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Dark cities? Developing a methodology for researching dark tourism in European cities

Dark cities? Developing a methodology for researching dark tourism in European cities

Kennell, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7877-7843 and Powell, Raymond (2016) Dark cities? Developing a methodology for researching dark tourism in European cities. In: Tourism and Culture in the Age of Innovation: Second International Conference IACuDiT, Athens 2015. Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics . Springer International Publishing, Switzerland, pp. 303-319. ISBN 9783319275284 ISSN 2198-7246 (doi:10.1007/978-3-319-27528-4_21)

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Abstract

Despite the recent growth of research into dark tourism (Dale & Robinson, 2011; Lennon & Foley, 2000; Stone, 2013; Tarlow, 2005) and the growth of the dark tourism market (Biran & Hyde, 2013; Stone 2005; Stone & Sharpley, 2008), there has been little interest shown in understanding the relationship between dark tourism and urban tourism (Page & Hall 2002). This paper presents the initial findings of a research project that investigates the dark tourism products offered by European cities. A series of keywords were developed following a review of the dark tourism literature and this was used carry out a content analysis of the Destination Marketing Organisation websites for Europe’s ten most visited cities. The content analysis used Stone’s (2006) Dark Tourism Continuum to evaluate the dark tourism products offered in each destination and to present a descriptive overview of Europe’s city-based dark tourism offer. The paper concludes that there are a wide range of dark tourism products available to urban tourists in Europe, but that these are rarely conceptualised as such. The mixture of ‘light’ and ‘dark’ dark tourism products presents difficulties in categorisation and standardisation of the urban tourism offer, but this is a potential area of new product development for DMOs across Europe.

Item Type: Conference Proceedings
Title of Proceedings: Tourism and Culture in the Age of Innovation: Second International Conference IACuDiT, Athens 2015
Uncontrolled Keywords: Tourism, Dark tourism, European tourism, Urban tourism, Cities, Heritage
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group: Faculty of Business > Department of Marketing, Events & Tourism
Last Modified: 02 Sep 2020 18:17
URI: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/15027

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