New perspectives on dark tourism

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.