Potential and Challenges of Dark tourism in Bangladesh
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
The main aim of this study is to find out the potential and challenges of Dark Tourism in Bangladesh. The study is a qualitative study. KIIs (Key Informant Interviews) method is best suited for this qualitative study as this study has tried to find out individual perception as well as opportunity, potential and challenges to flourish dark tourism in Bangladesh. Primary and secondary both sources of data have been used to conduct this study. The primary data of this study has been collected through an in-depth one to one personal as well as online interview by a structured questionnaire. The key respondents of this study are tourism stakeholders such as government officials (employee of Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation and employee of Bangladesh Tourism Board) as well as academicians and tourists who have visited any dark tourism destinations in Bangladesh. The study results reveal that Bangladesh has huge potential to bloom dark tourism as it is enriched with dark tourism resources. In spite of various challenges to develop dark tourism such as insufficient government support, inadequate allocation for tourism in the national budget, less attention of authority to dark Tourism destinations, lack of proper management, insufficient infrastructural facilities, lack of professionalism etc., some potential measures for overcoming challenges and promoting dark tourism have also been outlined in this study. This study will provide understandings to those who are tourism stakeholders in Bangladesh such as Bangladesh Tourism Board (BTB), Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC), Ministry of Civil, Aviation and Tourism as well as private tourism stakeholders who are focused on new form of tourism to attract tourist and people who are interested to know details of dark tourism in Bangladesh. This study will also help to create awareness and take effective steps to develop dark tourism in Bangladesh.
Downloads
Article Details
Section
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
License and Copyright Policy for Bangladesh Journal of MIS (BJMIS)
Articles published in the Bangladesh Journal of MIS from Volume 10, Issue 1 (June 2024) onward are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0), except for material explicitly identified as subject to different terms.
Articles published before June 2024 remain subject to their original copyright notices and applicable reuse terms. Free access to an earlier article does not, by itself, grant an open license.
Permitted Use and Attribution
CC BY-NC 4.0 permits users to copy, distribute, and adapt licensed material for noncommercial purposes, provided that they:
-
Give appropriate credit to the author(s) and acknowledge the original publication in Bangladesh Journal of MIS.
-
Provide a link to the license and indicate whether changes were made.
-
Avoid implying endorsement by the author(s) or the journal.
-
Do not impose additional legal or technological restrictions that prevent others from exercising the rights granted by the license.
Commercial reuse requires permission from the relevant copyright holder unless otherwise permitted by law.
Author Rights
For articles published from June 2024 onward:
-
Authors retain copyright in their work.
-
Authors grant BJMIS the right to publish their articles under CC BY-NC 4.0 through the applicable publication agreement.
-
Authors may deposit and share the published version in institutional or subject repositories, on personal websites, or through other platforms without an embargo, in accordance with the license and with appropriate attribution.
Copyright ownership and sharing rights for earlier articles are governed by their original publication agreements and applicable notices.
Third-Party Material and License Scope
Third-party material, including images, tables, and datasets, in articles covered by this policy is included under the article’s CC BY-NC 4.0 license unless a credit line states otherwise.
For material excluded from the license, users must obtain permission from the relevant copyright holder where their intended reuse is not permitted by law. Authors must ensure that material included under the article’s license may lawfully be licensed on those terms.
The article license does not automatically apply to website design or other website material.
How to Attribute
For articles covered by CC BY-NC 4.0, the following attribution format may be used:
Author(s), “Article Title,” Bangladesh Journal of MIS, [Volume, Issue, Year], [DOI or article URL], licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. [Indicate changes, if any.]
Include a link to the license.
Further Information
The full license terms are available on the Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 license page.
How to Cite
References
Apostolakis, A. (2003). The convergence process in heritage tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 30(4), 795–812. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0160-7383(03)00057-4
Ashworth, G. (1996). Holocaust tourism and Jewish culture: The lessons of Krakow-Kazimierz. In M. Robinson, N. Evans, & P. Callaghan (Eds.), Tourism and cultural change (pp. 1–12). Business Education Publishers.
Ashworth, G. J. (1998). Heritage, tourism and cities: A review of where we are. In G. Wall (Ed.), Contemporary issues in heritage and environmental interpretation (pp. 112–132). The Stationary Office.
Ashworth, G. J. (2004). Tourism and the heritage of atrocity: Managing the heritage of South African apartheid for entertainment. In T. V. Singh (Ed.), New horizons in tourism: Strange experiences and stranger practices, 95–108. CAB International. https://doi.org/10.1079/9780851998633.0095
Ashworth, G. J. (2008). The memorialisation of violence and tragedy: Human trauma as heritage. In B. Graham & P. Howard (Eds.), The Ashgate companion to heritage and identity (pp. 231–244). Ashgate.
Ashworth, G., & Hartmann, R. (2005). Horror and human tragedy revisited: The management of sites of atrocities for tourism. Cognizant.
Avital, B., Yaniv, P., & Gila, O. (2011). Sought experiences at (dark) heritage sites. Annals of Tourism Research, 38(3), 820–841. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2010.12.001
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101.
Beech, J. (2000). The enigma of Holocaust sites as tourist attractions—The case of Buchenwald. Managing Leisure, 5, 29–41.https://doi.org/10.1080/136067100375722
Beech, J. (2009). Genocide tourism. In R. Sharpley & P. Stone (Eds.), The darker side of travel: The theory and practice of dark tourism (pp. 207–223). Channel View Publications.
Beech, J. G. (2001). The marketing of slavery heritage in the United Kingdom. International Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Administration, 2(3/4), 85–106. https://doi.org/10.1300/J149v02n03_04
Blom, T. (2000). Morbid tourism: A postmodern market niche with an example from Althorpe. Norwegian Journal of Geography, 54, 29–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/002919500423564
Bowman, M. S., & Pezzullo, P. C. (2009). What’s so ‘dark’ about ‘dark tourism’?: Death, tours, and performance. Tourist Studies, 9(3), 187–202. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468797610382699
Braithwaite, R., & Leiper, N. (2010). Contests on the River Kwai: How a wartime tragedy became a recreation, commercial and nationalistic plaything. Current Issues in Tourism, 13(4), 311–332. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500903249312
Çakar, K. (2018). Experiences of visitors to Gallipoli, a nostalgia-themed dark tourism destination: An insight from TripAdvisor. International Journal of Tourism Cities, 4(1), 98–109. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJTC-03-2017-0018
Chang, L. H. (2017). Tourists’ perception of dark tourism and its impact on their emotional experience and geopolitical knowledge: A comparative study of local and non-local tourist. Journal of Tourism Research & Hospitality, 6(3), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.4172/2324-8807.1000169
Chittagong War Cemetery—Banglapedia. (n.d.). Banglapedia. Retrieved March 3, 2025, from https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Chittagong_War_Cemetery
Clark, L. B. (2014). Ethical spaces: Ethics and propriety in trauma tourism. In B. Sion (Ed.), Death tourism: Disaster sites as recreational landscape (pp. 9–35). Seagull. 10.22364/fg.18.8
Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2018). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches (4th ed.). SAGE Publications.
Dale, C., & Robinson, N. (2011). Dark tourism. In P. Robinson, S. Heitmann, & P. U. C. Dieke (Eds.), Research themes for tourism (pp. 205–217). CABI. https://doi.org/10.1079/9781845936846.0205
Dann, G. (1998). The dark side of tourism. (Etudes et Rapports, Série L). Centre International de Recherches et d’Etudes Touristiques.
Dann, G. M., & Seaton, A. V. (2001). Slavery, contested heritage and than tourism. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 2(3), 1–31.
Deb, S. K., Kuri, B. C., & Nafi, S. M. (2024). Application of knowledge management in tourism and hospitality industry: A sustainable approach. In Knowledge management and knowledge sharing: Business strategies and an emerging theoretical field (pp. 99–116). Springer Nature Switzerland.
Deb, S. K., & Nafi, S. M. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on tourism: Recovery proposal for future tourism. Geojournal of Tourism and Geosites, 33(4), 1486–1492. DOI 10.30892/gtg.334spl06-597
Deutsch, B. (2014). Tourists’ motivations for engaging in Dark Tourism Case Study of Apartheid memorials in South Africa. [Master’s thesis, Karlstad University].
Dunkley, R. A., Morgan, N., & Westwood, S. (2007). A shot in the dark? Developing a new conceptual framework for thanatourism. Asian Journal of Tourism and Hospitality, 1(1), 54–63.
Durkin, K. (2003). Death, dying and the dead in popular culture. In C. D. Bryant (Ed.), The handbook of death and dying (pp. 43–49). Sage. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412914291.n5
Edensor, T. (2013). Reconnecting with darkness: Gloomy landscapes, lightless places. Social and Cultural Geography, 14(4), 446–465. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2013.790992
Foley, M., & Lennon, J. J. (1996). JFK and dark tourism: A fascination with assassination. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2(4), 198–211. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527259608722175
Foley, M., & Lennon, J. (1995). JFK and cultural tourism. Paper presented at the First Annual Conference for Popular Culture, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester.
Foley, M., & Lennon, J. J. (1997). Dark tourism: An ethical dilemma. In M. Foley, J. J. Lennon, & G. A. Maxwell (Eds.), Hospitality, tourism and leisure management: Issues in strategy and culture (pp. 153–164). Cassell.
Frew, E. A. (2012). Interpretation of sensitive heritage site: The Port Arthur Memorial, Tasmania. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 18(1), 33–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2011.603908
Garcia, B. R. (2012). Management issues in dark tourism attractions: The case of ghost tours in Edinburgh and Toledo. Journal of Unconventional Parks, Tourism and Recreation Research, 4(1), 14–19.
Gaya, E. (2013). Understanding motivation of visitors at dark tourism sites: Case study of August 7th Memorial Park, Kenya. [Thesis, HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Science]. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/38095097.pdf
Gillen, J. (2018). It begins with the bombs: Operationalizing violence at a Vietnamese dark tourism site. Cultural Geographies, 26(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474474018762810
Gould, M. R. (2014). Return to Alcatraz: Dark tourism and the representation of prison history. In B. Sion (Ed.), Death tourism: Disaster sites as recreational landscape (pp. 267–288). Seagull.
Guest, G., Bunce, A., & Johnson, L. (2006). How many interviews are enough? An experiment with data saturation and variability. Field methods, 18(1), 59-82.
Hammerberg, K., Kirkman, M., & De Lacey, S. (2016). Qualitative research methods: When to use them and how to judge them. Human Reproduction, 31(3), 498–501. https://doi.org/10.1093/humrep/dev334
Isaac, R. K., & Çakmak, E. (2014). Understanding visitor’s motivation at sites of death and disaster: The case of former transit camp Westerbork, the Netherlands. Current Issues in Tourism, 17(2), 164–179. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2013.776021
Isaac, R. K., Nawijn, J., van Liempt, A., & Gridnevskiy, K. (2017). Understanding Dutch visitors’ motivations to concentration camp memorials. Current Issues in Tourism, 21(1), 1–16.
Isaacs, A. (2014). An overview of qualitative research methodology for public health researchers. International Journal of Medicine and Public Health, 4(4), 318. https://doi.org/10.4103/2230-8598.144055
Koslofsky, C. (2011). Evening’s empire: A history of night in early modern Europe. Cambridge University Press.
Lennon, J., & Foley, M. (2000). Dark tourism: The attraction of death and disaster. Cengage Learning EMEA.
Lennon, J., & Foley, M. (2009). Dark tourism. South Western Cengage Learning.
Lennon, J. J., & Foley, M. (1999). Interpretation of the unimaginable: The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., and “dark tourism.” Journal of Travel Research, 38(1), 46–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/004728759903800110
Lennon, J. J., & Mitchell, M. (2007). Dark tourism: The role of sites of death in tourism. In M. Mitchell (Ed.), Remember me: Constructing immortality: Beliefs on immortality, life and death (pp. 167–178). Routledge.
Liberation War Museum - Wikipedia. (2025). Wikipedia. Retrieved February 25, 2025, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_War_Museum
Light, D. (2017). Progress in dark tourism and thanatourism research: An uneasy relationship with heritage tourism. Tourism Management, 61, 275–301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2017.01.011
Maynamati War Cemetery. (2025). Offroad Bangladesh. Retrieved February 27, 2025, from http://offroadbangladesh.com/places/maynamati-war-cemetery/
Miles, S. T. (2012). Battlefield tourism: Meanings and interpretations. [Doctoral dissertation, University of Glasgow]. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3547/1/2012milesphd22.pdf
Muzaini, H., Teo, P., & Yeoh, B. S. A. (2007). Intimations of postmodernity in dark tourism: The fate of history at Fort Siloso, Singapore. Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, 5(1), 28–45.
Mymensingh, Madaripur freed today. (2022, June 6). The Observer. https://www.observerbd.com/news.php?id=288674
Nawijn, J., Isaac, R. K., van Liempt, A., & Gridnevskiy, K. (2016). Emotion clusters for concentration camp memorials. Annals of Tourism Research, 61, 244–247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2016.09.005
Nhlabathi, S. (2017). Motivations to engage in dark tourism: The case of selected sites in South Africa. [Master’s thesis, University of KwaZulu-Natal].
Ntunda, J. (2014). Investigating the challenges of promoting dark tourism in Rwanda. Anchor Academic Publishing.
Orabi, M., Mouheb, D., Al Aghbari, Z., & Kamel, I. (2020). Detection of bots in social media: A systematic review. Information Processing & Management, 57(4), 102250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2020.102250
Pawar, N. (2020). Type of research and type research design. Social Research Methodology, 8(1), 46–57.
Pelton, R. (2003). The world’s most dangerous places (5th ed.). Harper Resource.
Pezzullo, P. C. (2009). Tourists and as disasters: Rebuilding, remembering, and responsibility in New Orleans. Tourist Studies, 9(1), 23–41. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468797609360591
Podoshen, J. S. (2013). Dark tourism motivations: Simulation, emotional contagion and topographic comparison. Tourism Management, 35, 263–271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2012.08.002
Robb, E. (2009). Violence and recreation: Vacationing in the realm of dark tourism. Anthropology and Humanism, 34(1), 51–60. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1409.2009.01023.x
Robinson, P., Heitmann, S., & Dieke, P. (Eds.). (2011). Research themes for tourism. CABI. https://doi.org/10.1079/9781845936846.0000
Sather-Wagstaff, J. (2011). Heritage that hurts: Tourists in the memoryscapes of September 11. Left Coast Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315427539
Seaton, A. V. (1996). From thanatopsis to thanatourism: Guided by the dark. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2(4), 234–244.
Seaton, A. V. (1999). War and thanatourism: Waterloo 1815–1914. Annals of Tourism Research, 26(1), 130–159. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0160-7383(98)00057-7
Seaton, A. V. (2002). Thanatourism’s final frontiers? Visits to cemeteries, churchyards and funerary sites as sacred and secular pilgrimage. Tourism Recreation Research, 27(2), 73–82. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2002.11081223
Seaton, A. V. (2009). Thanatourism and its discontents: An appraisal of a decade's work with some future issues and directions. In T. Jamal & M. Robinson (Eds.), The Sage handbook of tourism studies (pp. 521–542). Sage.
Seaton, T. (2009). Purposeful otherness: Approaches to the management of thanatourism. In R. Sharpley & P. R. Stone (Eds.), The darker side of travel: The theory and practice of dark tourism (pp. 75–108). Channel View.
Seaton, T. (2018). Dark tourism history. In P. Stone, R. Hartmann, A. V. Seaton, R. Sharpley, & L. White (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of dark tourism studies (pp. 1–2). Palgrave Macmillan.
Sharmin, D., & Halim, S. A. (2019). AN APPROACH TO THE FUNCTIONAL INTERPRETATION OF CONTEMPORARY BANGLADESHI MUSEUMS. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (Hum.), 64(1), 1-41
Sharpley, R. (2005). Travels to the edge of darkness: Towards a typology of dark tourism. In C. Ryan, S. Page, & M. Aitken (Eds.), Taking tourism to the limits: Issues, concepts and managerial perspectives (pp. 217–228). Elsevier.
Sharpley, R. (2011). The study of tourism: Past trends and future directions. Routledge.
Sharpley, R., & Stone, P. (2009). The darker side of travel: The theory and practice of dark tourism. Channel View Publications.
Sites, attractions and exhibitions. e-Review of Tourism Research (eRTR), 3(5), 2005. (The full source information for this entry is missing; it appears to be a fragmented journal article title/page range without an author or proper source.)
Smith, V. (1998). War and tourism—An American ethnography. Annals of Tourism Research, 25(1), 202–227. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0160-7383(97)00086-8
Stone, P. (2010). Death, dying and dark tourism in contemporary society: A theoretical and empirical analysis. [Doctoral dissertation, University of Central Lancashire].
Stone, P. (2013). Dark tourism scholarship: A critical review. International Journal of Culture, Tourism, and Hospitality Research, 7(3), 307–318. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCTHR-06-2013-0039
Stone, P. R. (2005). Consuming dark tourism: A call for research. e-Review of Tourism Research (eRTR), 3(5). (Page numbers or a URL are missing for this article.)
Stone, P. R. (2006). A dark tourism spectrum: Towards a typology of death and macabre related tourist sites, attractions and exhibitions. e-Review of Tourism Research (eRTR), 4(2), 145–160.
Stone, P., & Sharpley, R. (2008). Consuming dark tourism: A thanatological perspective. Annals of Tourism Research, 35(2), 574–595. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2008.02.003
Strange, C., & Kempa, M. (2003). Shades of dark tourism—Alcatraz and Robben Island. Annals of Tourism Research, 30(2), 386–405. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0160-7383(02)00102-0
Sy, R. G., Cutiongco, E. M. C., Punzalan, F. E. R., Santos, R. S., Geronimo, F. R. B., & Tangco, R. V. (2007). Human cholestryl ester transfer protein (TaqIB) polymorphism among Filipinos with cardiovascular risk factors. Journal of atherosclerosis and thrombosis, 14(3), 116-121.
Tarlow, P. (2005). Dark tourism: The appealing 'dark' side of tourism and more. In M. Novelli (Ed.), Niche tourism: Contemporary issues, trends and cases (pp. 47–58). Elsevier.
Titta, N. (2010). Motivation factors in dark tourism case: House of Terror. [Thesis, Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences]. Retrieved from https://www.theseus.fi/handle/10024/14984
Winter, C. (2011). First World War cemeteries: Insights from visitor books. Tourism Geographies, 13(3), 462–479. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2011.575075
Zerva, K. (2021). Dark tourism on Netflix: From place to person-dependent. Tourism Management Perspectives, 38, 100823. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2021.100823