The potential of dark tourism in the Maltese islands : taking the catacombs as a case study

Abstract

The economy of the Maltese Islands is highly dependent upon tourism and, in recent years, there has been a dire need to diversify the Maltese product away from the ‘sun and sea’ niche which is so often associated with these islands. This research considers whether Dark Tourism has a future as a tourism niche within the Maltese Islands. Dark Tourism is tourism related to death, the macabre and disasters that are associated with a particular place. While this type of tourism has been recorded in the past, in terms of research, it is a relatively recent field of study and this may account for the fact that the term Dark Tourism is not familiar to the general public. The catacombs are highly significant to the history of the Maltese Islands. They provide evidence of the Roman period, and the first evidence of Christianity on the islands. They indicate that different funerary processes were used in the past. This study uses the catacombs as the basis on which to measure the potential future success of Dark tourism within the Maltese Islands. This main outcome of this study was how Dark Tourism is still an unknown phenomenon to the majority of people, and effectively resulting in people participating in Dark Tourism and not realising it. It was also determined that the renovation of St Paul was well received by the general public, whilst there are certain improvements that could be made.