A shot in the dark? Developing a new conceptual framework for thanatourism

Abstract

Whilst tourists’ fascination with visiting sites associated with death and human tragedy has received considerable academic and media attention, the scholarly literature on so-called ‘dark’ or thanatourism remains fragmented. Thus, this paper synthesises the extant literature and discusses the differing definitions of thanatourism, particularly highlighting the key differences between the terms dark tourism and thanatourism. The paper’s substantive contribution to the field, however, is its development and presentation of a conceptual framework of thanatourism which attempts to bring greater coherence to this fascinating but diverse area of tourism inquiry.