I believe that dark tourism should be allowed exclusively for certified people. For example, people with extraordinary accomplishments in certain areas or people that has a high degree of education. Here’s some analysis I made alongside this seminar of why and what:
- people’s main incentive to visit these dark tourism spots is curiosity. One of humans natural instinct is to be aware and curious of the things that’s around us and has a dark history. for example, North Korea being a dystopian authoritarianism country attracted millions of tourists every year despite having freedom of speech and freedom of movement limited.
- to learn from the mistakes history has made and avoid these problems in the future e.g for educational purpose only. For example, the Chernobyl incident reminded us to be careful of nuclear development and to be aware of the safety issues around these experiments. It not only serves as a disaster but an example for future generations to avoid and learn from.
- Visit on dark tourism spots must be built upon respect, you must not make inappropriate behavior and should learn throughly about the history and causation behind the dark tourism spot.
In conclusion, its a really engaging seminar that I learned a lot from.
Nice idea, but how would you certify people? Would tourists carry a special dark tourism ID card? Would the same certification be valid for all dark tourism sites? Did your idea pass the scrutiny of your peers in the seminar?