Thinking more on the subject of dark tourism it seems interesting to look
at the links between this type of tourism and the movies. I just watched a
travel show on the BBC in the UK last night which highlighted not just a
visit to the Jewsih ghetto in Krakow in Poland, but also the chance, if you
wished, to stay in the hotel, even the room, where steven speilberg stayed
during the making of Schindlers list. Is this a case of turning a
historical site into a film buffs holiday location. Is the original meaning
of the site in danger of being lost in favour of the value of the site as a
location for the making of a film. It also made me wonder about other links
between tourism and the movies such as Braveheart which took William
Wallace from an often forgotten status, to an important component of the
Scottish tourism industry. Do we have to worry though about not just the
potential for the tourism inudstry in these circumstances to colour
reality, but also for the film industry to further influence the way events
are related to people.
Further on the role of films influencing how people may view sites, and why
they may visit them we see in the UK an increasing trend for historical
buildings not only to be used as film sets, but then to advertse this
rather than their historical context. I know the former may attract more
visitors, but does it affect the significance of these places and turn them
into little more than film sets.
Cheers
Neil
Dr Neil Carr
Dept. of Business and Finance
University of Hertfordshire
Mangrove Road
Hertford
Hertfordshire
England
SG13 8QF
Tel. (01707) 285511
Fax. (01707) 285455
email: [log in to unmask]
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