Date of Award
2020
Publisher
North Dakota State University
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Awarded
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies
College
Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
Faculty Advisor
Smith, Angela
Description
Dark tourism, a subsection of heritage tourism, is growing in popularity and center around historic sites and museums. Those sites are put in the position to take advantage of the surging popularity of dark tourism by offering programming that complements it. Ghost tours, paranormal investigations, and haunted houses have all been utilized by museums and historic sites to boost revenue and attendance numbers. The implementation of dark programming raises difficult discussions on the role of museums in society and the ethics of profiting off of ghosts, spirits, and the paranormal. The decision to produce dark programming as a complement to dark tourism is best decided on a case to case basis, as no two museums or historic sites are the same. But every site that is considering dark programming needs to weigh their mission, ethics, their stakeholders, and the memory and space of their site before coming to a decision.
Recommended Citation
Johnson, Kaci Lynn, "'They Ain't Afraid of no Ghosts': Dark Tourism at Historic Sites" (2020). History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies. 50.
https://digitalcommons.ndsu.edu/hist-phil-rel-studies/50
Rights
NDSU policy 190.6.2
Author ORCID Identifier
0000-0003-2004-3078
Handle Identifier
https://hdl.handle.net/10365/31796