Niche Tourism: Famous Dark Tourism Destinations, Stakeholders, Target Audience, Potential Impact, and Future Challenges

This article discusses the concept of dark tourism, its famous destinations like Ground Zero and Hiroshima, stakeholders involved, target audience and their motivation, potential impact, and future challenges. It also provides recommendations to cope up with the challenges faced by the dark tourism industry.

RUNNING HEAD: Niche Tourism 0
Niche Tourism
(Student Name)
10/18/2018

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Famous Dark tourism Destination.............................................................................................2
Ground Zero...........................................................................................................................2
Hiroshima...............................................................................................................................2
Stakeholder Involved.................................................................................................................3
Target Audience and their Motivation.......................................................................................3
Potential Impact.........................................................................................................................4
Future Challenges.......................................................................................................................4
Recommendation........................................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
Dark tourism is one of the specific kinds of the tourism term which is based on the
promotion and creation of interest of the tourist to visit such places which are connected or
related with the death or the haunted places (Sharpley, 2018). There are certain haunted
places for the tourist to visit (Kreiner, 2016). The dark tourism is one of the niche products of
tourism which is linked with the places where the historical death had befallen. It is one of
the most famous attentions of the tourists (Gmelch & Kaul, 2018).
In the following part, there will be detailed discussion on the two famous destinations
for dark tourism which is most likely to be visited by the tourists. First one is Ground Zero
which is one of the most haunted places in the New York and the other one is The Hiroshima
in Japan that is dubbed as the World War II which bombing that spring to the mind.
Famous Dark tourism Destination
The two famous dark tourism destinations are explained below:
Ground Zero
The Ground Zero in New York is where, the world trade Centre stood prior to the
terrorist attack on 11th September 2001. The World Trade Centre was a huge complex which
involves seven buildings in Lower Manhattan in the city of New York. It was destroyed in
September 11, 2001 (Pieper, Tang & Edwards, 2017). The building was known as the “Twin
Towers” because two of the towers were 110 stories. The site has recently being renovated
with six new multi-storey building and a memorial to the fatalities of the attacks. Formerly,
the name of the building was 9/11 which was renamed as Ground Zero. Ground Zero
basically refers to the epicentre of an atomic bomb explosion (Farrell, 2017).

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(Source: The Telegraph, 2018)
Hiroshima
The Hiroshima is in Japan and it is often the disastrous World War 2nd which blasting
that coils to the mind of individuals. In the Hiroshima, 80,000 people were killed on 6th
August 1945 as nuclear ‘Little Boy’ was released on the city. More than ten thousand people
were also died as a result of injury and radiation poisoning. Approximately, seventy per cent
of the Hiroshima’s building was destroyed and the city’s confidence was also devastated.
After four years the plans for Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park were drawn up which also
incorporating the iconic Peace Pagoda and the skeletal remains of the A-Bomb Dome
(Atherton, 2017).
(Source: Buren, 2017)

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Stakeholder Involved
Government
The government of New York is one of the stakeholders of Ground Zero. They can
increase their by learning from the past and avoid the occurrence of uncertainty. They have
incorporated Lower Manhattan Development Corporation under the Empire State
Development Corporation which is a state agency that reported directly to the governor
(Sagalyn, 2016). The government of Japan has participated in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial
Park to present the exact picture of the atomic attack (Wu, Funck & Hayashi, 2014).
Tourists
The concept of Ground Zero and Hiroshima would provide the opportunity to the
tourist to know the issues that the globe has faced. It can set up the sturdy relationship with
the place and also coherent their ideas about the interests.
Private Sector such as Tourist Operator or Guide
The tourist operator creates earning for the county. Ground Zero has grown into the
main centre point of the city. It brings 1.8 million visitors every year as well as 1.59 million
of tourist visited Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park each year (Wu, Funck & Hayashi, 2014).
Local community
Local community also gains with the reason to enhance the opportunities of job which
also helps in development in the economy. The amount which has been gathered from the
sightseeing is re utilized for the expansion of the community that carry the gain, stabilization,
and also diversification of the economy.

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Target Audience and their Motivation
The tourists are categorized into two parts that are passionate to visit Niche site.
Niche market has so much curiosity which at times creates a clash of youngsters who work or
visit as a single person explorers verses some other socio-political methodology who
generally visits in groups of friends and relatives, most of the youngsters are college bunch
with an instructive eagerness towards studies or solidarity groups. The another segment of
tourist is the common segment such as leisure travellers who mostly love to visit the dark
sites for the short break or partly visiting friends or relatives (Pabel & Pearce, 2018).
The model of Pull-push has represented into the standout surrounded by the most
famous idea of sightseer stimulation which also has been used by number of researches. In
pull strategy, the decision of traveling of individual are depend on motivators of the external
destination whereas the internal factors stimulus or depend on the sensibility of the tourists
and also push them to make decision of traveling. The push factors involve the requirement
for self-esteem, seepage, and uniqueness from travelling whereas the pull factors involve the
fascinations of the destinations, pleasantness experience and so on (Smith & Font, 2015).
In the Hiroshima memorial park, most of the individuals visit in the park to not only
pays the respect to the victim of the attack but also to remind them of the horror that nuclear
war was caused.
According to Jackson (2015), the mental state of Dark Visitors is connected with four
essential feelings which include instability, appreciation, predominance, and quietude.
Feelings of the sentimentalism can be stimulated from going to the battle zone, where the
visitor can imagine fighting for the specific motive. The individuals of viciousness make a
visitor feel sympathy for the mistreated folks and better than the malefactors by presenting
that how vicious individuals can be (Jackson, 2015).

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Potential Impact
 It is a multi-Darkensional which encounters, that created an insightful influence in the
life of individuals. It is a fascinating sightseeing where going by the death camps,
mausoleums, and battle destination can also enhance the awareness of adversity
through their special eyes of individuals.
 The concept of dark tourism creates additional involvement for the tourists, who
individually look for unforeseen deed which is not similar as their common place
lives. It provides the indication for folks, who are more liberal and have a curiosity to
explore the whole world.
 Dark tourism created great impact on the group of people which is influences by the
disaster to remake itself. The tourist or visitors who visit catastrophe are indirectly
catering to accumulate voyager dollars which can help the local people of the country.
 Ground Zero is the alternative spot of fiasco. The cost of visit in World Trade Centre
is $25 and cost of kids $15. While the vast majority of the guest comes to pay the
appreciation and some of the visitors might simply want to view the advancement of
development (Hooper & Lennon, 2016). The cost of visit in the Hiroshima Park
increased from 50 yen to 200 yen for adult and for kids; it increased form 30 yen to
100 yen (Milton, 2018).
Future Challenges
Most of the individuals visited dark site due to their interest and curiosity but at some
part few challenges exist that can have negative impact on the industry in the future. These
are explained in below points:
Operational challenges

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Miles has proposed that swotting or stirring occasions which is the recorded and the
associated instruction that is not the discriminating the attainment which deliberates certain
level of empathy covered in the central of oppressed the people and also the guests for being
productive by administrators (Pratt & Harrison, 2015).
It is moulded by purviews as an aggressive environment such as recorded tourism,
digital tourism, primitive, and actuality.
Challenges in Ethical
It is the responsibility of the Operator for entertaining and educating the visitors about
the dark sites but most of the Tour Operators are charging extra amount for this. Therefore,
charging money for explaining the macabre and horrible stories is come under the ethical
issue. Some of the times tour operator reveals the random stories that are cater by them
instead of providing the exact details. It gives tourists the incorrect material about the spot
which is against the ethics. These are such issues which are faced by the visitors and can
create also create great impact in the future (Pratt & Harrison, 2015).
Recommendation
There is certain recommendation which is being discussed in the below points to cope up
from the challenges faced by the company of dark tourism:
 Government should emphasis on returning the assistances to the local people by
arranging programs of education and welfare programs which help in awaking about
the facts to the individual.
 They should attempt to discover an active steadiness between the local community
and private sectors. It also involves the native people in development process to avoid
clashes.

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 It is essential for the tour operators to be strictly observed and also regulate the ethics
and laws to escape the business with unethical purpose. They should also preserve and
respect the inherent feature and legitimacy of the sites.
 The individuals of local community must participant in terminus planning during the
period of discussion of tourism.
Conclusion
From the above it can be concluded that, the dark tourism industry play a prominent
role in the niche product of tourism. At the time, it has some positive impact on the nation
such as opportunities for business, value of education, create awareness among the visitors,
and also generate the income for the local community which help in improving the economy
of the country. The main two dark tourism spots are discussed above are the Ground Zero and
Hiroshima. It has a created potential impact on the society and on the country such as
spreading awareness, opportunity for the individual to investigate the world and so on but at
the same time certain challenges faced by the dark tourism which may create negative impact
on the future. Therefore, there is needed to be focus on the dark tourism by the government
and local community to cope up from such challenge.

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References
Atherton, C. (2017). ‘The atomic landscape... does not allow me to rest’: Kurihara Sadako
and the hibakusha poet as public intellectual. Cordite poetry review, (57), 1-15.
Buren, P.V.(2017). Don’t Whitewash the Hiroshima Bombing. Retrieved from:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/dont-whitewash-the-hiroshima-
bombing/
Farrell, M. (2017). Fifteen Years of Rebuilding the World Trade Center. Cornell Real Estate
Review, 15(1), 19.
Gmelch, S. B., & Kaul, A. (2018). Tourists and tourism: A reader. New Jersey: Waveland
Press.
Hooper, G., & Lennon, J. J. (2016). Dark tourism: Practice and interpretation. London:
Routledge.
Jackson, J. (2015). Dark Tourism: Is There a Bright Side?. Journal of Research and
Pedagogy, (1), 65-71.
Kreiner, N. (2016). Dark tourism as/is pilgrimage. Current Issues in Tourism, 19(12), 1185-
1189.
Milton, S. (2018). In fitting memory: The art and politics of Holocaust memorials. Wayne:
Wayne State University Press.
Pabel, A., & Pearce, P. L. (2018). Selecting humour in tourism settings–A guide for tourism
operators. Tourism Management Perspectives, 25, 64-70.

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Pieper, K. J., Tang, M., & Edwards, M. A. (2017). Flint water crisis caused by interrupted
corrosion control: Investigating “ground zero” home. Environmental Science &
Technology, 51(4), 2007-2014.
Pratt, S., & Harrison, D. (2015). Tourism in Pacific Islands: current issues and future
challenges. London: Routledge.
Sagalyn, L. B. (2016). Power at Ground Zero: Politics, Money, and the Remaking of Lower
Manhattan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sharpley, R. (2018). Dark Tourism, Society, and Culture. The Palgrave Handbook of Dark
Tourism Studies, 257.
Smith, V. L., & Font, X. (2015). Marketing and communication of responsibility in volunteer
tourism. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, 7(2), 159-180.
The Telegraph. (2018). Ground Zero Mosque Plan Anger New York. Retrieved from:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/7731852/Ground-
Zero-mosque-plan-angers-New-Yorkers.html
Wu, C., Funck, C., & Hayashi, Y. (2014). The impact of host community on destination (re)
branding: A case study of Hiroshima. International Journal of Tourism
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