| The Ethics of Thanotourism |
|
|
Average Rating: 0 (0 ratings) |
Millions of people stop to see where the World Trade Center once stood in New York and purchase souvenirs of the experience. Others take guided tours of World War II concentration camps that have been turned into museums. The Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast has tourists paying to spend a night in a house where a double homicide occurred, including a stay in the room where Abby Borden was found slain with multiple hatchet blows to her head and neck.
There are tours available in the UK, where you can visit the scenes of Jack the Ripper's bloody crimes that occurred in Whitechapel in the late 19th Century. In 2002, the Ukraine opened Chernobyl up for controlled tours. Tourists visit Pompeii to see casts formed in volcanic ash that reveal the tortured death throes of men, women and children from nearly 2,000 years ago.
Thanotourism, necrotourism, grief tourism, dark tourism...call it what you will. It is the act of planning visits or vacations to the sites of infamous crimes, mass murders, disasters, etc. This specific form of tourism I'm writing about isn't about going to places of paranormal activity (though in some cases the two are linked). This is tourism specifically for visiting a sight of human death or suffering. The practice is not new, but recent years have shown a rise in this form of tourism.
Do you feel that it is healthy or unhealthy behavior? Is it disrespectful? Is it educational? Is it just us exploring our own mortality or is it nothing more than rubber-necking while passing a car accident? Is it perhaps more like the need some people have to see a deceased relative in their coffin during funeral proceedings, so that they can accept what has happened?
Do (or would) you participate in thanotourism? Why or why not? Do you feel that some tourists are visiting locations too soon after a tragedy? Would you feel offended seeing Virginia Tech, Columbine, the World Trade Center or any similar site from recent history listed alongside tourist locations whose incidents happened long enough ago that society has begun to heal and forget?
Comment below!
|
| |
|
Filed under:
General, Dark Destinations
|
April 28, 2008, 3:13 pm |
Permalink |
0 Comments
|
| |
|
Previous: Bigfoot Exhibit Ends in September 2008
|
Next: Tales of the Body Farm
|
| |
| |
| There are 0 comments in the database. |
|
| Order by: Most Recent | Originally Submitted |
| There are currently no comments for this entry. |
| There are 0 comments in the database. |
|
Add Comment | Return to Index |
Terms of Service |
Privacy Policy |
RSS Feeds
Copyright ©1994-2013 by
The Cabinet Productions, Inc.
If you have any questions, comments or corrections, please
Contact Us.
