Drebes, Alina (2023) The influence of dark tourism activities on the visitor perception of Edinburgh. Master thesis, Cultural Geography - Tourism Geography and Planning (TGP).
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Abstract
During the 20th century, dark tourism received increasing attention as rising numbers of dark tourism sites are realised worldwide. It is the fascination with death and disaster that drives tourists to such destinations. Although participating in dark tourism practices is becoming more popular it is seldomly the main focus of destination management organisations to further market this type of tourism in their products. To gain a better understanding of the impact dark tourism has on the destination image, this research paper focuses on the way participating in dark tourism practices influences the visitor perception of Edinburgh. As Edinburgh’s character is largely shaped by mystic tales and numerous ghost tours focus on telling those stories, the city provides a good basis for this research. To gain a better insight into the phenomenon, secondary research evaluating existing themes focusing on dark tourism practices and destination image formations has been conducted. The literature review forms the basis for the conceptual model which is combining dark tourism aspects with the cognitive-affective-conative destination image formation model. Since the destination image is largely based on individual experiences, a qualitative research approach in the form of interviews was applied. The results of this show that increasing usage of social media is one of the most influential aspects forming the cognitive image. Further, individuals’ interest in experiencing the paranormal is one of the main motivations to join a ghost tour in Edinburgh. Lastly, although emotions experienced during the tours often had negative connotations, the overall affective image after participating in ghost tours was seen to be shaped by positive experiences. This shows that, overall, the visitors’ perception of Edinburgh was positively influenced by dark tourism practices as the stories provided more meaning to the city and different sites located within. To gain more insights into this phenomenon, further research should focus on tours with a higher number of fright factors. Additionally, also the role of gender in dark tourism experiences should be researched in more depth.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Name supervisor: | Muldoon, M.L. |
| Date Deposited: | 12 Sep 2023 10:37 |
| Last Modified: | 12 Sep 2023 10:37 |
| URI: | https://campus-fryslan.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/310 |
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