Holiday season and dark tourism: where are you going this year?

Holiday season is coming and many of us are looking forward to visiting friends and family or just travelling to some interesting places all around the globe. While most people would travel just to enjoy the Christmas atmosphere or the main tourist destinations (oh, these Christmas markets of Europe with their mulled wine, gingerbread cookies and sparkling Christmas souvenirs), or would take their retread to the beaches and sunshine of the Southern hemisphere, some individuals have something darker in mind. The thing is that Christmas season is also ideal for so-called “dark tourism” (also known as “black tourism”, “grief tourism”, or “thanatourism” (derived from the old Greek word "thanatos" meaning "death").

Dark tourism is tourism involving travel to (and fascination with) sites associated with death and tragedy. These sites might include macabre sites of atrocities like former death camps Auschwitz (Poland), Terezin (Czech Republic), or Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (Cambodia); they might also be represented by the places of historic value and morbid past, like Calvary (Golgotha) in Jerusalem (Israel), the city of Hiroshima (Japan), or Ossuary in Kutna Hora (Czech Republic).   

Dark Tourism was first described in 1996 by Professor John Lennon and Malcolm Foley from Glasgow Caledonian University. Nowadays, the leading specialists for dark tourism can be found at the Institute for DarkTourism Research (iDTR) based at the University of Central Lancashire, United Kingdom. Dr. Philip Stone, Executive Director of the Institute is the one of the world-leading specialists in the field. In 2010, he defended his Ph.D. thesis entitled “Death, Dying and Dark Tourism in Contemporary Society: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis”.

Although dark tourism and its less macabre sub-section called “fright tourism” generate a significant amount of public and research interest and experience a significant popularity due to the increase of global communication and travel opportunities, the fictional (literary or film) aspect of dark or fright tourism, and especially its potentials in young Europeans in cultural heritage still remains largely underdeveloped.

Squire (1996) describes literary tourism as “premised upon the public’s desire to experience a version of the past (or imagined present) and to make connections between past and present, fact and fiction. It therefore trades in images and expectations of people” (Squire, 1996). Literary tourism (which is often associated with film tourism, since most of the popular literary works are being filmed today), attracts tourists and forms a part of the landscape of heritage tourism (Herbert, 2001).

Despite the growing popularity of the literature and film tourism, few attempts have been made to identify the critical success factors behind this fast-growing phenomenon (Hudson and Ritchie, 2006).  Riley, Baker and Van Doren (1998) stated that further research on different genres, locations and icons was important in understanding the effect of film tourism, which  they claim still remains under-researched and representing a rich area for theoretical exploration (see e.g. Hudson et al, 2006, Bolan et al, 2008, Beeton 2004). 

One of the most important and fast-growing fields in literary and film tourism is the mystery and thriller tourism. Patterson (2006) describes the genre as having “the intensity of emotions they create, particularly those of apprehension and exhilaration, of excitement and breathlessness, all designed to generate that all-important thrill”. Mystery and thriller tourism might be viewed as a part of fright tourism associated with a more fun part of dark tourism. Most of the visitors are attracted to the places associated with mystical and often horror events described in the books or demonstrated in films and TV series, however the majority of these events might be a result of a pure imagination of their creators and have never actually taken place in real life. In a way, mystery and thriller fright tourism is “having fun without having to deal with the grim part of dark tourism”.

It is interesting to follow how locations, or tourist destinations, play an important role in fright tourism. Although the plot of the most mysteries and thrillers does not tie them to any specific location, or sets them in multiple locations, some examples can be found (see Table 1).

 Table 1: Examples of recent mystery and thriller literary works set in U.S. destinations

Year	Literary title	Author	Location
1986	“IT”	Stephen King	Derry, ME
1991	“The Firm”	John Grisham	Memphis, TN
2009	“The Lost Symbol”	Dan Brown	Washington D.C.
2008	“Gone Tomorrow”	Lee Child	New York, NY
2008-2010	“Twilight Saga”	Stephenie Meyer	Forks, Washington

 Source: own compilation

An important aspect of fright mystery and thriller tourism is, of course, something what we call “fright film tourism”. Most of the successful mystery and thriller literary works today are forged into successful films and TV series which increase their popularity and dissemination. In this context, Vagionis and Loumioti (2011) demonstrate that film tourism might be an effective marketing tool for promoting tourism destinations. Reeves (2001) points out that not only “feeling good” or being associate with romance or escapism” constitutes a popular visitor attraction, since towns like Burkittsville, Maryland, the setting for “The Blair Witch Project” have seen an influx of visitors, and the Georgetown house in Washington D.C. which was the setting for “The Exorcist”, continues to be a major tourist attraction.

Beale (2012) claims that thanks to the “Twilight Series” set by Stephenie Meyer in a little town of Forks, at Olympia Peninsula in Washington, the local economy experienced a huge tourism boost: in 2008, after the release of the first of the films, the number of visitors nearly doubled to 19,000, and by 2010 the figure was 73,000.

While New York is undoubtly the setting of many typical “fright tourism” films, TV series and books (including “Ghost Busters”, “Batman”, “Godzilla”, “Person of Interest”, “Fringe”, and many more), many small and unknown towns in the United States found themselves to be the scenes of mystery and thrillers’ settings (see Table 2).

 Table 2: Examples of recent mystery and thriller films and TV series set in U.S. cities (1999-2012)

Year	Film/TV series title	Set in
1999	“The Blair Witch Project”	Burkittsville, MD
2004-2010	“Lost”	Oahu island, HI
2005 -	“Bones”	Washington, D.C.
2006 -	“Dexter”	Miami, FL
2008 -	“True Blood”	Bon Temps (fictional), LA
2008 -	“Fringe”	Boston, MA/New York, NY
2008-2012	“Twilight Saga”	Forks, WA
2011 -	“Person of Interest”	New York City, NY
2011 -	“Grimm”	Portland, OR
2012	“The Dark Knight”	New York City, NY
2012	“Hunger Games”	Charlotte, NC
2012	“Alcatraz”	San Francisco, CA

 Source: own compilation

While of some of the towns that appeared in literary and film mysteries and thrillers seem to profit from that fact, others cannot fully exploit their tourism potential. For instance, it was reported that the local community of Burkittsville, Maryland (the setting of “The Blair Witch Project”) claims that the successful film has brought upon the “unwanted popularity and troubles” upon their small community, while the profits from increased fright tourism remained negligible (Fiore, 2010).

While it was shown that fright mystery and thriller tourism is gaining more importance in U.S. destinations, perhaps due to the fact that the country represents the most attractive market for leisure and entertainment, the potential for this aspect of tourism in Europe should not also be underestimated.

Europe has always been a very important place for global incoming literary and film tourism and many literary works of great importance were set in European destinations. In this context, it should be mentioned that many mystery and thriller books and films are set in various European destinations. Table 3 that follows provides an account of the most successful mystery and thriller literary works set in European destinations.

 Table 3: Examples of recent mystery and thriller literary works set in European destinations

Year	Film/TV series title	Set in
1999	“The Blair Witch Project”	Burkittsville, MD
2004-2010	“Lost”	Oahu island, HI
2005 -	“Bones”	Washington, D.C.
2006 -	“Dexter”	Miami, FL
2008 -	“True Blood”	Bon Temps (fictional), LA
2008 -	“Fringe”	Boston, MA/New York, NY
2008-2012	“Twilight Saga”	Forks, WA
2011 -	“Person of Interest”	New York City, NY
2011 -	“Grimm”	Portland, OR
2012	“The Dark Knight”	New York City, NY
2012	“Hunger Games”	Charlotte, NC
2012	“Alcatraz”	San Francisco, CA

 Source: own compilation

Many best-selling mystery and thriller novels found its way into film adaptations. Table 4 provides some example of recent blockbuster films set in European destinations.

Our preliminary analysis shows that the British capital is, by far, the most popular location for film destination on the Old Continent, only beaten by New York. For instance, the most recent James Bond film entitled “Skyfall” is for the largest part set in London. The newest and highly popular adaptation of “Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” where the world-famous detective excessively uses his iPhone for text messages and chats and Dr. Watson keeps a blog also takes place in modern-day London.

 Table 4: Examples of recent blockbusters set in European destinations

Year	Literary title	Author	Set in
1897	“Dracula”	Bram Stoker	Bran/London
1892	“Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”	Arthur Conan Doyle	London
1937	“Master and Margarita”	Mikhail Bulgakov	Moscow
1920-1973	“Miss Marple/Hercule Poirot novels”	Agatha Christie	UK locations
1999	“Hannibal”	Thomas Harris	Florence
1997-2007	“Harry Potter”	Joanne Rolling	London
1997 -	“Harry Hole novels”	Jo Nesbo	Oslo
2000	“Angels and Demons”	Dan Brown	Rome
2003	“Da Vinci Code”	Dan Brown	Paris/London
2005-2007	“Millenium Trilogy”	Stieg Larsson	Stockholm
2010	“Postcard Killers”	Lisa Marklund/James Patterson	Stockholm

 Source: own compilation

Overall, it becomes apparent that fright mystery and thriller literary works and films constitute a considerable part of Europe’s dark tourism potential and generate lots of money. Since the majority of consumers of this type of entertainment are relatively young, developing this aspect of cultural heritage by associating popular books and films with cultural tourism destinations might help young Europeans in the creation of technology-enhanced cultural heritage experiences, enabling them to generate quality transmedia and user-created solutions (interactive city games and quests, mystery tours with the elements of the game and storytelling, etc.).

So, where are you going this year? Dracula's Castle in Bran, streets of Prague haunted by Golem, London's Whitechapel where the shadows of Jack the Ripper crawl in every corner, or some other, less macabre (and more mundane) place?

Let us know and good travels, everyone!

WS and EL