Description
Book SynopsisThanatourism, or dark tourism, is an increasingly pervasive feature of the contemporary tourism landscape. Travel to have actual or symbolic ‘encounters with death’ is not a new phenomenon and is now one of the fastest growing areas for debate and research in the study of Tourism. Thanatourism is an important new overview of the growing field. It introduces more rigorous scholarship, new philosophical perspectives and a wealth of empirical material on the contemporary and historical consumption of death with case studies designed to stretch and challenge current discourse. Contexts presented in the book will include- • well known religious sites • battlefield locations • genocide camps •lesser known exhibition centres and a plague site. It takes a broad methodological approach and discusses both research and teaching approaches in thanatourism as well as acknowledging its emotive nature. It is an essential new resource for all those who research or teach in the area as well as for upper level students.
Table of ContentsCh 1 Blogging the Dark Side of Travel: Consuming the Siege of Sarajevo (Tony Johnston) Ch 2 Urban Exploration: Attraction of decay and abandonment or a first step in tourism development? (Pascal Mandelartz) Ch 3 Site Management and Consuming Death: The attraction of death, disaster and the macabre (Peter Wiltshier) Ch 4 Goth Tourism: Sun, sea, sex and dark leisure? Insights into the tourist identity of the Gothic culture (Pascal Mandelartz) Ch 5 Deborah: Having a personal connection to what has been variously described as dark tourism, thanatourism, death tourism and macabre tourism (Tim Heap) Ch 6 Museums of Genocide: The tensions between authenticity and the original article (Geoff Shirt) Ch 7 ‘Don’t fear the reaper’: The value of understanding mortality in adventure tourism (Duncan Marson) Ch 8 Life after the Black Death: How dark tourism sheds light on history - a case study of Eyam’s success in creating a future from the past (John Philips) Ch 9 ‘Welcome to the Home of Auschwitz Tours’: The online marketing of genocide tourism (Tony Johnston, Francisco Tigre-Moura, Pascal Mandelartz) Ch 10 ‘Which part of this is on the exam?’ Journeys into darkness with school groups (John Heap) Conclusion (Pascal Mandelartz & Tony Johnston) Index
