Dark tourism refers to travel to sites associated with death, atrocities or disaster. The term was coined in 1996 by J. John Lennon and Malcolm Foley, two academics who observed the public's interest in visiting the site of John F. Kennedy's assassination.
Global Industry Analysts, a market-research firm, estimates the dark-tourism market is worth $35bn and will grow to $41bn by 2030. Its definition includes visits to places such as the 9/11 Memorial Museum, battlefields, concentration camps and disaster zones. Some 1.8m people visited Auschwitz in 2024. Tourism to Chernobyl peaked at 124,423 visitors in 2019, before the pandemic and Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Peter Hohenhaus, the founder of dark-tourism.com and the author of "Atlas of Dark Destinations", argues that dark tourism is about "respectful and enlightened touristic engagement with contemporary history". He distinguishes between those who seek to understand the past and voyeurs who want to take crass selfies.
The practice is not new. An early example of civilians venturing to gawp at a war zone was the influx of "lady tourists" during the Crimean war in 1855. Women, armed with opera glasses, paid to watch soldiers fight while sitting atop Cathcart's Hill between Balaclava and Sevastopol.
Young Pioneer Tours, a company whose tagline is "Destinations your mother would rather you stay away from", has increased the number of destinations it covers since 2013, from 30 to more than 100. According to Booking.com, almost 60% of Gen Z travellers look to social media when deciding where to go and about 45% draw inspiration from influencers.
A pat on the back is only a few centimeters from a kick in the pants.