My research

My research in Dark Tourism commenced during my final year at the German university. As part of my undergraduate degree I worked for six months at Colditz Castle in Germany (famously known for its past as a Prisoner of War camp). During this time, I realised how difficult it can be to display sensitive issues in museums and how little is known about visitor’s experience at these sites.

Visitors to “difficult” sites have risen sharply, Auschwitz now has 1.5 million visitors (http://www.thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/192671,Auschwitz-draws-record-number-of-visitors).  In order to explain this phenomenon, a research group has established itself at the University of Central Lancashire calling it Dark Tourism (http://dark-tourism.org.uk/). 

I am very concerned about the term Dark Tourism as it implies that a visit to these sites is very gloomy and visitors have a fascination with the macabre and/or death (Preece and Price 2005). Furthermore, several categories for Dark Tourism were developed which range from amusement parks to concentration camps.

I think, the current concept of Dark Tourism is too simplified. It does not consider the different cultural forces which create these places in the first instance. Commemorative heritage sites are often established by the local community or a group who had to endure suffering at the site; the principal aim is usually to maintain the memory and has nothing to do with attracting visitors who want to engage with death. Visitors to these sites often feel a strong sense of obligation (“I owe it to the people who died here”) and can feel strong emotions. A recent study at the former political prison in Bautzen (East Germany) has revealed that visitors have a strong desire to see the real place, wanting to see for themselves where atrocities have happened (Pampel 2007). My aim for my research project is to gain a deeper understanding of the visitors to these sites, how they engage emotionally with the site and whether the site has a deeper long-term impact.

In June last year, I had the opportunity to visit the former KGB building in Riga/Latvia. It was the first since Latvia’s independence that the building was open to the public. I was very moved by the experience (and so was everybody else) and having talked to some visitors, it was apparent that they did not visit the site for macabre reasons, it was predominantly for educational purposes and/or discovering family history.

The article with the following headline “Nazi relics could be ‘dark tourism’ sites, says Glasgow academic” in The Times, Scotland http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/scotland/article4411763.ece. Professor John Lennon will explain to tourism experts in Germany how to create “Dark Tourism packages” which fascinates visitors. Is this appropriate? And if yes, are there any sites which cannot be included in these packages?