Thanatological Perspective on Motivational

Determinants of Dark Travellers:

A Case study of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant,

Japan

Aleksandr Gorbenko

Higher Diploma in International Hotel and Tourism Management

HTMi Switzerland

Introduction

Background Information

The second nuclear disaster that humanity has encountered after Chernobyl in

1986 took place in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, Japan in March 2011.

Just two years later the initiative of making it a tourism destination was set in

motion to attract dark tourists. Whereas, guided tours of The Chernobyl Nuclear

Plant became available only two years ago, twenty-five years after the disaster

(Johanson, 2013). The history of this kind of touristic praxis is extensive and

dark tourism is not a new phenomenon existing before the term “dark tourism”

came into use (Gorbenko, 2010). It is suggested that one of earliest examples of

dark tourism were Roman Gladiator battles in Coliseum, where people were

witnessing fights to death (Stone, 2006). The first recorded mass tourism

activity, which took place in Great Britain in 1841, included dark tourism sites

like war battlefields and a public execution of two people by hanging (Page and

Connel, 2009). It is clear that cases of dark tourism have been a great part of

human existence since the dawn of the very civilisation, although the

phenomenon of dark tourism was recognised merely 20 years ago. It is noted

that news media raised the subject of dark tourism. At the same time, academic

society took the course to attempt to research and define dark tourism practise

(Phelan, 2009). There are numerous authors who recognise that the amount of

research done in studying the motivation of dark travellers is low. Causevic

(2008) states that there is no generalised study approach to the phenomenon of

dark tourism and there is a lack of all-encompassing methods to commence the

research. The academic literature on dark tourism is too general and there is no

sufficient research on the topic (Sharpley and Stone, 2009).

Although, there are few approaches to the motivation of dark tourists and all are

using different bases. Seaton (1996, cited Yuill, 2008) suggest a behavioural

approach, emphasising the motives of the traveller. Lennon and Foley (2000)

state that media is the biggest contributor to motivation arousal. The author of

the current paper has a deep interest in psychology and is fascinated more by the

subtle layers of human nature. As such, the topic of dark tourism motivation

presents a good opportunity to discover inner drives of people who are

interested in visiting sites of tragedy, death and the macabre. Recently the same

event occurred in Fukushima, Japan. The host community of Fukushima Daiichi

Nuclear Plant can benefit from the current research by understanding the dark

tourist motivation to their particular site and use it to market destination,

essentially contributing to the local economy, on the other hand – understanding

motivation may raise the awareness of local dwellers and create tolerant attitude

towards dark travellers.

“Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.” 

William Shakespeare, Macbeth.

Definitions of Dark Tourism

Tourists who are actively going to the places of disaster, death and depravity

have drawn academic attention (Phelan, 2009). “Dark tourism” or its academic

brother “thanatourism” was introduced as commodified death or disaster site

presented and consumed by the visitors (Foley and Lennon, 1996, cited Causevic,

2008). Tarlow (2005, cited Causevic, 2008) defines dark tourism as travelling to

sites of historical and notable deaths, which still affect our lives.

This argument of added chronological distance suggests that dark tourism is

closely connected to the past of each dark tourism destination, as the event

should take place within the lifetime of a visitor in order to validate it. Stone

(2009, cited Taillon, 2009, p. 6) describes dark tourism as: “The act of touristic

travel to sites of death, disaster and the macabre”. Rojek (1993, cited Yuill, 2003,

p. 12) introduces a new term referring to dark tourism – “Black Spots”, defined

as “…commercial developments of grave sites and sites in which celebrities or

large numbers of peoples have met with sudden and violent deaths”.

Motivational Theories and Models

Academic attention was devoted to the phenomenon of dark tourism, in order to

understand the origin of this specific type of postmodern tourism practise.

Different motivational theories were produced in an attempt to explain dark

tourist motivation. Stone’s (2006, cited Causevic, 2008) elaborates that dark

tourism that it depends on the strength of the interest and the authentic

intention to travel to visit the site. His justification is based on the research of

Miles (2002), which present the difference between the dark tourism sites

associated with death and the ones, which are considered to be genuine dark

tourism sites. That is sites that are “darker” than sites which are just the

associated with death. Controversially, Lennon and Foley (2000, p. 23) say about

dark tourists: “It is those who visit due to serendipity, the itinerary of tourism

companies or the merely curious who happen to be in the vicinity who are, for

us, the basis of dark tourism”.

However, they state that visitors may have been influenced by the media images

and wished to see for themselves what reality lay behind the media images,

and/or to experience personally the inhumanity associated with the destination.

Thanatourism Continuum

Seaton (1996, cited Yuill, 2008) states that motivation is more defined by visitors

own motives, rather than by the parameters of the attraction and individual

motivation can play a major role in decision-making. Although, it is said by Stone

and Sharpley (2008, p. 574): “thanatourism is dependent upon the differing

motives for visiting a site and the extent to which the interest in death is general

or person-specific”. It is important to determine whether it is a single motivation

or many and to discover to what extent interest in death is current in both:

focusing on the individual person or on the scale of death. Consequently, Seaton

(1996, cited Tonner, 2008) develops a Thanatourism Continuum, which is

presented below:

Figure 1. Seaton’s Thanatourism Continuum (1996, cited Taillon, 2009)

Seaton (1996, cited Tonner, 2008) clarifies the inner difficulty of determining

and identifying dark tourist motivation as death is the subject of fascination,

although those interests are not announced openly as they are contrasting with

morality of 20th century, hence these motivations are presented as interests in

heritage and history. Nonetheless, Seaton (1996, cited Best, 2007) identified and

formulised five basic motivational factors, which influence tourists to visit a dark

attraction:

Travel to contemplate and experience the enactments of death and

tragedy, that is executions and public hanging;

Travel to sites where individual, mass death, or the macabre has

occurred, that is Battle of Waterloo, Auschwitz;

Visiting the sites of memorialisation or imprisonment, that is memorials,

graveyards or tombs;

Travel to sites, that have the evidence or relics and symbols of particular

macabre or tragedy that happened there, but not necessary linked

directly to the disaster itself, that is war museums;

Travel to take part in or watch re-enactments that are linked to death.

The Media as a Mediator for Visitation to Dark Tourism Sites

Yuill (2003) creates an adapted push and pull model applied to dark tourism.

The model offered is depicted below:

Figure 2. Yuill’s (2003) The Media as a Mediator for Visitation to Dark Tourism Sites

It is stated that the news media is able to deliver information, consequently

attracting visitors to dark destinations. It is conceptually described as: “By

placing such events and destinations in the forefront of communications, visitors

are made aware of these kinds of travel options. Whether they are pushed

because of heritage, history, guilt, curiosity, death, dying or nostalgia will vary

with each individual tourist; however, the media offers the information to satisfy

these factors. In other words, it acts as a mediator between push factors, visitors

and the destinations” (Yuill, 2003, p. 131). Taillon (2009) evaluates Yuill’s (2003)

theory and argues that motivational factors that were identified by Yuill actually

differ, from ones presented by Seaton (1996, cited Tonner, 2008). Taillon lists

three categories of motivation: visiting for education and remembrance; visiting

to understand national identity; visiting to instil ethics and values. He compares

both theories and says that they have opposite points of view, while Seaton

identified pull factors; Yuill (2003) did depict push factors.

Taillon (2009) suggests that the combination of findings, presented in those two

endeavours will bring us closer to understanding tourist motivation.

Review of Existing Empirical Research in Dark Tourism

Dark Tourist Motivation for Visiting War Battlefields

Battlefield tourism has been identified as rapidly growing sector within the

thanatourism typology framework, which led to growing interest from the

academic perspective. Sites of First World War and Second World War were

examined. It is suggested that there are numerous reasons why there is such

large numbers of multi-cultural travellers visit battlefield every year (Dunkley,

Morgan and Westwood, 2010). Some go for reasons linked to entertainment,

while others wish to enricher their cultural education. Kugelmass (1996, cited

Dunkley, Morgan and Westwood, 2010) wrote that Jews have a distinctive

commitment to memory as they are travelling massively more as the pilgrims,

than just the tourists to the battlefields scattered across Eastern Europe. They

come to contemplate the past and pay respect for fallen relatives, to restore

cultural memory and to heal. In case of Northern France the scope of tourists is

ranging from enthusiasts interested in military, historians, teachers, or people

just who preferred a different type of holiday. Now there are more children

coming from UK as a part of their education in schools. It has been agreed that

two factors are playing a major role in motivation to visit battlefields, those are: a

wish for learning and remembrance or commemoration.

There is a British battlefield tour organised around the territories of Somme and

Ypres, and the author of the research commenced 14 in-depth interviews with

people who happened to be on the same tour. Some had come there to find a

long-time lost ancestry and they found his name mentioned on one of the sites.

There was a first-time battlefield tourist, who wanted to see the reality, which he

has read about in books and seen on television, it was the validation that moved

him towards here and made him comprehend the scale and magnitude of the

tragedy where millions of people were wiped out. Validation desire is the motive

that can be found majorly across the religious pilgrims (Dunkley, Morgan and

Westwood, 2010).

Dark Tourist Motivation for Visiting Places Related to Holocaust

This case identified some aspects of motivation that do not correlate with

previously recognised theories of dark tourism motivation. Even though

Weterbork camp is considered to be a dark attraction, none of the participants of

the survey showed any “dark” motivations. The results suggested that interest in

death is not sufficient reason to travel to dark attraction. Motives involved are

beyond of simple enthrallment with death and atrocity. Many tourists took a trip

to Westerbrok as a stop by visit because they have been involved in the leisure

holiday nearby. It is described as derived demand – visitation to the site not as a

part of pre-planned travel, but as a choice between different destination

possibilities. Consequently, tourists visiting dark sites are not necessary dark

tourists. Another motive described as “a thing to do” comes from curiosity of

people who are interested in Westerbrok as a part of their interest in Holocaust.

Others come for validation, to acknowledge the past tragedies and to be certain,

that such events won’t occur in future (Isaac and Carmak, 2013). Biran, Poria and

Oren (2011); Mowatt and Chancellor (2011) categorised “ordinary” visitor to the

dark site, who has no emotional attachment to the site and who perceives visit as

a leisure activity and the second type of visitor for whom the dark site holds a

deeper meaning and has a personal attachment, and which is not regarded as

leisure, but as learning and education. Isaac and Carmak (2013, p. 12) support

this view by saying: “Visitors wanted to learn about and feel empathy with the

victims and did not go to these sites for sensation-seeking purposes”.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The phenomenon of dark tourism exists in our modern society, though not

everybody agrees that it is ethical, and some motives are not admitted as they

might be interpreted as anti-moral. Furthermore, it is clear that analysis of the

motivation of dark travellers has been academically approached from various

points and many authors agree on fundamental motives such as validation,

remembrance, personal attachment, education and curiosity. Nonetheless, some

researchers have a different point of view. Although, a number of authors have

made a significant contribution to the research of motivation socio-cultural

factors have been neglected, and that needs to be addressed. It is still claimed

that the existing literature on the topic is vague, and lacks evidence (Sharpley

and Stone, 2009). Hence more research is needed.

As there are certain gaps identified within the existing literature on the subject of

dark tourism motivation, such as socio-cultural factors and whether visitors to

dark attraction are dark tourists, though not all of them might be moved by dark

motivations. Research should elucidate those issues academically and identify

their impacts on the motivation formation. If contemporary theories (Dunkley,

Morgan and Westwood, 2010; Biran, Poria and Oren, 2011; Isaac and Carmak,

2013, 12; Podoshen, 2013) are putting in doubt those of past (Seaton, 1996;

Lennon and Foley, 2000), the latter ones should be revised to determine whether

they are still applicable to tourism to nuclear disasters.

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