Dark tourism (also black tourism or grief tourism) is tourism involving travel to sites associated with death and suffering. Thanatourism, derived from the Ancient Greek word thanatos for the personification of death, is associated with dark tourism but refers more specifically to violent death; it is used in fewer contexts than the terms dark tourism and grief tourism.

This includes castles and battlefields such as Culloden near Inverness, Scotland; sites of disaster, either natural or man made such as Ground Zero in New York; prisons now open to the public such as Beaumaris Prison in Anglesey, Wales; and purpose built centers such as the London Dungeon.

One of the most notorious destinations for dark tourism is the Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz in Poland, Chernobyl site in ex USSR or Bran Castle, Poienari Castle in Romania.

Notes

External links

• "What is dark tourism?", The Guardian special feature.
• Dark Tourism Forum
• Grief tourism blog
• Places of interest along Hitlers Atlantic Wall in Denmark and Norway