Dark Tourism : the motivation to travel to dark touristic places : Maltese travelling to Auschwitz and the Anne Frank House as a case study

Abstract

The act of travelling is a natural interest for the majority of the people. Humanity has been exploring different forms of travel and identifying different interests to fulfil this need. Through this, different niches were created; one of which includes Dark Tourism. Dark Tourism represents the tourists who visit places associated with death, suffering and disaster. Since it is such a broad phenomenon, this study focuses mainly on the motivation to travel to dark tourist attractions. The research focuses in particular on Maltese tourists who visit Auschwitz and the Anne Frank House Museum, and their reasons for visiting these places. Firstly, this study will identify the seminal work and main theories of Dark Tourism. The research will then explain in detail the process that took place to collect the data for the study. The results obtained from this research were collected through qualitative face-to-face interviews and quantitative online questionnaires. The outcome of the primary research gathered indicated that most of the Maltese are still not aware of this dark tourism niche and thus the main motivations that lead them to choose to travel to such sites are mainly due to history and curiosity.