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The purpose of this paper is to understand and examine whether the Sarikamish battlefield site can be considered as a dark tourist attraction by exploring the extent to which the site meets the five stages of MacCannell’s sacralisation process.

In the present research, the case study approach was adopted within the context of the battlefield site to examine the sight sacralisation concept, which is credited to MacCannell (1976), by considering its five stages, which include naming, framing and elevation, enshrinement, mechanical reproduction and social reproduction.

The findings of the present study reveal that the Sarikamish battlefield site has the potential for dark tourism consumption. However, there is lack of interest in the Sarikamish site, and little attention has been paid to this issue. The results also show that there is a significant difference between the Gallipoli and Sarikamish battlefields in terms of tourist flows regarding dark tourism.

Because of time limits and the long distance to the Sarikamish province, this research benefited from gathering data both from printed documents and websites related to the province, in addition to interviews that were conducted using semi-structured questions, which were e-mailed to the respondents.

The present study is unique in regards to its objective, which is to increase public awareness about the site. Moreover, it seeks to make people more cognisant in terms of motivation to visit the Sarikamish battlefield, and these issues have been given little attention by scholars.

Through a case study of the Po Klaong Girai temple in Vietnam, this paper explores how indigenous community perceive tourism benefit sharing (TBS) associated with their cultural tourism at sacred living-heritage sites and how this TBS enhances the equality and inclusion for indigenous community in the context of tourism in Vietnam.

This study employed ethnographic fieldwork and semi-structured interviews with 35 indigenous Cham priests directly associated with managing and preserving the Po Klaong Girai temple.

This research found that Cham community perceive inequality and exclusivity on tourism benefit sharing at this religious site. While Cham Ahier priests face economic barriers in providing these services to the community, annual tourism revenue is allocated to local government budgets. Such economic pressure forces the priests to seek alternative economic avenues to support their families at the expense of their traditional commitments to communal, cultural and religious activities, significantly impacting sustainable heritage conservation. This has led to strained relations between the local community and local authorities.

This research provides evidence to improve living heritage management practices by proposing tourism development policies for equality and inclusion among stakeholders, especially minorities and disadvantaged groups. This can be an experiential and necessary lesson for “dealing” with sustainable heritage management in heritage living sites in other ethnic minority areas in Vietnam and globally.

The findings from this study address the knowledge gap on equitable revenue sharing in heritage tourism, where financial benefits from the commodification of minority cultures should be used to support local communities and the custodians of indigenous heritage.

This paper attempts to fill the gap that exists in research regarding visitor motivations at dark heritage sites. The purpose of this paper is to explore the motivations of visitors to the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum (HPMM) as an iconic dark site in South Africa to identify what motivates visitation and which demographic variables may have an influence on these motivators.

To achieve the goal of this research, 205 participants completed a self-administered questionnaire using a random sampling technique at the HPMM. A statistical analysis through the use of factor analysis revealed seven motivational factors.

Novelty and knowledge seeking, remembrance and curiosity were identified as the three main motives for visiting HPMM. Novelty and knowledge seeking was found to be the main motive that contradicted similar research done in other parts of the globe. Escape and relaxation, which is usually found to be one of the main motivators to heritage sites, was revealed to be one of the least motivators for this study. The results also identified significant relationships between demographic and motivator variables.

The findings of this study revealed that people visit the HPMM primarily for novelty and knowledge seeking, remembrance and respect for victims and curiosity. From the results, it is clear that visitors are driven to visit the site for different motives and that these motives, although common amongst visitors, differ from person to person subject to demographic differences. This study provides an improved understanding of dark tourism demand, which is essential for the sustainable development and promotion of sites in South Africa and globally commemorating people’s struggle against injustice and for democracy.

South Africa is a country with a cosmopolitan history; however, the history associated with apartheid has only recently become topic of tourism research. This study provides a basis to better understand the type of tourist visiting these sites of historical sites, thus leading to better provision of services to visit such attractions.

This study is one of the first to delve into understanding the motivational typology of tourists to a tourism attraction in South Africa associated with the country’s Apartheid-era heritage. It provides an insight into enhancing the current fragmented understanding of dark tourism demand.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the omission of Indigenous narratives in battlefields and sites of conflicts while also highlighting how certain battlefields and sites of conflicts have attempted to address dissonant heritage by diversifying interpretation strategies and implementing elements of collaborative management approaches, thereby addressing Indigenous erasure.

The study uses a content analysis, field studies and case studies to examine dissonant heritage in warfare tourism sites involving Indigenous peoples in Australia and North America.

The content analysis reveals that aboriginal erasure is still prevalent within the literature on warfare and battlefield tourism. However, the case studies suggest that dissonant heritage in warfare tourism is being addressed through collaborative management strategies and culturally sensitive interpretation strategies.

The content analysis is limited to tourism journals. The case studies highlight sites that are using adaptive management and integrating Indigenous peoples.

The study of dissonant heritage and warfare tourism, while relatively young, is beginning to address aboriginal erasure and cultural dissonance; this study is a contribution to this area of research.

Addressing the impacts of aboriginal erasure and heritage dissonance in colonial settings heals the hurts of the past, while empowering communities. It also provides Indigenous communities with opportunities to diversify current tourism products.

This is a collaborative international paper involving Indigenous and non‐Indigenous scholars from Australia, Canada, and the USA.

This study aims to examine how tourism impacts on local community, managers’ attachment to the community and their identification with the value of heritage resources influence managers’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) attitudes, utilizing the value identification and agency theories.

The proposed hypotheses were tested utilizing cross-sectional data collected from 228 managers of a plethora of travel and tourism companies that operate at a UNESCO World Heritage site in China. A structured questionnaire was administered in person in managers’ offices by a team of trained research assistants. A total of 202 valid surveys were included in the data analysis. A two-step structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was used to first examine the psychometric properties of the measurement model, and then test the causal relationships proposed in the structural model.

The findings indicate that managers’ place attachment, their heritage value identification and their perceptions of positive tourism impacts affect their CSR attitudes. However, the negative effects of tourism do not significantly influence CSR attitudes. Data collected through open-ended questions incorporated in the structured survey have provided justification for the insignificant relationship.

CSR perceptions of managers, especially those at heritage sites, have not received much attention from tourism scholars. Because travel and tourism companies at heritage sites are integral in the preservation and conservation of heritage sites while managers of those companies are the ones who initiate and implement socially responsible policies and practices, it is important to understand the factors that may influence those managers’ CSR attitudes and behaviors.

This study aims to explore how tourists construct destination images in the context of dark tourism and reveals the relationships between on-site experience, destination image and behavioural intention.

The earthquake-ravaged county town of Beichuan in China was chosen as the study site. The study collected 298 viable questionnaires from tourists. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was performed to explore the relationships between the variables of on-site experience, destination image and behavioural intention.

The study identified four dimensions of dark tourism destination image (TDI) from its attribute and functional perspective. It found that “image of memorial place” and “image of educational place” were the most perceptual images and positively related with most subdimensions of on-site experience and behavioural intention. “Image of leisure place” and “image of landscapes of fear” were less perceived by tourists and negatively related with some subdimensions of on-site experience and behavioural intention.

To our knowledge, this study is the first attempt to explore the complex mechanisms of dark TDI formation with the framework of “on-site experiences–destination images–behavioural intentions”. By identifying tourists’ most and least perceptual images and their effective antecedents and consequences help to reconcile and manage the controversial and contradictory images of a dark tourism destination.

本文探讨了游客如何建构黑色旅游目的地形象, 进一步研究了游客现场体验、目的地形象、行为意愿之间的作用关系。

以汶川地震重灾区北川老县城遗址为案例地, 本研究收集了游客结构化问卷298份, 采用偏最小二乘结构方程模型（PLS-SEM）分析了游客现场体验、目的地形象和行为意愿各维度之间的作用关系。

从目的地属性和功能角度, 本文区分了黑色旅游目的地形象四个维度。研究发现“纪念地形象”和“教育地形象”是游客感知最强的两大维度, 与绝大多数游客现场体验和行为意愿的维度呈显著正向影响关系。 “休闲地形象”和“恐惧景观形象”, 游客感知较弱, 与现场体验和行为意向的一些维度呈负向影响关系。

本文首次利用“现场体验-目的地形象-行为意愿”这一研究框架, 揭示黑色旅游目的地形象的复杂生成机制。通过识别游客感知最强和最弱的形象维度, 揭示其前因与后果, 有助于调和与管理有争议和矛盾的黑色旅游目的地形象。

Este estudio explora cómo los turistas construyen la imagen del destino en el contexto del turismo oscuro, revelando las relaciones entre experiencias en el lugar, imágenes del destino e intenciones de comportamiento.

El terremoto que devastó la ciudad del condado de Beichuan en China fue elegido lugar de estudio por sus peculiaridades para el desarrollo del destino oscuro. El estudio recopiló 298 cuestionarios viables de turistas. Se planteo un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales (PLS-SEM) para explorar las relaciones entre las variables de experiencias en el lugar, imágenes de destino e intenciones de comportamiento.

El estudio identificó cuatro dimensiones de la imagen del destino turístico oscuro desde su atributo y perspectiva funcional. De igual forma, se encontró que la “imagen del lugar conmemorativo” y la “imagen del lugar educativo” eran las imágenes más perceptivas y estaban relacionadas positivamente con la mayoría de los subdimensiones de las experiencias en el lugar e intenciones de comportamiento. Los turistas percibieron menos la “imagen de un lugar de ocio” y la “imagen de paisajes de miedo” y se relacionaron negativamente con algunos subdimensiones de las experiencias en el lugar e intención de comportamiento.

Hasta donde sabemos, este estudio es el primer intento de explorar el complejo mecanismo en la formación de TDIs oscuros con el marco de “experiencias en el lugar- imágenes de destino – intenciones de comportamiento”. Al identificar las imágenes más o menos perceptivas de los turistas, y sus antecedentes y consecuencias efectivos, ayuda a conciliar y gestionar las imágenes controvertidas y contradictorias de un destino turístico oscuro.

The tourist experience has matured in its body of literature, but researchers still debate the best way to measure and define the concept. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and compare memorable and on-site tourist experiences from theoretical, empirical, and methodological perspectives. A review of the literature is used to identify and describe the next evolutionary research step which is the quality-of-life (QOL) aspect of tourism experiences. It is argued that the evolving focus on QOL attributes is fueled by the theories and concepts of service-dominant logic. The paper argues that value (co)created on all sides of the equation (e.g., customer or company) must be considered when carrying out research. The paper also finds that different value outcomes for the individual customer occur in both on-site and memorable experience contexts. The findings contest an earlier theoretical argument, suggesting that memorable tourist experiences provide more value than on-site tourist experience.

This study seeks to investigate and discuss the heritage experiences of both domestic and international visitors at Göbeklitepe UNESCO World Heritage Site in Türkiye.

A qualitative research approach was adopted in the current study. TripAdvisor's comments and reviews of both domestic (n = 519) and international (n = 186) visitors regarding their visits to Göbeklitepe were collected. The data were then subjected to content analysis by MAXQDA as qualitative data analysis software. Additionally, an abductive research approach, which consisted of three stages, was implemented for data analysis.

The three aspects of visitor experiences at Göbeklitepe, including cognitive, emotional and relational experiences were found and discussed. Additionally, commonalities and differences among domestic and international visitors in terms of the heritage experience they gained from their visit to Göbeklitepe were revealed and analyzed.

Based on the findings regarding the main aspects of heritage experiences at Göbeklitepe, including cognitive, emotional and relational experiences, site managers and destination marketers can create effective marketing strategies that focus on those characteristics to attract visitors to the site. Moreover, the study can guide destination marketers to develop targeted marketing campaigns that highlight the different historical and religious significance of the site for both groups of domestic and international visitors.

First, the study affirms that Göbeklitepe is an important and impressive cultural heritage site due to its historical significance to both domestic and international visitors. It also strengthens the multifaceted nature of heritage experiences. Especially, the evidence of relational heritage experiences, including the connectedness to heritage and the sense of belonging to the visitor community, enriches the literature of heritage experience in this regard.

The study uses a postcolonial lens to examine the historical interest of Western tourists towards dark tourism in the east, critically assess the current status of dark tourism in India, and recommend sustainable strategies that must be considered for promoting a dark tourism market in the future. The observations and recommendations for the study are based on primary fieldwork experience at different dark tourism sites in India besides an analysis of secondary data. A critical analysis in the context of dark tourism in India demonstrates several complex issues in terms of the existence and applicability of Euro-centric frameworks and concepts. Firstly, it is revealed that the Western fascination with death-related rituals in the east is rooted in notions of colonial discourse, authenticity and counter-culture movements. Secondly, although dark tourism has not been formally acknowledged or promoted in India, it already exists in the form of fragmented and informal markets across the country. Thirdly, the application of dark tourism frameworks and concepts in India requires careful consideration of contextuality and non-Western interpretations of death, disaster, heritage and processes of memorialisation to ensure that the marketing rhetoric does not reinforce colonial or neocolonial structures of power. Lastly, promoting responsible dark tourism in India entails minimising dissonance and decolonising the dark tourism narrative considering the larger goals of social sustainability and ethics.

The study aims, based on the symbiotic relationship between tourism agencies and various stakeholders, to investigate what “policy-level” partners would advise their “practice-level” counterparts on, first, how the World Heritage Site (WHS) status of monuments can be made attractive for travellers, and second, what steps can be taken by stakeholders to enhance the WHS tourist experience.

A qualitative approach involving e-mail interviews was adopted. Content analyses of open-ended exploratory questions put to “policy-level” respondents yielded 10 major themes that can enhance the brand appeal of the WHS.

The findings offer in-depth solutions for better trip experiences of Heritage Tourists. Insights from the responses under ten thematic areas have direct relevance for application by tourism and hospitality facilitators.

Although this study was conducted in India, its findings hold implications for practice throughout the world. They could similarly be incorporated as elements of policy directed at incentivising communication of the value of preserving heritage for future generations.

While previous research focused on stakeholders for planning and policy making, this study explores the stakeholder's perspective for a more comprehensive understanding of how using the WHS brand can generate more holistic tourism development.