Disaster (Dark) Tourism

Abstract

Rural and regional communities and industry are disproportionately impacted by natural and human-made disasters. Following disasters there can also be a new tourism market in the form of ‘dark tourism’, which can either assist or hinder communities; possibly create further potential illegal activity (such as trespassing); or provide further opportunities to life-threating situations or ongoing health risks (through accessing unstable or dangerous areas). A number of different case studies are explored throughout this paper to highlight these issues, including Australia’s deadliest town, Wittenoom in Western Australia; ‘storm-chasers’, such as those driving the streets to film tornado damage in Armidale, NSW while the storm was still present; tourism around bushfires in rural and regional Australia; as well as exploring similar disaster tourism cases internationally. As a part of this, the paper explores the role of the media in advertising, and possibly, creating disaster tourism opportunities. The publicization of sites of disaster inevitably creates interest in an area; however, this does not mean that tourists travelling to such sites should be labelled as ‘dark’ or ‘deviant’, many people travel to see if they can help, or to reflect on the fragility of life.

Keywords: disaster tourism, dark tourism, bushfires, storm chasers, deadly town

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