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Trinity Rickmers
Dr. Guenzel
ENC 1102
April 9, 2016

Dark Tourism: The Depressing Theme Parks of The World.

The Hospitality Management industry is a very fast paced, up beat industry. The state of
Florida, the sunshine state is also one of the states where it rains the most. Having so many
tourist attractions in Florida and such inclement weather and how it affects the industry. The
hospitality industry is the only industry that depends on the weather. Florida being such a tourist
site with many Theme parks like Universal Studios, Walt Disney World and Sea World. I looked
at America as a whole and I saw that there are some Dark theme parks. Hurricanes, Tornadoes,
pollution, can normal cities into a dark theme park. Dark tourism is, tourism directed to places
that are identified with death and suffering. In other words, that definition is the idea that if a
place has been devastated by war, natural disaster or something more of a dark element people
will come to that said place to see the destruction for themselves. While researching this I saw
many things on the psychological side of dark tourism. As humans, we all have an intrinsic
fascination with death. With the television shows, movies and music we enjoy it is evident that
dark tourism makes sense. In addition, with the numbers of people that visit the places I will be
talking about, dark tourism is very real. Countries and cities all over the world have been
effected in one way or another and could bring people to their town to show the destruction and
the rebuilding of the city afterwards.

Dark Tourism as a Negative

Looking at Dark Tourism, it is easy to see some positive and negative factors. Being a
business that thrives on dark and depressing times in history there are many places that could be
argued as a dark tourism spot. A few examples of dark tourism sights are New Orleans in
Louisiana, Chernobyl in Russia/Ukraine, and The Holocaust Museum in D.C.
While conducting research on the most visited places for dark tourism, an obvious
example was the lower ninth ward in New Orleans, Louisiana. The lower ninth ward is a district
in New Orleans that was completely submerged underwater when Hurricane Katrina hit the city
in 2005. Due to the hurricane in 2005 Dark tourism has brought about nine million people to visit
New Orleans a year to see the rebuilding of the city. An article discussing the negatives of Dark
tourism in New Orleans was an online article discussing the controversy of having motor coach
tours in The Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana.
The article New Orleans Limits Hurricane Themed Excursions. Written by Robbie
Brown says that for many years there has been a ban on motor coaches leading people through
the lower ninth ward and showing them how much has been rebuilt from the horrible Hurricane
that devastated the area in 2005. Robbie Brown is a journalist at The New York Times, who has
written close to 600 articles for the Times and has made a stable career with the online news
website. The effect that these nine million tourists have on the people who live in New Orleans is
very negative. (Brown) In the article Brown describes the tours would take paying customers on
a motor coach through the main streets of the city. With cameras at the ready and eyes glazing
over the areas of devastation and parts of the city rebuilt, these tours were starting to make the
local people of the city of NOLA (New Orleans) a little restless and very uncomfortable. It is
important to note that in the article, Brown states, recovery has been slowest. For about seven

or so years, the ban was loosely enforced. In 2012, the people of the city and a city council
member from the lower ninth ward had enough. The locals were fed up with being looked at as if
they were in a museum. At a town hall style meeting the city councilman Mr. Charbonnet said
Residents dont like being gawked at by tourists as though theyre sideshow attractions,
(Brown page 1) The city councilman gave the tour companies an alternative to being banned
from having tours. There is now and alternate route that motor coaches of 30 people each can go
on a tour that does not go on the main roads of the lower ninth ward. Stated in the article is that
before the alternate route about 34 tour companies ran different tours that have a component of
showing the devastation charging about 45 dollars per seat. This statistic puts into perspective that
even though much revenue is being made for the city a negative comes from all of that money.
In a place like Chernobyl the negative effects dark tourism has on that area are not
discussed as much. Better known as the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the nuclear power plant
explosion affected around 63,000 square miles of land around the power plant. A huge negative
coming from dark tourism is that none of that land is habitable anymore. The main negative of
Chernobyl is exposing that much land to radiation the whole area surrounding this city is
completely deserted as well as putting yourself in danger by being effected by the radiation..
That is except of the tours that go in and out of the radiation filled town. Now even though there
are no people that live in the area surrounding Chernobyl a negative is the chance the tourists are
effected by the radiation.
Another place where Dark tourism takes place is in the capital of the United States. The
Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. is a memorial dedicated to the memory of the estimated
6 million Jewish people that were killed by Adolf Hitler. This self-guided tour includes a
complete look at the history of Germany, the rise of Hitler and the mass genocides of the Jewish

people in 1933-1945. The negative that came from this dark tourism sight was the pushback that
the museum had at the start of the museum. The source that I found for this information was a
web journal article written by John Lennon and Malcolm Foley, (who actually are the two
individuals who wrote a book about Dark tourism in 2000 and really brought the topic to light.)
A question asked in the article was Why does the United States (a country that is 97% nonJewish) need such a museum? Because it was not the site of mass execution (Poland), the
homeland of the perpetrators (Germany), or possessed a significant relationship to the victims
(Israel). But a very important question that was asked in return was, How is one not to speak of
it? (E. Wiesel 1968) This idea that the museum could bring negatives like unnecessary
museums, or the museum only being made as a rouse for Jimmy carter to get the presidency (a
conspiracy in the article) has been floating around since the opening but not a lot of pushback
has happened since.
Dark Tourism as a Positive
A lot of positive things happen because of Dark tourism. Dark tourism brings a lot of
positives to a city like Pripyat. This is the city that Chernobyl is located in. shape an argument on
how dark tourism has effected Chernobyl nearby. The source I found on Dark tourism and the
effects of Chernobyl is Written by Ganna Yankovksa she states that The most radioactively
contaminated area around the Chernobyl power plant was officially designated as The Chernobyl
Nuclear Power Plant Zone of Alienation, known as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone or the
Zone, located in the northern territory of Ukraine. Gaining about ten thousand tourists a year
most of these people head toward the exclusion zone to see the closest thing to a post-apocalyptic
world. Tours include many different things. You can choose to do things such as 1-5 day tours of
Chernobyl, you can go to a missile base and see what it was like for the Soviet Union during the

cold war with nuclear weapons. Also stated in the article According to the Australian
newspaper, Sydney Morning Herald (2008), 7500 tourists travelled to the exclusion zone and
spent around 130 per day. The Chernobyl zone exemplifies the darker aspects of scientific
advancement and human experience and its ability to lure increasing number of tourists raises
numerous questions. These people paying this amount of money (130 is equal to 185 American
dollars) just for tour not even including flight, lodging etc. it is easy to see that Russia is
profiting well from the business of Dark tourism. Unlike New Orleans, Chernobyl is not
rebuilding. It will stay in this devastation for a long time and it is a very interesting and unique
opportunity to go to a place that will state in a post-apocalyptic state for a very long time.
Another place where the outcome of dark tourism is positive is the Holocaust museum in
D.C. The holocaust museum does an amazing job of presenting people with every shred of
information necessary to understand the importance of the devastating years that were the
holocaust. The people and their families that were affected deserve a beautiful memorial like the
one that is built in the museum. The fact that it is free to get into the museum is also a great thing
because the only thing being transferred is knowledge. The people going to this dark tourism
sight are learning so much information and truly understand the importance. In a nation like
America, a country filled with people of different nationalities it is very important to have a place
like The Holocaust museum for the purpose of education and a beautiful memorial. The
Holocaust museum brings many positive effects from such a horrible negative. It is also very
important to mention that in the article Lennon and Foley write Roughly 2 million people visit
the Holocaust museum a year since its opening in April 1993. (Foley, and Lennon 47)
Dark tourism brings a lot of revenue to places that need it the most. Even though the
overflow of people in New Orleans is making the local people uncomfortable, it is very hard to

not address how much revenue the city gains because of all of these people who will pay to help
the city. Even ten thousand people a year go to Chernobyl a radioactive filled playground. That
revenue goes far to help the people trying to make a living off of those tours.
Dark tourism having No Effect
For a city like New Orleans yes the nine million people coming to the city are going to
see the lower ninth ward and the elements of the city that were devastated by hurricane Katrina
but New Orleans is not a city that is only famous for hurricane Katrina. Many people every year
go to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl, a football game held in the Mercedes Benz Superdome
that holds about seventy-six thousand people. (Wikipedia) Even In Washington D.C. although it
might be true for some, not all of the people that visit Washington DC go just for the Holocaust
museum, it may be a part of their trip just like other significant places like the White house, The
Washington monument or the air and space museum. (Expedia)
The idea that we could be living in the world where we forget the past and look to the
future is quite scary. Throughout my research, maybe our world needs dark tourism. Devastating
things like hurricanes, nuclear explosions, and genocides are a part of the worlds history. What
would happen if we just forgot them? Alternatively, swept them under the rug. Through research,
it is easy to see that in the majority of cases Dark tourism can be a great way to make money for
the place that needs the money. For example, Chernobyl lost so much revenue with all of the
destroyed land used for agriculture. The tours of people that add up to 10 thousand people a year
really are important for the revenue of the under 100 people who still live around that area.
However, in places like New Orleans where there has been a negative outcome from all of the
people coming to see the devastation if you put yourself in the shoes of the people who live there
how would you feel? In places like New Orleans I think it is very important to restructure the

tours and the tourism aspect so the local people feel comfortable and respected and to avoid
many problems in the future (like the ban on motor coaches) just try to find a happy medium.
In conclusion, Dark tourism has the ability to have a positive, negative and no effect on a
city. Some solutions for places where a negative effect is happening it is important that those
cities look at what New Orleans did and found a way that the tour companies and the people are
both happy with the alternative tour and limited seating. Another thing that is very important that
when you are thinking about going on vacation you need to think about why you are going to a
certain city, what things you are going to do there. How do you being there affect the people who
live there? Now of course most of the time if you are going to a place like Walt Disney World in
Orlando you do not need to think of these kinds of things. However next time you step into what
I call, A depressing Theme park. Maybe give what you are doing a second or third thought.

Works Cited
Brown, Robbie. "New Orleans Shields An Area From Tours." The New York
Times 2012: 18. Academic OneFile. Web. 27 Feb. 2016.
Lennon, J. John, and Malcolm Foley. "Interpretation of the unimaginable: the
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., and 'dark tourism.'."
Journal of Travel Research 1999: 46. Academic OneFile. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.
Yankovska, Ganna, and Kevin Hannam. "Dark And Toxic Tourism In The
Chernobyl Exclusion Zone." Current Issues In Tourism 17.10 (2014): 929-939.
Hospitality & Tourism Complete. Web. 27 Feb. 2016.
Web. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_Superdome