Dark London: dimensions and characteristics of dark tourism supply in the UK capital

Powell, Raymond; Iankova, Katia

doi:10.1080/13032917.2016.1191764

Cited by 32 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…These findings sit uneasily with claims that sites such as the London Dungeon offer a commodified and rather frivolous form of entertainment (Dale & Robinson, 2010;Powell & Iankova, 2016; see also Seaton & Lennon, 2004) which is assumed to have little educational value. There is a long-standing belief (in Britain) that education and entertainment are somehow incompatible (Greenhalgh, 1989) and the education/entertainment binary is a wellestablished theme in both dark tourism and heritage tourism research (Foley & Lennon, 1997;Lennon & Foley, 2000;Stone, 2006;Powell & Iankova, 2016; see also the critique of Bowman & Pezzullo 2009). However, while the London Dungeon aims primarily to entertain, it is clear that it is also a source of historical information for visitors (cf Hertzman, Anderson and Rowley, 2008).…”

Section: Informal Learning Within the Visit Experiencementioning

confidence: 81%

‘It’s not that we like death or anything’: exploring the motivations and experiences of visitors to a lighter dark tourism attraction

Ivanova

Light

2017

Journal of Heritage Tourism

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This paper explores motives for visiting a 'lightest' dark (heritage) tourism attraction. Semistructured interviews were undertaken with 24 visitors to the London Dungeon. Few visitors reported an interest in death, suffering or the macabre as important in their decision to visit, a finding which accords with research at a range of other types of 'darker' places. Instead, most people visited from general or incidental reasons that were unrelated to the attraction's theme. However, while few visitors stated that an interest in learning was important in their reason for visiting, many reported that an element of informal education and discovery was an important part of the visit experience. As such, 'lighter' dark tourism is about more than entertainment and the London Dungeon offers opportunities for visitors to engage with the themes and stories in a deeper way. Overall, these findings suggest that lightest dark tourism has more in common with heritage tourism than at first appears.

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Section: Informal Learning Within the Visit Experiencementioning

confidence: 81%

‘It’s not that we like death or anything’: exploring the motivations and experiences of visitors to a lighter dark tourism attraction

Ivanova

Light

2017

Journal of Heritage Tourism

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“…The highest ranked city, London (f=11689), receives a frequency seventy-nine times greater than the lowest ranked city, Venice (f=167). As Powell & Iankova (2015) explain , Venice is the third most popular tourist city in Italy and the tenth most visited city in Europe (Euromonitor 2017). It is a major international tourism destination for cruise holiday, in particular, and has been a feature of European tourism since the days of the Grand Tour (Verhoeven 2013 …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dark cities: a dark tourism index for Europe’s tourism cities, based on the analysis of DMO websites

Powell

Kennell

Barton

2018

IJTC

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Dark tourism is a topic of increasing interest, but it is poorly understood when considering its significance for mainstream and commercial tourism. This paper investigates the significance of dark tourism in the top ten most visited European tourist cities and proposes a dark tourism index for Europe's tourism cities. MethodologyData was collected from the websites of the cities' Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) using a content analysis methodology, based on keywords related to dark tourism taken from the research literature in this area. Descriptive statistics were produced and the variance between the frequencies of keywords related to each city was analysed for statistical significance. These results were then used to construct a darkness ranking of the cities. FindingsThere are significant differences in the extent to which dark tourism products and services are promoted by the DMOs of Europe's top ten most visited European cities. The ranking of cities by darkness does not correspond to the ranking by visitor numbers, and further qualitative analysis suggests that that the ranking is also independent of the actual presence of dark sites within the destination. This implies that European city DMOs are engaging with the emerging dark tourism market with to varying degrees. Research LimitationsThe purposive sample of ten cities can be extended in future research to increase the validity of the findings of this paper. A further limitation is the selection of keywords for content analysis, which have been developed following the literature review contained below. Future research could develop an extended list of keywords using a systematic review process. Research ValueThis paper shows that it is possible to create a ranking of tourist cities in terms of their darkness, and that this methodology could be extended to a much larger sample size. This links dark tourism research to the urban tourism literature and also offers possibilities for creating a global ranking that could be used by destinations to judge their success in engaging with the dark tourism market, as well as by tour operators seeking to develop products for the same market. Key WordsDark tourism, cities, Europe, content analysis, urban tourism IntroductionThe academic study of dark tourism gathered momentum in the early twenty-first century (Stone 2013), and is reflecting the growing interest of the citizens of postmodern societies in the sites of death and disasters -an interest that needs deeper research to be understood fully.It also reflects the increased sensitivity of the international community to the significance of such events for nations, national identities and the direction of their history. Dark tourism sites offer the opportunity to capture and conserve the "dark" memory of humanity and make it available, through domestic and international tourism, to the wider public. It should also be noted that vicarious thrill seeking and entertainment motivations are also significant factors that have affected the recent growth of t...

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“…Many definitions bring into focus the characteristics of the sites and the visitors' presence there (Magee & Gilmore, 2015;Sharpley, 2005), but the application of studies varies. For example, some studies on Dark Tourism focus on the characteristics of the site itself and on categories of dark site supply (Biran, Poria, & Oren, 2011;Magee & Gilmore, 2015;Powell & Iankova, 2016;Stone, 2006) while others bring to the fore typologies of Dark Tourism such as warfare tourism (e.g. Fallon & Robinson, 2016) and slave heritage tourism (e.g.…”

Section: Literature Review Dark Tourismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Post-disaster tourism: building resilience through community-led approaches in the aftermath of the 2011 disasters in Japan

Lin

Kelemen

Tresidder

2018

Journal of Sustainable Tourism

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Post-disaster tourism is often perceived as a form of Dark Tourism associated with death, loss and destruction. In Japan, the term Dark Tourism has gained prominence following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. This paper focuses on a community-led approach to post-disaster tourism development, initiated in the coastal area of Minamisanriku and labelled by the locals Blue Tourism. From its inception Blue Tourism incorporated non-dark activities which concentrated on the beauty of nature, social and environmental sustainability and the development of an enriched tourist experience. Its co-creational ethos helped transform some of the negative narratives of loss associated with Dark Tourism into positive accounts of communal renewal and hope. The paper highlights the limitations of Dark Tourism to post-disaster recovery and contributes new insights to the communitybased tourism literature. We argue that Blue Tourism is not a type of Dark Tourism but a form of resilience which builds around local place-based practices and traditional community knowledge. Consequently, it is capable of achieving sustainable disaster recovery and tourist satisfaction simultaneously.AQ4

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Dark London: dimensions and characteristics of dark tourism supply in the UK capital

Cited by 32 publications

References 10 publications

‘It’s not that we like death or anything’: exploring the motivations and experiences of visitors to a lighter dark tourism attraction

‘It’s not that we like death or anything’: exploring the motivations and experiences of visitors to a lighter dark tourism attraction

Dark cities: a dark tourism index for Europe’s tourism cities, based on the analysis of DMO websites

Post-disaster tourism: building resilience through community-led approaches in the aftermath of the 2011 disasters in Japan

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