Darker Side of Travel

Richard Sharpley is Professor of Tourism and Development at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK. He has previously held positions at a number of other institutions, including the University of Northumbria (Reader in Tourism) and the University of Lincoln, where he was Professor of Tourism and Head of Department, Tourism and Recreation Management. His principal research interests are within the fields of tourism and development, island tourism, rural tourism and the sociology of tourism.Philip R. Stone is a former Management Consultant within the tourism and hospitality sector, and is presently a Senior Lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire, UK. He teaches tourism, hospitality and event management at undergraduate and postgraduate level. He is also Founder and Editor of The Dark Tourism Forum, the premier online dark tourism subject resource facility and global alliance of scholars and industry practitioners (see www.dark-tourism.org.uk ). His primary research interests revolve around dark tourism consumption and its relationship with contemporary society. He has published in a number of international academic journals, presented at a variety of international conferences, as well as acting as Media Consultant on dark tourism to both press and broadcast institutions across the world.

• Contributors1. Shedding Light on Dark Tourism: An Introduction - Richard Sharpley2. Making Absent Death Present: Consuming Dark Tourism in Contemporary Society - Philip R. Stone3. Dark Tourism: Mediating Between the Dead and the Living - Tony Walter4. Dark Tourism: Morality and New Moral Spaces - Philip R. Stone5. Purposeful Otherness: Approaches to the Management of Thanatourism - Tony Seaton6. (Re)presenting the Macabre: Interpretation, Kitschification and Authenticity - Richard Sharpley and Philip R. Stone7. Contested National Tragedies: An Ethical Dimension - Craig Wight8. Dark Tourism and Political Ideology: Towards a Governance Model - Richard Sharpley9. ‘It’s a Bloody Guide’: Fun, Fear and a Lighter Side of Dark Tourism at The Dungeon Visitor Attractions, UK - Philip R. Stone10. Battlefield Tourism: Bringing Organised Violence Back to Life - Frank Baldwin and Richard Sharpley11. ‘Genocide Tourism’ - John Beech12. Museums, Memorials and Plantation Houses in the Black Atlantic: Slavery and the Development of Dark Tourism - Alan RiceLife, Death and Dark Tourism: Future Research Directions and Concluding Comments  - Richard Sharpley and Philip R. StoneReferencesIndex

In this perspective-broadening text, Sharpley and Stone (and their fellow observers of the prominence of sites of death and disaster) shine informed light on the rich but undersuspected connectivities of tourism. The dark and unquenchable business of thanatourism is colourfully and critically painted in arrestive shades of cultural, political, and public significance.