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| A Woman's Directory For Travel and Life. WAVE Journey is your one stop online resource for women oriented businesses and services around the world. WAVE Journey is for every woman to enjoy. If you love to travel, cook, garden, read or revel in outdoor activities this website is for you. If you are looking to connect with other like-minded women or if you are interested in finding businesses or services that cater to women, WAVE Journey is your number one online resource. Tourism's Dark Side ~ We’re not always looking for fun when we choose vacation spots. The crowds at Ground Zero, Alcatraz, Auschwitz and post-Katrina New Orleans suggest a more disturbing allure. Article by Courtney Reed |
| WAVE Journey |
| Women's Adventures, Vacations & Experiences ~ Your Journey Starts Here! |
I knew I had to go. But I couldn’t say why I wanted to
travel to Auschwitz, alone.
No one in my family had perished in a concentration
camp. I have no Jewish heritage. My relatives did not
even fight in World War II. But since adolescence, I have
been saturated with brutal images of the Holocaust,
accounts of torturous experiments by Dr. Josef Mengele
and chilling interviews with survivors.
travel to Auschwitz, alone.
No one in my family had perished in a concentration
camp. I have no Jewish heritage. My relatives did not
even fight in World War II. But since adolescence, I have
been saturated with brutal images of the Holocaust,
accounts of torturous experiments by Dr. Josef Mengele
and chilling interviews with survivors.
Academics call my fascination dark tourism: “the act of travel, whether intentional or
otherwise, to sites of death, destruction or the seemingly macabre,” as Philip Stone, a
leading researcher of the phenomenon, puts it.
Visits to Alcatraz, the notorious ex-prison; the battlefields of Gettysburg; and the slave
quarters of U.S. Southern plantations all qualify, in Stone’s view – and so do trips to
Ground Zero and Hurricane Katrina-ravaged New Orleans.
Stone, a professor at the University of Lancashire in England, started a website
devoted to the idea: The Dark Tourism Forum, http://www.dark-tourism.org.uk/
But he’s reluctant to say definitively why many of us are drawn to such places.
“That’s the million dollar question,” said Stone, who teaches leisure and tourism.
otherwise, to sites of death, destruction or the seemingly macabre,” as Philip Stone, a
leading researcher of the phenomenon, puts it.
Visits to Alcatraz, the notorious ex-prison; the battlefields of Gettysburg; and the slave
quarters of U.S. Southern plantations all qualify, in Stone’s view – and so do trips to
Ground Zero and Hurricane Katrina-ravaged New Orleans.
Stone, a professor at the University of Lancashire in England, started a website
devoted to the idea: The Dark Tourism Forum, http://www.dark-tourism.org.uk/
But he’s reluctant to say definitively why many of us are drawn to such places.
“That’s the million dollar question,” said Stone, who teaches leisure and tourism.
“There are some visitors who travel to these destinations because of the thrill some
get from death and destruction,” said Sarver, who lives near the crash site of Flight
93, the plane that took off from Boston on 9/11, but was forced down in a
Pennsylvania field when passengers challenged the hijackers. All on board were killed.
“But overall,” she said, I would attribute visitation to these sites as a form of respect
or for education purposes.”
get from death and destruction,” said Sarver, who lives near the crash site of Flight
93, the plane that took off from Boston on 9/11, but was forced down in a
Pennsylvania field when passengers challenged the hijackers. All on board were killed.
“But overall,” she said, I would attribute visitation to these sites as a form of respect
or for education purposes.”
The West’s distance from experiencing death, as medicine moved to hospitals and
funeral homes; a desire to confront our mortality; or a need to do penance or learn
from history are possible reasons, he suggested. Or else a simple desire for education,
or schadenfreude.
Two professors, John Lennon and Malcolm Foley of Glasgow Caledonian University in
Scotland, coined the term “dark tourism” in the 1990s, and published a book about it:
Dark Tourism: The Attraction of Death and Disaster.
Clearly, there’s something to it.
Tourists have been flocking to Ground Zero since 9/11. The tourism industry quickly
funeral homes; a desire to confront our mortality; or a need to do penance or learn
from history are possible reasons, he suggested. Or else a simple desire for education,
or schadenfreude.
Two professors, John Lennon and Malcolm Foley of Glasgow Caledonian University in
Scotland, coined the term “dark tourism” in the 1990s, and published a book about it:
Dark Tourism: The Attraction of Death and Disaster.
Clearly, there’s something to it.
Tourists have been flocking to Ground Zero since 9/11. The tourism industry quickly
| Rome’s Coliseum, site of gladiator battles and executions, |
