Dark tourism focuses on 'the very worst we have done.'
LIEPAJA, Latvia — On a spring morning, guards bark orders across the grounds of Karosta Prison in the sleet at a group of young new arrivals.
But what's unusual is that members of this group are paying for this treatment, and will be subjected to a range of similar punishments over the course of the next two hours. The deeply unrelaxing way to spend a vacation known as dark tourism has been turbocharged by the rise of social media platforms, which allow tourists to document every macabre moment.
"Some people come to reminisce, you hear them saying, 'Ah, the good old Soviet Union,'" Meiris says."The students, they’re coming here for some action ... they want thrills. The 40- to 50-year-olds, they want to remember what their youth was like for those who served in the Soviet army. In their minds, it's not about what's good or bad, it was their youth, it's the best time in their lives.
John Lennon, a professor at Glasgow Caledonian University, argues it is often the passing of time that determines when dark tourism transitions into something more palatable. Lennon added:"There has always been an attraction to the darker side of human nature, a fascination with our ability to commit acts of evil. Evil seems to unify all these sites — we are looking at the very worst we have done."Ints Kalnins / Reuters file
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