Dark Tourism Attractiveness Scan Model: Towards a More Effective Development of a Destination

Abstract

Death has always fascinated humans, perhaps because the fear of not being able to avoid it is as great as the desire to know what comes next. Driven by an innate awareness of one's deadly nature, people have always visited sites impregnated with suffering, pain, violence, and atrocity such as the Auschwitz Genocide Camp or the Ground Zero. Although the act of travelling to these destinations has always existed, its literature remains scarce with a small number of academics dedicated to its study. Firstly, Rojek developed the concept of Black Spots, then Seaton coined the term Thanatourism and finally, Lennon & Foley labelled it as we know it today, Dark Tourism. Afterwards, Stone further explored the industry with the identification of the Seven Dark Suppliers and the subsequent development of a Dark Tourism Spectrum Framework to determine the intensity of darkness arising from each attraction. However, there is still a gap in the literature concerning not only the thorough knowledge of this new form of tourism but also the lack of an effective methodology capable of detecting Dark Tourism destinations as well as to identify potential dark tourist products. Indeed, this thesis aims to fill this academic void through a deepening of theories and definitions regarding this new phenomenon so to allow a greater understanding of its origin, evolution and current state as well as through the creation of a Dark Tourism Attractiveness Scan Model availed not only of a theoretical but also an empirical basis since it is used in a geographically defined area, the province of Tarragona, to determine both its positioning as a successful tourism destination and the identification of tourist products potentially connected to the Dark Tourism. Finally, the ultimate aim is to provide the tourism industry with a possible methodology capable of determining new business potentialities in tourist destinations not yet developed or offering new possibilities to already mature tourist destinations.