Unearthing the Digital Dark: Enhancing Dark Tourism Through Online Platforms

Abstract

Exploring historically significant and often eerie locations, dark tourism has surged in popularity lately. With advancing technology, online platforms have become influential tools that amplify the dark tourism encounter. This research delves into how online platforms contribute to enriching the dark tourism experience. It addresses the effective utilization of online media to improve exploration, understanding, and engagement with dark tourism destinations.

The research questions focus on how online platforms enhance exploration and interpretation, their impacts on visitor understanding and emotional engagement, and their facilitation of community engagement and knowledge sharing within dark tourism.

Employing a mixed-methods access, in addition to literature review, qualitative interviews, and quantitative surveys, the study adopts a theoretical framework integrating destination management, digital marketing, and visitor experience theories.

This empirical study adds to the existing literature on how online platforms influence dark tourism, providing practical insights for destination managers and platform developers to enhance visitor experiences and engagement at dark tourism destinations.

Citation

Sharma, S. and Sharma, N. (2024), "Unearthing the Digital Dark: Enhancing Dark Tourism Through Online Platforms", Sharma, A., Arora, S. and Shukla, P. (Ed.) Dark Tourism (Building the Future of Tourism), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 279-295. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83797-336-120241019