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#Post#: 15499--------------------------------------------------
Visiting Places with a Dark Past
By: Nikola Date: May 15, 2019, 6:29 am
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I decided to start a new topic about the so-called Dark Tourism.
It was mentioned in the "Women should be blamed for traveling to
dangerous areas?" topic and I feel that what Martin wrote in
response to Sofia's comment (see below) deserves a separate
thread. I will be commenting myself later.
[quote author=MartinSR link=topic=1047.msg15498#msg15498
date=1557918332]
Something that attracted my attention was this comment:
[quote author=Sofia link=topic=1047.msg15475#msg15475
date=1557824263]
However there is also a kind of thrilling and morbid attraction
from certain people to places linked to death or to danger. This
trend is called “Dark Tourism”. To visit the
Chernobyl site of nuclear disaster, the Auschwitz site of the
concentration camp or even a place where an earthquake took
place.
HTML https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/features/is-dark-tourism-ok-chernobyl-pripyat-disaster-sites/
[/quote]
The National Geographic article was interesting and I fully
agree with the author that [quote]the problem lies not with the
choice of destination, but with the intention behind the
choice[/quote]
I just can't agree with putting three different kind of
'tourism' into the same box:
1) Travelling to places with increased probability of death
because of war, civil war, terrorism, increased level of crime,
...
2) Travelling to places which are risky because of the
conditions (natural, like climbing in high mountains, or
artificial, like places with persistent radiation or pollution,
e.g. Chernobyl
3) Visiting historic places known for mass deaths in the past
because of war, genocide, natural disasters.
The first group is connected with real risk. But not all of the
people going there are just tourist looking for adrenaline and
wanting to place selfie on their Facebook account. There are
also people engaged in help to people living in those areas and
people willing to tell the others about things going there. All
of them are at risk. On the other hand nowadays almost all
possible destinations are concerned with increased risk - I know
many people in Poland who afraid to travel to the West of Europe
because of all these terrorist acts during the last few years.
Is visiting Paris, London, Barcelona and other towns 'Dark
Tourism' too?
The second group must take into account the possible danger, but
with all precautions taken they have chance to survive and
achieve their goals... Of course there is always the question
about their intentions... Just to show how brave they are?
The third group is no risky in traditional way when we talking
about the dangers during the travel. Of course - visiting such
places may impact of some people psyche. They may reconsider
some of their views. In some cases it may cause trauma. I don't
agree that people go there only to make a photo with thumb up. I
agree that it's rarely source of knowledge, because (as Sophia
said) there are other means of getting the knowledge about
genocide and from this point of view visiting those places are
unnecessary.
Maybe I'm biased, because I live close to Auschwitz (I could
probably walk on feet there If I had 8-10 hours to do so).
During my elementary and high school we had a few mandatory
excursions to Auschwitz. The communist government cared about
this aspect of our education, to show us what the outcome of war
can be. Visiting such places I treat as a tribute to those
unhappy people who died there and as the declaration against war
and against totalitarianism at all. During my last travel
(during the past few weeks) I've visited the Genocide Museum in
Phnom Penh, which is not comparable with Auschwitz, but reminds
us that such things happened not only during the great wars and
often were carried out by people who should protect and care
about heir nation. Nobody of our group was really interested in
visiting it as the place to see, but we felt being obliged to
show our respect to those people who died there. I've also
visited the Cu Chi tunnels mentioned in the article and I may
say that seeing it, touching the walls of tunnels, hearing the
voices of the jungle around gave us just an impression of what
it could be like. The impression you won't get while reading
book or watching documentaries on TV. I confirm that they really
give an opportunity to fire a gun for those who are interested
in it... but nobody from our group was interested. Was it the
'black tourism' in our case? Would it be better if we forgot
about the history of countries we visited and just focus on nice
hotels, delicious food and beautiful landscapes?
[/quote]
#Post#: 15501--------------------------------------------------
Re: Visiting Places with a Dark Past
By: NealC Date: May 15, 2019, 7:06 am
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"Would it be better if we forgot about the history of countries
we visited and just focus on nice hotels, delicious food and
beautiful landscapes?"
To be honest, that sounds like my sort of vacation :-)
#Post#: 15505--------------------------------------------------
Re: Visiting Places with a Dark Past
By: Aliph Date: May 15, 2019, 8:03 am
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I agree with Martin, visiting certain places is a way to play a
tribute to the persons who suffered there. That’s what I felt
when I visited Robben Island in South Africa, the island where
Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for years.
However there are people who think that even going to a country
like Iran or travelling to the West Bank and the Palestinian
Territories is acting in a irresponsible way and pleasing ones
own voyeurism.
HTML https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/IJCTHR-07-2012-0059
#Post#: 15507--------------------------------------------------
Re: Visiting Places with a Dark Past
By: Forest Date: May 15, 2019, 8:35 am
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For me, don't like to travel just for enjoying nice hotel, good
food, souless sightseeing. It's just for fun itself. In some
cases, I have chosen guide tour, to travel with a group of
people for convenience. People just look for enjoy: taking
picture, delicious food, sightseeing, massage, and shopping.
Everytime I traveled in that way, I felt empty after finishing
tour.
So I'm willing to visit those dark places, because they have
made me think over and feel some meaningfl things.
#Post#: 15508--------------------------------------------------
Re: Visiting Places with a Dark Past
By: NealC Date: May 15, 2019, 9:28 am
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I hear Iran is friendly and it certainly seems law abiding. I
wouldn't mind a trip there.
Palestine no thank you, too many kidnappings, too much street
violence.
I don't have too many happy thoughts when I think of Mandela, so
I doubt I would go to the island. South Africa in general would
be a nice trip.
#Post#: 15509--------------------------------------------------
Re: Visiting Places with a Dark Past
By: MartinSR Date: May 15, 2019, 9:47 am
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Traveling to different countries gives the opportunity to feel
the different culture, sometimes in a controlled environment
(when you go with a group or visiting country which decides what
they can show you and what is prohibited to see - but usually
it's a kind of safe travelling to region that is otherwise
considered unsafe for tourists).
I don't understand people who go every vacation to destinations
like Hurghada in Egypt and spend the whole time in the hotel.
The next year they chose the similar hotel in other country and
again- without going outside of it. Do they compare drinks at
the pool or sunbathing possibilities in those countries?
Getting to know at least a small part of other people culture is
strictly connected with learning something about their history,
not only the ancient or medieval one, but the newest and often
painful as well. When you know the source of people's joys and
traumas you are on the way to understand how they react in many
situations. For example the topic about death camps - many
people from the West are surprised why does it evoke so many
unstable emotions in our country. From my post above you can see
that we were fed with it our whole youth. So everyone,
regardless of the political views, religion, attitudes to other
countries and their politics - stays alert while hearing some
'keywords' concerned with genocide.
Some people may say that visiting those places of mass murder
around the world gives no wisdom - they look all the same:
blocks, fences, photos of numerous victims, tools of torture,
graves. But when visiting such country for whatever reason I see
it as a sign of respect to those who lost their lives on its
ground.
#Post#: 15513--------------------------------------------------
Re: Visiting Places with a Dark Past
By: Aliph Date: May 15, 2019, 2:01 pm
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[quote author=NealC link=topic=1050.msg15508#msg15508
date=1557930515]
Palestine no thank you, too many kidnappings, too much street
violence.
[/quote]
Neal, who kidnaps whom in Palestine? The Westbank is neither
downtown Caracas nor Mexico DF.
There is no kidnapping. Sometimes there are tensions since it is
occupied land. One has to keep his mouth shut at checkpoints of
the israeli border police. But thousand of pilgrims go to
Bethlehem every day either in guided tours ore by themselves.
Of course going to Gaza would be different, I wouldn’t like
drones hovering about my head, B52 destroying the nearby
buildings and the navy shooting from the sea like it happens so
often in a never ending war. Anyway, it’s (almost) impossible to
go there.
#Post#: 15514--------------------------------------------------
Re: Visiting Places with a Dark Past
By: Truman Overby Date: May 15, 2019, 2:27 pm
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[quote author=Sofia link=topic=1050.msg15513#msg15513
date=1557946877]
Mexico DF.
[/quote]
Sofia, what is Mexico DF?
#Post#: 15515--------------------------------------------------
Re: Visiting Places with a Dark Past
By: Aliph Date: May 15, 2019, 2:31 pm
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[quote author=It's Me link=topic=1050.msg15514#msg15514
date=1557948448]
[quote author=Sofia link=topic=1050.msg15513#msg15513
date=1557946877]
Mexico DF.
[/quote]
Sofia, what is Mexico DF?
[/quote]
Mexico City and surroundings (Distrito Federal).
#Post#: 15516--------------------------------------------------
Re: Visiting Places with a Dark Past
By: Truman Overby Date: May 15, 2019, 2:36 pm
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[quote author=Sofia link=topic=1050.msg15515#msg15515
date=1557948660]
Mexico City and surroundings (Distrito Federal).
[/quote]
Interesting. I've never heard the term. Here we say Mexico City.
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