Dark tourism: Research on traveling to the sites of tragedies

The term dark tourism, as well as the related terms thanatourism and dissonant heritage, emerged among Western European scholars in 1996, when a wider discussion about traveling to places of tragedies was sparked. That discussion has since evolved significantly. The objectives of the study were, first, to define dark tourism and, second, to present various typologies. Currently, there are many research topics that are quite critical of the previous debate. In contrast, the topic of dark tourism still remains marginal in the Czech and Slovak context. The aim of the article is to compare global and Czecho-Slovak discussions on dark tourism; Czech and Slovak studies are often overly descriptive and lack theoretical ambition. The secondary goal is to stimulate discourse in the local context, which can enrich the global discussion with the perspective of the global East or can shift the focus to topics possibly important in the future – for example, a greater focus on visitors and specific visitor groups.