Ispectrum Magazine Ispectrum Magazine #10 | Seite 7

today - a raw, horrific reminder of
the evil that is in the world. But the
majority of visitors who want this
dark tourism experience do not want
something so painful; they want that
‘packaging up’ of death.
For example, in The Killing Fields in
Cambodia you can crawl across the
ground whilst live bullets are fired

over your head. A tacky adrenaline
rush that insults those who lost their
lives crawling through those same
fields? Why not even send a postcard? This is not to say that all dark
tourists want this experience - many
are compelled to reach out to these
sights so as to not forget tragedy, to
be aware of their heritage or to pay
their respects.
The Anne Frank Museum or
the concentration camps
are strong examples of this
type of tourism. Paying to
stay in a Latvian prison
and be treated like a prisoner is on the opposite
end of the scale. The iDTR
claims that dark tourism
is far more than a simple
fascination with death that it is a complicated
study of the interrelationships of society and culture. But for some of those
who feel the pull of the
macabre it is solely a curiosity of death that motivates them. Where does
this curiosity come from?

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