The term was coined in 1996 by Glasgow Caledonian University Professors John Lennon and Malcolm Foley to describe the trend of tourists flocking to sites associated with death, disaster and depravity. In a paper published in the International Journal Of Heritage that year, they noted that the number of dark tourists was growing exponentially.Today, dark tourism is thriving, according to an article in the latest edition of Lonely Planet’s Bluelist 2007. Across the globe, a cottage industry of tour operators has sprouted to take travellers on guided trips to graveyards, torture chambers, battlefields and sites of gruesome crimes. But don’t feel bad about visiting these ‘dark’ places as many are deemed innocent, harmless and educational.
Source: The growth of Dark Tourism – graves, disasters, wars