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This paper aims to investigate the visitor experience at a “lightest” dark tourism attraction, focusing on issues of thanatopsis and mortality mediation.

Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 24 visitors to a “Dungeon”-style attraction in the UK (a site of “lightest” dark tourism). The interviews were analysed using thematic analysis; four themes were identified.

Reflection on, and contemplation of, issues of life and death was a common (but not universal) component of the visitor experience. Four forms of such reflection were apparent: considering absent/present death; thanatopsis (reflection on the self’s inevitable mortality); reflecting on the nature of death and dying in the past; and enjoyment of the opportunity to engage with death without fear in the safe setting of a visitor attraction. Some visitors also reflected on issues of individual and collective morality, in both past and present.

“Lightest” dark tourism is not necessarily about shallow experiences. Instead, many visitors are active agents, engaged in acts of making meaning about issues of death and life. This calls for a more sophisticated conceptualisation of such visitors.

The mortality mediation model is widely accepted as a way of explaining the experience of visiting places of death but has rarely been subject to empirical scrutiny. This is one of few studies to explore in detail issues of mortality mediation and thanatopsis in the context of “lightest” dark tourism.

数据是通过对 24 名英国“地牢”式景点（“最轻微”黑色旅游景点）游客的半结构化访谈收集的。访谈采用主题分析法进行分析并确定了 4 个主题。

本文是对“最轻微”黑暗旅游景点的游客体验的实证调查，重点关注死亡冥想和死亡临界问题。

对生死问题的反思和思考是游客体验的一个常见（但不普遍适用）组成部分。这种反思的四种形式是显而易见的：缺席/现有的死亡认知； 死亡冥想（对自我不可避免的死亡的反思）；反思死亡的本质和过去的死亡；并享受在安全的旅游景点环境中毫无畏惧地与死亡打交道的机会。一些参观者还反思了过去和现在的个人和集体道德问题。

“最轻微”的黑暗旅游不一定是肤浅的体验。相反，许多访客是积极的中间人，从事为生死问题赋予意义的行为。这需要对此类访问者进行更复杂的概念化理解。

死亡临界/调节模型作为一种解释访问死亡地的体验的方式被广泛接受，但很少通过经验研究来验证。这是在“最轻微”黑暗旅游背景下详细探讨死亡临界和死亡问题的少数研究之一。

Los datos se recopilaron a través de entrevistas semiestructuradas con 24 visitantes a un calabozo, un estilo de atracción turística en el Reino Unido (se diseña como un lugar de turismo oscuro "más ligero"). Las entrevistas se analizaron mediante análisis temático; Se identificaron 4 temas.

Este artículo es una investigación empírica de la experiencia del visitante en una atracción turística oscura "más ligera", que se centra en cuestiones de tanatopsis y mediación de la mortalidad.

La reflexión y la contemplación de cuestiones de la vida, así como la muerte, plantean un componente común (pero no universal) en la experiencia del visitante. Se identificaron, aparentemente, cuatro formas de reflexión: considerar la muerte presente/ausente; tanatopsis (reflexión sobre la inevitable mortalidad del yo); reflexionar sobre la naturaleza de la muerte y morir en el pasado y disfrute de la oportunidad de relacionarse con la muerte sin miedo a un entorno seguro, dentro de una atracción turística. Algunos visitantes también reflexionaron sobre cuestiones de moralidad individual y colectiva, tanto del pasado como del presente.

El turismo oscuro "más ligero", no se trata necesariamente de experiencias superficiales. En cambio, muchos visitantes son agentes activos, involucrados en actos de dar sentido a los problemas de la muerte y la vida. Esto requiere una conceptualización más sofisticada de dichos visitantes.

El modelo de mediación de la mortalidad es ampliamente aceptado, como una forma de explicar la experiencia de visitar lugares de muerte, pero rara vez ha sido objeto de un análisis empírico. Este es uno de los pocos estudios que explora en detalle cuestiones de mediación de la mortalidad y tanatopsis en el contexto del turismo oscuro "más ligero".

The study aims to understand the relationship between facilitating, demoting, motivating factors and visit intention; and to clarify the role of death anxiety before visiting a dark exhibition.

Partial least squares structural equation modeling was adopted to analyze data from 426 potential visitors to the Capuchin Crypt in Rome (Italy).

Results demonstrate that dark fascination, prestige, reflection on death and mortality and interpersonal facilitators are the main drivers of visit intention, and structural constraints are the main demoting factors. Contrary to expectations, intrapersonal constraints have a positive influence on motivators and indirectly on visit intention, and death anxiety has mixed results.

Data collection from only one dark exhibition requires that the generalization of the results must be done with care.

Conclusions enabled a better understanding of pre-trip tourist behavior, providing valuable suggestions for the communication strategy of Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) and site managers.

The study adopts a consolidated and empirical approach to studying facilitators, motivators, constraints and visit intention, as well as the effect of death anxiety. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to develop a comprehensive investigation of these four constructs, whether at the darker or the lighter end of the dark tourism spectrum. Consequently, it offers a better understanding of lighter dark attractions, which allows DMOs and others to improve the communication of their tourism products.

The present book chapter deals with the problem of dark tourism as well as the resilience forms of consumption in post-disaster context.

The turn of the century characterised a radical change in the forms of tourism consumption. New forms of tourism as dark or thana tourism have captivated the attention of scholars and journalists. This book chapter centres efforts in dillucidating what are the key factors that determine the formation of a dark site. The text is inspired in my own ethnographies in Cromañon, Argentina and the Ground Zero, US.

As Phillip Stone puts it, not all dark shrines or sites welcome tourists. While some sites are reluctant to mass tourism, others are mainly organised around the figure of the tourist. La Republica de Cromañón is a night club where in a fire died 194 young. The site is today refurbished as a sanctuary to remind the victims. At a closer look, there is a tension between stakeholders at the time of promoting dark tourism in Cromañón. In the opposite the ground zero is fully designed to be visited by thousands tourists.

The originality of this research consists in the contraposition of two study cases which answer the question to what extent dark tourism is desired by locals. The findings lay the foundations towards the specialised literature in dark tourism studies. We discuss critically the nature of thanatopsis.

In 1867, the author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, undertook a great pleasure excursion across Europe. Visiting a range of sites, from those associated with the Christian Cult of Death to the notable cultural heritage attractions of the time, Twain published his experiences in what would later become one of the world's best‐selling travelogues; The Innocents Abroad, or the New Pilgrim's Progress. This essay offers a rereading of Twain's encounters, proposing examination of Twain's encounters as timely and useful in addressing what Seaton identifies as a gap in data on thanatourism consumption.

The essay draws on contemporary thanatourism theoretical frameworks, including Seaton's “Continuum of intensity” and “Thanatourism developmental sketch”; Sharpley's “Matrix of dark tourism supply and demand” and Stone and Sharpley's “Dark tourism consumption framework”, among others, to explore Twain's encounters.

Supplemented by a review of recent theoretical thanatourism research, the essay proposes three findings. Finding one illustrates that Twain's encounters, although not always pre‐motivated or purposefully supplied, were emotionally charged and deeply affective experiences, which had the potential to provoke ontological insecurity. Finding two highlights the potential of the geography of death to stimulate emotional reactions and configure individual and societal interactions with death. Finding three argues a need for new methodological approaches to understanding the thanatourism experience; approaches that are empathetically sensitive to the potentially powerful impact of the thanatourism experience.

The essay draws on a classic travelogue to help address the imbalance in knowledge of the thanatourism experience. The essay argues that thanatourism is a layered and complex phenomenon, highly personal and often a potentially powerful and emotionally affective experience.

This paper views the growing popularity of death tourism which directs the confrontation with grief and mortality with the expressed purpose of orchestrating travel that culminates in assistance to end one's life. The specific aims of this paper are to describe the emerging phenomenon of death tourism and situate it as a form of dark tourism, to present briefly the social and legal aspects of assisted suicide in conjunction within the tourism industry, and to conclude with how the trend of death tourism is potentially spreading to other countries beyond Europe.

By employing a variety of primary and secondary resources, from death tourism industry documents, legal statutes, and news reports, this study explores the propositions of this article.

Whereas much of the contemporary research in dark tourism focuses on sights, experiences, and actual memorialization, death tourism tends to comprise a holistic view of the emerging phenomenon by viewing supply and demand management (and promotion), political interpretation and control. The final component of the paper views societal interpretations of death tourism and its potential for market expansion.

There have been several social movements and legislative attempts to curtail the spread of assisted suicide and death tourism; however, the demand for the services has grown to the point where jurisdictions are considering measures to allow this practice. Such an expansion of legalized assisted suicide will allow those seeking the right to die more options for a death within a diversified tourism industry.

Death tourism, within dark tourism, represents an emerging field with few academic resources. This paper works to conceptualize and clarify the unique place death tourism holds within tourism and dark tourism specifically.

The purpose of this paper is to pave avenues and stimulate further research on the intersection of existentialism and tourism. This is done by presenting the overview of the topical areas that have greatly contributed to existentialism and connecting them to contemporary tourism issues.

The paper is structured by topical areas that received significant treatment from existentialists and are deemed relevant to the contemporary tourism research and practice. It starts with the discussion of authenticity and anxiety and then proceeds to the issues of alienation, death and mortality. It ends with a review of the sections on freedom and religion. In the conclusion, broader issues related to existentialism and (urban) tourism are discussed.

Aside from existential authenticity/anxiety and alienation, other existential categories (mortality, death, freedom and faith) are employed in a manner that is limited, superficial or not employed at all. The potential for tourism research lies in shifting the focus from a common tourist to special populations and hosting communities and service providers, as well as in investigating existential dimensions of city experiences of both tourists and residents.

This is the first paper to exclusively and explicitly discuss the links between existential philosophical categories and tourism research. It is hoped that tourism scholars extend these ideas and assess their relevance across non-European and culturally and religiously diverse contexts.

The present chapter reviews part of the literature that focuses on dark tourism and dark consumption. The main theories were placed under the critical lens of scrutiny. With strongholds and weaknesses, dark tourism seems to be enframed in an ‘economic-based paradigm’, which prioritises the managerial perspective over other methods. Like Dark Tourist, the Netflix documentary assessed in this chapter, this academic perspective accepts that the tourist's experience is the only valid source of information to understand the phenomenon. Rather, we hold the thesis that far from being a local trend, dark tourism evinces a morbid drive which not only emerges recently but involves other facets and spheres of society. We coin the term Thana-capitalism to denote a passage from risk society to a new stage, where the Other's death is situated as the main commodity to exchange. The risk society as it was imagined by Beck, set finally the pace to thana-capitalism. Dark Tourist proffers an interesting platform to gain further understanding of this slippery matter. In sharp contrast to Seaton, Sharpley or Stone, we argue that dark tourists are unable to create empathy with the victims. Instead, they visit these types of marginal destinations in order to re-elaborate a political attachment with their institutions. They consume the Other's pain not only to feel unique and special (a word that sounds all the time in the documentary) but also to affirm their privileged role as part of the selected peoples.

The purpose of this paper is to present contrasting approaches to the descriptive case study of tourism to the buried city of Plymouth, Montserrat, an example of the marketing and burying – the supply and demand – of apocalyptic dark tourism on the island.

A case study mixed-methods methodology is adopted, and findings are derived from tour guiding fieldwork, guide and tourist interviews, and an analysis of travel writing and tourism marketing campaigns.

Dark tourism is viewed as a contentious and problematic concept: it attracts and repels tourism to the former capital Plymouth, Montserrat. After 20 years of the volcano crisis, the islanders, government and Tourist Board are commemorating resilience living with the volcano and regeneration in a disaster scenario. Marketing and consumption approaches to dark tourism elucidate different facets to the case study of “the buried city” of Plymouth, Montserrat, and the Montserrat Springs Hotel overlooking Plymouth. The disjunct between these two types of approach to dark tourism, as well as the different criteria attached to working definitions of dark tourism – and the range of interests in apocalyptic dark tourism into the city and its surrounds – show some of the problems and limitations with theoretical and scalar discussions on dark tourism.

The paper’s implications are that both supply and demand approaches to dark tourism are needed to fully understand a dark tourism destination and to reconcile the disjunct between these two approaches and the perspectives of tourist industry and tourism users.

This is a descriptive dark tourism case study of a former capital city examined from both supply and demand perspectives. It introduces the apocalyptic to dark tourism destination analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the papers in this Special Issue of IJCTHR on dark tourism. These papers take either a demand‐side, supply‐side, or integrated demand‐and‐supply side perspective to understanding dark tourism. Collectively, the papers explore tourist experiences at dark sites, the management of dark sites, ethical issues in profit making, and the involvement of indigenous peoples in site management.

This editorial draws lessons from the papers presented in the Special Issue.

Just as we contemplate our mortality in different ways in our daily lives, so we contemplate death in different ways in tourism praxis. The papers presented here stretch the boundaries of the current definition of dark tourism. We move beyond a discussion of classifications of dark tourism to recognise dark tourism as both an individual experience and a complex socio‐cultural phenomenon.

The move from a purely descriptive to an experiential and critical investigation of dark tourism bodes well for the development of a dark tourism body of knowledge. This paper suggests several avenues for future research on dark tourism.

Commonly referred to as dark tourism or thanatourism, the act of touristic travel to sites of or sites associated with death and disaster has gained significant attention with media imaginations and academic scholarship. However, despite a growing body of literature on the representation and tourist experience of deathscapes within the visitor economy, dark tourism as a field of study is still very much in its infancy. Moreover, questions remain of the academic origins of the dark tourism concept, as well as its contribution to the broader social scientific study of tourism and death education. Thus, the purpose of this invited review for this Special Issue on dark tourism, is to offer some critical insights into thanatourism scholarship.

This review paper critiques the emergence and current direction of dark tourism scholarship.

The author suggests that dark tourism as an academic field of study is where death education and tourism studies collide and, as such, can offer potentially fruitful research avenues within the broad realms of thanatology. Secondly, the author outlines how dark tourism as a conceptual typology has been subject to a sustained marketization process within academia over the past decade or so. Consequently, dark tourism is now a research brand in which scholars can locate a diverse range of death‐related and tourist experience studies. Finally, the author argues that the study of dark tourism is not simply a fascination with death or the macabre, but a multi‐disciplinary academic lens through which to scrutinise fundamental interrelationships of the contemporary commodification of death with the cultural condition of society.

This review paper scrutinises dark tourism scholarship and, subsequently, offers original insights into the potential role dark tourism may play in the public representation of death, as well as highlighting broader interrelationships dark tourism has with research into the social reality of death and the significant Other dead.