For me, the best way I could find a reason for the interest in dark tourism is simply the curiosity of the mind. Humans are curious creatures and although some of the places and people that are associated with dark tourism might make our insides churn, there’s just the need to know more that makes us want to continue. Similar to how people (myself included) enjoy listening to true crime podcasts or watching true crime shows. It’s interesting to see these kinds of things knowing how negative they are or knowing that a place you’ve visited was somewhere that many people suffered or lost their lives. Or maybe some people are just twisted and like visiting those kinds of places. Maybe they’re believers in the paranormal going to a place that is supposedly haunted because of some sort of gruesome crime that was committed there years ago. Dark tourism can range from being something that is just sad to something that is seriously messed up and disgusting. It seems to be growing though. I think that it’s largely because of the internet and websites like YouTube that have creators making plenty of content on visiting supposedly haunted places or places where something sinister took place. Their presence becomes more popular whether for the better or worse and it makes people more interested in going, and they visit and tell their friends or make a video and the cycle just keeps on going.

Recently, I started taking an interest in the Maze Runner movies, and as a result I also read the books. After reading them I came to the conclusions that, for me, this is a rare instance of the movies being better than the books. Since I took an interest in it, one of the movie sets that I would like to visit are the titular maze from the first film as well as the city from the third and final movie. Although I really can’t because a majority of it was rendered using cgi, if it was an actual structure I just think it would be cool. RUnning around a giant maze sounds fun, though, I’m sure the characters from the movies would disagree. Along with the maze the so-called “Last City” from the third movie would also be interesting to visit. A city enclosed by walls containing the last few people who are not infected with a virus that makes you go insane. If it were real, then I would like to go too, but much like the actual maze itself, the city is mostly rendered using a computer.

I don’t go on vacation often. The only places I’ve ever really been to outside the US, are Canada and Mexico. But I’ve only been to Canada once, and everytime I go to Mexico, my family and I usually don’t go beyond the capital and the village where my grandparents and cousins live, so I don’t really have the whole tourist experience. I’ve never used a guidebook, but if I ever did go on a more tourist-y vacation I would probably use one. I’m the type of person who doesn’t know where to start when it comes to vacations or trips, I feel that guide books or guid blogs would be a good way to find out historical sites, attractions, and places to eat to make the experience more organized and less frantic. In the end, I just like the organization they provide more. Guide books are good for people like me who prefer organization, aren’t too spontaneous, and don’t know where to begin when it comes to visiting places. Still, I can understand the drawbacks and why some people may not like them. Guidebooks don’t have every single place listed in them, and sometimes they can miss out on certain areas that one would only be able to find out about if they went exploring themselves and stumbled upon a nice place with a scenic view, or a restaurant recommendation from someone else. People who don’t use them are probably more adventurous. Whether you like using guidebooks or don’t, when you’re on vacation you should still try to get the most out of it.

I think that Sex Tourism and prostitution exist in very different ways that makes me feel that sex tourism should be outlawed and prostitution should be legalized to an extent and with regulations. For me, sex tourism is often used as a way for people from wealthy countries to take advantage of women from poorer regions in the world so that they can live out some sort of power fantasy or do something that would otherwise be considered illegal or reported in the country they come from. While both sex tourism and prostitution both involve capitalizing off of vulnerable women in need of money, sex tourism has a higher population of sex trafficked individuals, especially children. While prostitution sometimes has that too, there are women of legal age who do it. If prostitution was more regulated, maybe people wouldn’t be so tempted to go to other countries and take advantage of the people there. By regulations, I mean getting rid of pimps or ringleaders and making sure that underage people aren’t trying to sell themselves as well as providing protection to sex workers. After writing this all out, though, I’m not really sure of either anymore.

Honestly speaking I see it as both, but mostly I see it as being a nuisance. These days, a lot of places have been increasing security levels in response to the large amounts of things like terror attacks that have been happening, especially really popular tourist destinations. I think the threat to security would be bigger in places and countries where security protocol isn’t as rigid as it is here in the United States. Of course, the increased security doesn’t mean that some bad people can’t slip through the cracks, and even if there aren’t bad people who make it through, large crowds pose a danger both to locals and the tourists. But I still think the large groups are more of a nuisance, getting in the way of everyday life, possibly being rude and acting as if they are entitled to everything simply because they are in vacation, as generally just disturbing the flow of traffic, not just road traffic, but public transportation, walking places, or even stores. Overall, for me, it comes down to my lack of patience with people, particularly when there is a large crowd of them.

Of the three case study Chambers has written about so far, the one that interests me the most was the latest one from chapter 3 about the ecotourism in Belize. I find it interesting that people would want to go on vacations or tourist destinations such as this, personally because these kinds of places are ones that I would probably never want to go to. I also feel like I’m pretty judgemental about the kinds of people who would go to places like Belize to engage in ecotourism, to go to and engage in all of the “exotic” activities and trying to immerse themselves in a culture while at the same time not committing to it fully and going back to stay in their fancy hotels at the end of their days. People engage in ecotourism to see various parts of nature while not realizing the effects their tourism and them being there have on the environment in the long run. The case study mentions how the increase tourism has led to the increase of hotels being built along the coastline which has caused for the coastal ecosystem to become damaged. The ones benefiting from ecotourism are often times not even the locals, with most shareholders being foreigners and locals only having low paying jobs within the establishments that the shareholders build. I just thought that of the three case studies so far, this one was the most interesting because of how it shows people being interested in the things a certain destination has to offer while not considering the consequences that their stay causes.

I think that something like a pedal pub might be able to do moderately well in a place like Atlantic city. The city in general, and especially the boardwalk is a very tourist-y are where many people from New Jersey go to party, gamble, and have a good time. Pedal pubs are something of a novelty and its uniqueness would probably draw in the curiosity of many visitors. It is something that looks a bit ridiculous but it’s something you could tell your friends about and there’s alcohol. In a city known for partying and gambling, something like a pedal pub has the potential to thrive.

Personally, I think I learned more from both of them pretty equally. The introduction gives a good overview of what the whole book is about as well as some of the topics that will be discussed within it. It discusses anthropology and how that and tourism go together and how the book makes a distinction between traveling and tourism. The first chapter goes more in depth and into focus about those distinctions. It picks apart how Chamber’s differentiates traveling and actually being a tourist.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

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