Dark tourism (Topical Term)

Work cat.: Joly, Dom. The dark tourist : sightseeing in the world's most unlikely holiday destinations, 2010: back cover (Dark tourism is the act of travel and visitation to sites, attractions and exhibitions which have real or recreated death, suffering or the seemingly macabre as a main theme)

Wikipedia, March 4, 2013 (Dark tourism (also black tourism or grief tourism) is tourism involving travel to sites associated with death and tragedy. Dark Tourism became a field of study in 1996 when the term was coined by Professor John Lennon and Malcolm Foley of Glasgow Caledonian University)

Lennon, J. John. Dark tourism, 2001: p. 4 of cover (A large number of sites associated with war, genocide, assassination and other tragic events have become significant tourist destinations. The authors of this volume call this phenomenon 'dark tourism', and they set out to explore it in detail, looking at possible reasons why tourists visit these attractions - for remembrance, for education, or even for entertainment; Dark-tourism sites present governments and other authorities with moral and ethical dilemmas. Recent tragic history often confronts the dynamics of commercial development and exploitation. Complex issues are raised surrounding the extent and nature of interpretation, the appropriate political and managerial response and the nature of the experience perceived by visitors, local residents, victims and their relatives)

A dictionary of travel and tourism terminology, 2005, viewed March 22, 2013: thanatourism (visiting sites such as former battlefields, concentration camps, cemeteries, and other sites associated with death and destruction)

Penguin English dictionary, 2007, viewed March 22, 2013: dark tourism (tourism centered on places associated with death, disaster, and atrocities, such as battlefields and prison camps)

Here are entered works on tourism centered on sites of tragic events.