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The topic - tourism and war - reminds me of some t-shirts I came across during a fieldtrip in Thailand while doing research into "adventure tourism" and backpacking. In my field-diary I have observation notes about war-related "Cambodia", "Saigon", "Vietnam" t-shirts. Examples are; "Beware of mines - Cambodia", "Saigon" with a gun on it or "Danger!! Mines!! Cambodia" with a scull on it. It appeared quite a few travellers and other tourists took a few weeks in Cambodia or Vietnam and at least some returned to Bangkok with these t-shirts as a symbolic expression of their trip. I have also come across interviewees who say they are looking forward to riots in Indonesia as it is "cool" to have seen/been in one. I think A. Garland catches this "spirit" in his backpacker (best-seller I believe) book "The Beach" where the leading character is on a search for his childhood dreams of war and hidden vietcongs in the bushes... I have not been to any of the places appearing on these t-shirts but possibly there is a tourism industry supporting this trend (just as the t-shirt industry is). It calls for interesting research! I too think it is sad if the deaths of others (rarely the tourist or his/her peers) is needed to give the tourist the thrill, as I believe is the case above. There may be good educational reasons to make some war related places/events into tourism attractions but in the case above the educational benefit in hardly higher than than the cost. To me, with little knowledge of "tourism and war" theory/research, it seems wars and deaths are consumed in tourism as in other areas of life (media shows, media news, books, conversation topics), possibly as signs of prevailing heroism ideals. It takes a loser to make a winner. I'd appreciate if anyone have reading suggestions on this topic. Regards, Torun (PhD-candidate at Lund University) Torun Elsrud Dept of Social Science Kalmar University College Box 905 391 29 Kalmar, Sweden Phone: +46 480 446024 E-mail: [log in to unmask] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%