Dark Tourism Attractiveness Scan Model in Lleida

Abstract

The purpose of this research paper is to explore the Dark Tourism situation in Lleida. Dark Tourism is a phenomenon and study which has been explored by a very limited number of academics. Dark Tourism is tourism that revolves around people visiting attractions that have a relation with history as well as associations with death, suffering and tragedy but it also has aspects of heritage tourism. Dark tourism locations have a very high history value. Moreover, people are visiting such sites now more than ever as digital streaming content has a tremendous influence on us but especially the young generation. People are driven to seeing Dark Tourism content especially on Netflix and HBO, where they have Dark Tourism related content such as movies and series. Furthermore, there are various definitions of Dark Tourism by several different academics such as Lennon & Foley, Stone, Sharpley, Bowman and Pezzullo, Biran and Poria as well as others Dark Tourism enthusiasts which are explored in the beginning of the paper. This study is a continuity of the Dark Tourism research in Catalonia series. There has been research done in the provinces of Barcelona and Tarragona. This research paper uses the Dark Tourism Attractiveness Scan Model developed by Zaccaria, Romano & Puertas in 2020 for the Tarragona province to apply it the province of Lleida. This model focuses on exploring and detecting the Dark Tourism potential products in the geographical area of Lleida. Lastly, this research paper provides deep insights and exploration of Dark Tourism as well as introducing Lleida as a Dark Tourism destination for possibility of new tourism business opportunities in one of the four provinces of Catalonia, Lleida.