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Dark tourism is a new coinage rooted in the perception of tourism activities at the sites or destinations connected to phenomena that bear varied, flexible, dynamic, diverse, and graded dark shades of life and civilization. It is now customary to subsume it within the sets of niche tourism. Some dark tourism sites attract visitors and generate sizable amounts of revenue, yet most of the world does not register much demand compared to other niches. Accordingly, promotion pursuit turned crucial to draw the market’s attention, creating its competitively distinct position.

Indeed, inherent issues, such as conceptual multiplicity within nature, aspect, attribute, and product paradigm, turn dark tourism into a complex phenomenon and put a challenge toward creating its distinct market position. Additionally, contradictions in semantic and functional significances, conflicts in framing morbid memory and authentic portrayal, variances in ethical, cultural and ideological interpretations, transition of liminal space identity, and diverse focuses in stakeholder engagement in imaging impede efforts to transform dark tourism attractions into a significant driver of tourism.

This chapter will locate and address the issues that challenge the marketability of dark attractions and dark tourism promotion more directly, with attention to the Indian context.

Dark Tourism is a newly recognized niche tourism type that is first coined in 1996 by Lennon and Foley. This new term has attracted academicians and researchers globally. Till mid of 20th century, major work on dark tourism was limited to understanding its concept and giving it various names such as death tourism, black tourism, horror tourism, thanatourism, morbid tourism, and many more. After the mid-20th century, the focus of researchers was shifted to tourists’ psychology specifically on tourists’ motivation. Researchers suggested various motivational factors such as ‘curiosity of unusual,’ ‘education and learning,’ ‘historic interest,’ ‘inner purification,’ and ‘interested in death-related sites’ that influence tourists to seek dark attraction places. Recent research identified impact of dark places on visitors’ emotions and experiences. Some has argued that after visit tourists’ experience negative emotions such as depression or horror. While some suggested that dark tourism have positive emotion experience. This chapter is based on a secondary database, descriptive in nature, and aims to depict the motivation, purposes, and behavior of tourists toward dark attraction places that are linked to places of dark history.

Dark tourism, a phenomenon encompassing visits to sites associated with death, suffering, and historical atrocities, has gained increasing scholarly attention in recent years. This chapter explores the concept's historical roots, motivations for engagement, and its transformative impact on heritage sites, culminating in a case study of the Malcha Mahal Haunted Heritage Walks in Delhi. Despite being abandoned for centuries, this historic site gained prominence with the occupation by the self-proclaimed royal family of Oudh in the 1980s. The introduction of the Haunted Heritage Walk by Delhi Tourism aimed to harness the dark tourism potential of this previously neglected monument. However, initial challenges such as deteriorating conditions and safety concerns necessitated collaborative efforts with government departments for conservation and site preparation. Interviews with visitors revealed diverse motivations for attendance, ranging from thrill-seeking to appreciation of the monument's historical significance. Since the walk's inception, conservation efforts have commenced, accompanied by landscaping initiatives and amenities for visitors. While the future conservation and tranquility of Malcha Mahal remain uncertain amid increasing tourist interest, its transformation into an alternative destination within Delhi underscores the potential of dark tourism to revitalize neglected heritage sites. Sustainable tourism planning is essential to preserve the monument's unique features and manage tourism while maintaining its integrity for future generations.

Over the past 50 years, dark tourism has seen exponential growth in terms of both physical and digital contexts. Dark tourism is primarily a concentration around documented accounts of physical violence, and theorizations centered on dark tourism studies have generally fallen within either behavioral or interpretivist perspectives. Such perspectives are indicative of the continually evolving nature of dark tourism and its receptiveness to new definitions, conceptual frameworks, and theorizations. Taking this into consideration, this chapter seeks to develop and broaden the notion of “dark tourism” within the era of late capitalism by presenting fresh theoretical perspectives stemming from critical criminological frameworks. Specifically, in drawing upon critical notions of violence and the emerging deviant leisure framework, this chapter will aim to instigate fresh academic enquiry into the nature of dark tourism, expand its theoretical underpinnings, and subsequently provide a means in which to examine how banal forms of tourism play an integral part in the proliferation of some of the most serious harms that populate the contemporary neoliberal landscape.

Dark tourism is one of the tourism types that have developed in line with the expectations of tourists in recent years. One of the special interest tourism types, dark tourism is based on fears such as pain, fear, and sadness. From this point of view, dark tourism destinations include battlefields, execution scenes, areas where death is experienced firsthand, centers with horror themes, and regions where natural and technological disasters occur. The centers where dark tourism takes place are quite different from the centers where other types of tourism take place. Thus, there is also diversity in the tourist type. Among the travel motivations of Dark tourists are reasons such as experiencing the moment of death, feeling fear, respecting the past, and obtaining information. With the advancement of technology, the reach of dark tourism to tourists has also accelerated. Today, dark tourism destinations reach large masses by using various marketing strategies. With this information, the aim of this study is to examine marketing strategies within the scope of dark tourism. Within the scope of this examination, social media will be emphasized. Social media accounts of destinations based on dark tourism will be examined and data will be analyzed through content analysis. Thus, it is aimed to have a rich section within the scope of dark tourism and social media.

Generally, dark tourism is considered an area of segment currently being developed within the tourism industry due to its sudden popularity. Dark tourism is related to death, disaster, tragedy, and suffering. Nevertheless, the association has yet to be thoroughly researched. Thus, this study investigates the relationship between the marketing strategies employed in the dark tourism industry. This study explores the cinema or short web series/TV serials on dark tourism. In addition, the current development in entertainment media and the sudden rise of streaming platforms, social media, iCloud, content marketing, virtual influences, and bloggers in dark tourism play a pivotal role in this era. Thus, this study will investigate the relationship between these roles in dark tourism. The noticeable findings of this research are also to understand further roles within the marketing strategies that further affect dark tourism. Secondary data were explored to achieve the purpose of the study. This study has contributed to the body of knowledge regarding dark tourism and marketing strategies by providing in-depth information that will benefit scholars, tourism planners, and policymakers.

According to the definition, visiting any specific destination to explore and unfold the darkest event of human history is known as dark tourism. This journey involves much of the darker side of the travel which includes massacre, genocide, harlotry or flesh trade, ethnic cleansing, war, or disaster which is either natural and accidental or created by humans. Many international and domestic tourists travel around different states of India to explore its culture and community, foods and festivals, art, crafts and music, and the climate. The idea behind “dark tourism” is highly sensitive in the case of the Indian tourism context as Indian culture is much more possessive and protective compared to Western culture. The idea behind dark tourism and its utilization started in 1996; the phenomenon of this tourism mainly exists within a destination and is mainly controlled by societies and political regimes. This augmented exploration either encourages or discourages a tourist from exploring a destination for solo or group travel or restricts them due to psychological and social aspects. Many people think that dark tourism can increase interest in committing crimes and may increase the criminal mindset among individuals. The main objective of this research is to explore the major constraints and challenges of dark tourism.

The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the motivations and emotions of Western visitors to Robben Island. The methodology used is a qualitative research approach, with 25 participants conducting semi-structured interviews to acquire a better understanding of the visitors’ emotions and motives. Visitors’ motivations are “historical interest,” “earning and understanding,” “education,” “must-see,” “part of itinerary,” and “remembrance,” according to the findings. Furthermore, this study found that “sadness” is the most frequently encountered emotion by visitors to Robben Island. These insights can benefit a variety of tourism industry stakeholders, including the Robben Island Museum. The data can be used by the Robben Island Museum to improve the visitor experience. By understanding the range of emotions experienced by visitors, what evokes these emotions, and how emotions influence behavior, Robben Island Museum can focus on more effectively evoking these emotions. This will enhance the customer experience and create a greater impact and lasting impression.

This chapter clarifies the “dark tourism” in Vietnam; a case study of Hoa Lo Prison Relic. Development orientation of “dark tourism” in Vietnam contributes to healing the wounds of war. The author mainly uses a system approach, method of analysis and synthesis, and method of comparison. “Dark tourism” in Vietnam has not really developed as a specific type of tourism like ecotourism or meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) tourism. At Hoa Lo Prison historical site, “dark tourism” has been effectively exploited: (1) in the first 6 months of 2023, Hoa Lo Prison welcomes nearly 295 thousand visitors, charging fees of 7 billion VND, the situation of “sold out” takes place regularly; (2) many unique tourism products, one of the successful and widespread tourism products must be mentioned the “night tour” experience; (3) many creative forms of sightseeing with automatic explanation system so that visitors can experience 35 historical stories in their own way; and (4) always create the best conditions for visitors’ sightseeing experience. To promote dark tourism in Vietnam, it is necessary to execute some schemes: (i) enhance the sense of responsibility for peaceful tourism in the operation of monuments; (ii) stakeholders coordinate the organization of the tour program and tourist routes with appropriate contents and forms for each target group, especially foreign tourists; (iii) there is cooperation between national and international experts in organizing the “dark tourism” program aimed at peace, preventing the risk of war and conflict, and overcoming the consequences of war; and (iv) application of scientific and technological achievements in “dark tourism” activities.

The main aims of this study were to develop analytical scales for yachting tourism push-pull motivations and constraints, and analyze how these factors may influence the revisit intention of yachting tourists in China.

The analysis was conducted using the PLS-SEM, including the evaluation of measurement models and the structural models. SPSS18.0 and SmartPLS 3.3.5 software were used for statistical analysis.

We conducted a survey of 451 respondents who participate in yachting activities in Dalian, China and identified six push motivational factors (novelty and stimulation, sightseeing and leisure, sports and learning, social relationships, self-esteem and prestige and self-realization), three pull motivational factors (featured activities and services, destination environment, destination facilities) and two constraints (internal and external). Partial least squares structural equation modelling showed that all hypothesized interactions between identified factors were statistically significant and meaningful.

The push-pull-constraint model offers a new interpretation to the traditional push-pull model in theory, and the results contribute to local yacht industry sectors.