Dark tourism: Sectoral Engagement and Ontological Repositioning

Podoshen, Jeffrey; Wight, Craig; Lennon, John

Abstract

We invited stakeholders involved in dark tourism to comment on, and respond to academic constructs of dark tourism, which resides within the body of literature on this topic. Specifically, we undertook a genre analysis of dark tourism literature, and discussed our findings with an internationally diverse sample of dark tourism providers using interviews. The findings suggest that the putative dark tourism sector rejects the label dark tourism and prefers alternative signifiers including memorial tourism/heritage with a focus on life, living, remembrance and peace. Dark tourism thus remains a quintessentially academic discourse that merits scrutiny, and input from the sector that it focuses on, and so further decolonising research should be carried out to co-create new conceptual ideation around dark tourism.

Citation

Podoshen, J., Wight, C., & Lennon, J. (2024, November). Dark tourism: Sectoral Engagement and Ontological Repositioning. Presented at The Annual Society for Marketing Advances Conference: The Age of AI, Tampa, Florida, US

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Abstract
• Conference Name: The Annual Society for Marketing Advances Conference: The Age of AI
• Start Date: Nov 6, 2024
• End Date: Nov 9, 2024
• Acceptance Date: Oct 2, 2024
• Publication Date: Nov 11, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jan 9, 2025
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• External URL: https://sma2024tampa.dryfta.com/