Critical Discussion of Two Urban Dark Tourism Sites Based On Death and Essay

Critical Discussion of Two Urban Dark Tourism Sites Based On Death and Disaster - Essay Example Memories about war, disasters, and battle sites have produced interests, curiosity, and adventurism among many tourists. Urban dark tourism therefore constitutes a field that is emerging powerfully, involving people around the world traveling towards sites, attractions, and events that have association in one way or the other with death, suffering, violence, or disaster (Stone, 2005). Wight (2006) notes that interpretation, marketing, and production of dark tourism products in the modern world is huge. However, inevitability of debate concerning political and ethical issues of the concept remains live and unavoidable (Sharpley, 2009, p.5). Due to this observation, this research paper aims to critically discuss ethical and political issues of two urban dark tourism products/sites that emerge as a result of interpreting, marketing, and producing the two dark tourism products or sites. ... Examples of key areas explored by authors that can be categorized as dark tourist sites include; cemeteries, battlegrounds, sites of deaths of celebrities, places disasters have taken place, prisons, chambers where torture has taken place, genocide sites, and memorials (Bigley, Lee, Chon, and Yoon, 2010). Dark tourism has grown and its implications exhibit interplay between various structures of; political, social, and cultural conditions of the society (Stone and Sharpley, 2008) and today bountiful potential exists in dark tourism as a result of media and communication technologies (Sharpley, 2009). Emergence of dark tourism is associated with emergence of post-modernism concept, together with its elements of communication and globalization (Huggan, 2009). What this means is that, dark tourism is regarded to be a product of post-modern culture that has been conceived and reared by global communications networks, anxieties about modernity and the general emphasis on commoditization. Presence of global communication technologies has been effective in creating the basic interest among tourist to visit these areas (Lennon and Foley, 2000). Apart from the role communication technologies play, it also appears that dark tourism sites possess ability to introduce anxiety and doubt about the project of modernity (Smith, MacLeod, and Robertson, 2009). Lastly, in consuming dark tourism products, post-modernism culture combines education with elements of commoditization and commercial ethic where visiting dark sites is perceived to constitute an opportunity to achieve mediated goals of tourism consumption. Dark tourism does not enjoy rosy ride, rather, there has been tendency among some