has enabled many people to access information about many industries including the tourism industry. Considering that the growing popularity of dark tourism has been mainly attributed to by the media, it means that current developments in the media industry will result in the growth of dark tourism in the future. Companies can use this advantage to market their services to consumers from every part of the world easily and at a cheaper cost.
Industry Opportunities
The industry faces a lot of critics from those who think that it is motivated by macabre. This may prevent many people from taking part in dark tourism.
Competition from other dark tourism destinations in other countries this is because through the growth of mobile technology and communication technology many people can access information about other destinations which they may be persuaded to visit.
Porters five P analysis usually regarded as 5 P forces is a tool that is used to measure the power lying in a business situation. It helps a business organization to understand its competitiveness strength, position and the target position it wants to move. Below is a 5 P analysis for Experience Travel Group.
PESTEL analysis is a tool used by marketers to analyze external and internal factors that affect an organization. PESTEL is an acronym for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal factors impacting a business.
According to Stones and Sharpley (2008), the fact that dark tourism is growing creates an opportunity to the companies providing hospitality and travel services. London being one of the world’s recognized destination for dark tourists, Experience travel group can take the opportunity to benefit from this tourism industry. The growth of the industry will see the number of dark tourism in the UK increase in the years to come. The company should strategize on how they can improve their services to meet the increasing demand in the industry. They should also try to adapt to the recent developments in technology so as to compete effectively with their competitors.
One of the main factors that have led to the growth of dark tourism is the media. From the media, many people access information about tourism destinations in the world including the dark tourism sites. The media also helps people to access tragic events as they happen through the television and the social media. According to Marketing Essays (2015), the organization should, therefore, utilize the marketing opportunities that the new media technology has opened. They should market their services online. This will enable the consumers to get full information about their services. Creating an online platform can allow self-services for their consumers. This will enable them to reach many customers from all over the world. They can also corroborate with the managements of the various dark tourism destination to advertise their sites and services online. This will attract many tourists into the country.
Hospitality and Travel in the UK
The company should study its competitors and identify their strengths and weakness. By identifying their weakness the company can capitalize on this weakness to address the gaps in the competitors’ services this will give them a competitive advantage over their competitors.
The company should embrace new technologies in offering it services to its customers. This will enable them to compete effectively with their competitors.
Experience Travel Group should also carry out a market research to identify the opportunities in the market and the needs of consumers that should meet in their services.
Conclusion
Dark tourism is a unique type of tourism that can help people recreate their history. Through dark tourism, people can get answers to memorable historical events that took place in the past. They can identify why those events took place and the people who made it happen. They also identify the motives that the proprietors of the event had. Dark tourism also helps in commemorating the victims of a given tragedy. In conclusion, dark tourism helps experience the emotions attached to a given tragedy and learn from history.
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