http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20110228-a-day-trip-to-chernobyl
Thursday, March 31, 2011
"Dark Tourism" and Chernobyl
There are many places on earth that are not associated with positive events to put it mildly yet they attract many visitors every year. There is a growing interest in what has been known as dark tourism which can include visits to slums, sites of natural disasters and extreme human suffering. Personally, I have experienced some of these including the DMZ between South and North Korea and Auschwitz in Poland. Both were extremely moving particularly the latter although I am not Jewish.
Chernobyl is a special place given its horrific past and now with the events in Japan. I hope to make a visit Chernobyl this May to begin a tourism visitor study with one of our grad students. What do you think of this? Is it tourism? Where does the "dark" side fit in? Or, is it even "dark"? UNESCO is interested in preserving and interpenetrating these sites before governments eliminate then because of their negative image.
http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20110228-a-day-trip-to-chernobyl
http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20110228-a-day-trip-to-chernobyl
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I would definitely consider this tourism. I am not really sure how this is a new or novel concept however. Human tragedy and emotion have always been exploited as forms of tourism. In this country civil war battlefields are visited in large numbers. The trail of tears, and other sites of Native American massacres are consistently frequented. Alcatraz prison a place of intolerable suffering is a large draw. Just over the sea from there you have pearl harbor another place of death and destruction. The railroad museums and Oregon trail museums also lay tribute to the large number of lives lost and massive suffering incurred while we doggedly pursued our manifest destiny. Battlefields in this country such as the Alamo, those in the revolutionary war, and as mentioned before civil war are large draws but even darker than the battlefields are the attraction of the dead from these battles. Arlington National Cemetery and the tomb of the unknown soldier draw huge crowds. I am sure Chernobyl is a dark place but at least it is empty. For me nothing is as emotionally disturbing or moving as seeing thousands upon thousands of headstones lined up. Most of these individuals were killed before the age of 30. Even worse drive down to St Louis to the Jefferson Barrack burial grounds on a Saturday or Sunday. On these days you will find old men and women sitting in lawn chairs beside their loved ones for hours. The way I feel when I see this is the same reason why people attend places of historical significance and why they should be considered tourist attractions. These places connect us to our human spirits and reunite us with our past. There also may be a number of people who attend because they delight in suffering. What ever the motives are the attraction is there as well as a lesson to be learned. If you can make attractions by damning my favorite streams and bulldozing my mountains,why not Chernobyl.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading about some of these "dark tourism" sites, I have to say that I would be lying if I said I wasn't interested. I do believe that this is tourism; how many times do you hear someone say "it was like a car wreck, I couldn't look away"? People are attracted to the "dark tourism" and similar events; whether this is socially acceptable is a different story. I think that although the events that lead to this tourism are considered dark and sometimes inhumane, they are a part of history. Historical locations such as these attract the attention of people and make invoke emotional reactions. So, although they may not be directly marketed as a tourist attraction, I believe that these sites spark the interest of tourists and of those interested in history. I do believe there is a place for this dark side to fit in and that these sites will continue to attract tourists for awhile.
ReplyDeleteI believe that this is tourism. When I traveled to Europe we had the choice of going to Dachau or Neuschwanstein Castle. Hmmm…the castle based upon the fairy tales of all little girls provided by Walt Disney or a working, concentration camp where hundreds of thousand of people were tortured and killed. Not to be gruesome but we chose to go to Dachau, Germany. It was an experience I will never forget, with that said I will probably never chose to return. We went on an audio tour where we each had a headset and listened to stories of people from the camp and descriptions of tortuous things that occurred in the very spot we were standing. I was full of mixed emotions—it was so sad to hear all the stories, I was angry that it was even possible that something like this could happen, and oddly enough I was fascinated that I was able to witness this piece of our history first hand. I believe it is important that we make these types of historical events public viewed. It is important for people to learn from our past, in hopes not to make the same mistakes; but, people cannot grow from things that they do not understand. This change my opinions about many things in our world today. I most definitely consider it tourism and I think it should be encouraged and not frowned upon, if it even is.
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