I can add some comments concerning interest in previously clandestine grave
sites here in Guatemala.  I was in Belize last week, and was asked (quite
seriously) if I had not yet visited any of the sites where forensic teams
have been digging up and analyzing remains.  Since it had not ever occurred
to me that this might be interesting, I did not know that already local and
international visitors are already seeking to stand by and watch.   I now
recall having seen on CNN or other news casts crowds of people around
similar grave sites in Europe.

I agree that films make a tremendous impact on people's decisions to visit
here and there, but also remember that even reading itself has been
promoted - books that have been made into movies are reprinted and
advertised, not as originals, but as if they were based upon the movies!
And then, of course, the tours result.  So in thinking about all this, where
does the morbid or macabre curiosity (that seems to be universal ) to
witness the immediate or recent event turn into historical or heritage
tourism?  Does it take advertisement to make a site into a tourist site?
And is it worth it to distinguish those who visit only for the vicarious
thrill from those who go to express or assuage their own grief or to
remember others who suffered there?  And how would we ever know?

Dr. Nancie Gonzalez [log in to unmask]

----- Original Message -----
From: Dr neil Carr <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 1999 9:23 AM
Subject: dark tourism


> 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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