Would you consider visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau to see for yourself the evil that humans are capable of? Do you admire the volunteers who flew out to the areas affected by the tsunami in 2004? And if you were in New York, wouldn't you want to see Ground Zero to decide for yourself what changed that day? If the answer's no, dark tourism has other forms that you might not be able to deny. If you've never dreamed of visiting the Taj Mahal, the Pyramids of Giza or the ruins of Pompeii, then you can say that really, you've no interest in poking around other people's graves.

The question isn't are you dark. The question is: how dark are you?

The term "dark tourism" was coined in 1996 by Professors John Lennon (no relation, apparently) and Malcolm Foley to describe what they first identified as a travel trend – tourism to sites associated with death, disaster and depravity. Lennon, who describes himself as a die-hard dark tourist, says that the number of travellers who fit this definition is growing exponentially. When they invented the term, Ground Zero didn't exist, Rwanda was reeling from what its people had done to each other, and Cambodia's Killing Fields were still a dangerous place to visit. Since then, visitor numbers to dark attractions have rocketed – Auschwitz-Birkenau saw an astonishing 37% growth in overseas visitors in 2004 alone.

But if dark tourism sounds shocking when you first hear about it, at its mildest it's plain harmless – a Sunday stroll around Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris to see the graves of Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison; attending a memorial service at Gallipoli in Turkey; or visiting Mt St Helens National Volcanic Monument in the US. In many forms, almost everyone would agree that it is good – visiting memorials reminds you what horrors humanity is capable of, makes you remember why certain values are important. And travelling to a place that has been recently devastated – so long as it is done responsibly – is beneficial to the host community, as well as to you.

However, if one end of the dark scale is actually pretty white, there's certainly a black side to shy away from, where voyeurism and self-gratification live. Just like every other form of travel, if you do dark tourism badly, you'll hurt people and places. There will always be those who get a kick out of watching the suffering of others or foist themselves on grieving societies who aren't ready to support them.

In between, of course, there are shades of grey. And it's here that things get more complicated. Lennon believes that even when visiting sites that are popularly perceived to be good and educational, no one's motives are completely pure. He thinks that places like the Smithsonian museums in Washington DC are dark – "see how much space is given to death" he enthuses – and he calls London's Imperial War Museum "a tank-stroker's paradise".

Lennon and his colleagues think that behind the drive to get educated, the wanting to help, and the undoubted good effects these produce, lies a simple need: people want vicarious contact with death and violence. Much of society is now so far removed from human mortality that death has become something we crave to understand. This need to move away from the world of everyday living and connect with something new is exactly the same motive that drives people to travel, so it's no wonder the two go hand in hand. Lennon calls both an exploration of "alterior territory".

But while he acknowledges the huge growth in dark tourism at the moment, he doesn't see it as anything new. He cites religious pilgrimages, public hangings, Roman gladiatorial games and Victorian morgue tours as examples of dark tourism. "It has always been interesting to people," he says. "The British nobility actually paid to watch the Battle of Waterloo in 1815."

What does surprise him, though, is the speed at which sites are recovering from their problems and commodifying them. He mentions examples all over the world: guided walks around Sarajevo, taxi tours of Belfast, Ground Zero, the Rwandan massacre sites, Katrina tours of New Orleans. He sees this as a reaction to modernity and the feeling that the world isn't becoming a better place, that the horrors are still continuing.

After all the analysis though, Lennon is a committed dark tourist himself. His next trip is to Cambodia to visit the Killing Fields. His main motivation, he says, is pretty simple. "It's about the dark side of human nature. It's in all of us, and it fascinates us."

 

 

This is an edited extract from Lonely Planet BLUELIST: The Best in Travel 2007 © Lonely Planet Publications, 2006. $29.95.

More: www.lonelyplanet.com/bluelist

PUTTING YOUR LIFE AT RISK

Going somewhere a bit edgy is not the same as going somewhere where you're putting your life in real danger. Central Iraq, southern Afghanistan, parts of Somalia – there are always places in the world that are simply too dangerous for travellers. The best resource for finding out where is safe is your government.

DISRESPECTFUL VOYEURISM

Dark tourism becomes disrespectful when you're doing it purely for kicks and it impinges on the grief or suffering of others. So, watching executions or corporal punishment is of course out. Travelling to areas that have been devastated by war, famine or natural disaster while people are still grieving is not on if you're doing it for no reason other than to have a good look around and indulge your own pleasure. Watching Hindu funeral ceremonies, where corpses are burnt by the river amid their grieving relatives, falls into this category if the relatives feel their grief is being intruded upon.

GOING BACK TOO EARLY

Places take time to recover from disasters. And when they are still in the early stages of recovery, your presence might not be welcome. Travellers should be careful not to put extra strain on places that are already stretched to provide locals with basic needs like food, water and shelter.

MORAL ISSUES

Some dark tourism destinations may have regimes you disagree with. Author and BBC presenter Simon Reeve has visited many of the world's most difficult places making programmes like Holidays in the Danger Zone. For Reeve, the key is to be well informed. 'You have to check the current situation in your destination before you travel and decide if you want to be part of it. Nagorno-Karabakh, for example, is a stunning area of the Caucasus that is recovering from terrible conflict. The people are friendly and welcoming, they serve great vodka, and the mountains will make your jaw drop. But Muslim Azeris and Christian Armenians used to live together in Karabakh. Then the Muslims were pushed out during the war. Until that situation is resolved it's not somewhere I would want to visit.'