Dark Tourism in the Digital Age: How Social Media Shapes Visitor Motivations and Emotional Responses at Tragedy-Associated Sites in India

The paper elaborates on and illustrates a combined concept of the digitally mediated dark-tourism experience in India. This is a conceptual and methodological study; all numerical results presented are synthetic demonstrations and do not represent empirical observations. It focuses on how postings, videos, and reviews on social media influence a desire to visit tragedy-related heritage places, how authenticity and empathy feelings are molded by perceived authenticity, and how perceived meaningful satisfaction leads to respectful destination promotion. A mixed-method exploratory design following the sequence is suggested. Phase 1 is a qualitative and thematic analysis of sentiment analysis and AI-assisted mood or emotion classification of some 1500–2000 visit posts by people in Jallianwala Bagh, Cellular Jail, the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Memorial, Kargil War Memorial, the Partition Museum, and similar Indian locations. The proposed sample population of 600–800 adults who have visited any of their eligible sites in the last 12 months is employed in Phase 2, wherein a privacy-minimizing visitor questionnaire and partial least squares structural equation modeling are used. The article provides an ethics-ready tool, which does not ask people to identify themselves, share their contact information, account numbers, specific addresses, and locations, or provide photos and close relationships with victims. Two distinct sets of content records and visitor records (of anonymous visitors, 1800 coded and 720 anonymous records, respectively) are provided, marked with labels, to demonstrate the desired format of analysis and reporting. The synthetic findings illustrate how the proposed relationships could be examined using empirical data. The research will add a Dark Tourism Emotional Response Model to India and provide pragmatic advice on how to communicate respectfully online, interpret, prepare visitors, and provide advocacy for the memorial sites. Artificial findings are demonstrations, methodologically, and should not be perceived as fieldwork.