Dark Tourism in the American West

Dark Tourism in the American West PDF Author: Jennifer Dawes
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030211908
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description
This edited collection expands scholarly and popular conversations about dark tourism in the American West. The phenomenon of dark tourism—traveling to sites of death, suffering, and disaster for entertainment or educational purposes—has been described and, on occasion, criticized for transforming misfortune and catastrophe into commodity. The impulse, however, continues, particularly in the American West: a liminal and contested space that resonates with stories of tragedy, violent conflict, and disaster. Contributions here specifically examine the mediation and shaping of these spaces into touristic destinations. The essays examine Western sites of massacre and battle (such as Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site and the “Waco Siege”), sites of imprisonment (such as Japanese-American internment camps and Alcatraz Island), areas devastated by ecological disaster (such as Martin’s Cove and the Salton Sea), and unmediated sites (those sites left to the touristic imagination, with no interpretation of what occurred there, such as the Bennet-Arcane camp).

Dark Tourism in the American West

Dark Tourism in the American West PDF Author: Jennifer Dawes
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030211908
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 214

Get Book

Book Description
This edited collection expands scholarly and popular conversations about dark tourism in the American West. The phenomenon of dark tourism—traveling to sites of death, suffering, and disaster for entertainment or educational purposes—has been described and, on occasion, criticized for transforming misfortune and catastrophe into commodity. The impulse, however, continues, particularly in the American West: a liminal and contested space that resonates with stories of tragedy, violent conflict, and disaster. Contributions here specifically examine the mediation and shaping of these spaces into touristic destinations. The essays examine Western sites of massacre and battle (such as Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site and the “Waco Siege”), sites of imprisonment (such as Japanese-American internment camps and Alcatraz Island), areas devastated by ecological disaster (such as Martin’s Cove and the Salton Sea), and unmediated sites (those sites left to the touristic imagination, with no interpretation of what occurred there, such as the Bennet-Arcane camp).

Reading Aridity in Western American Literature

Reading Aridity in Western American Literature PDF Author: Jada Ach
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1793622027
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
In literary and cinematic representations, deserts often betoken collapse and dystopia. Reading Aridity in Western American Literature offers readings of literature set in the American Southwest from ecocritical and new materialist perspectives. This book explores the diverse epistemologies, histories, relationships, futures, and possibilities that emerge from the representation of American deserts in fiction, film, and literary art, and traces the social, cultural, economic, and biotic narratives that foreground deserts, prompting us to reconsider new, provocative modes of human/nonhuman engagement in arid ecogeographies.

Imagining the American West through Film and Tourism

Imagining the American West through Film and Tourism PDF Author: Warwick Frost
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317665104
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
The West is one of the strongest and most enduring place images in the world and its myth is firmly rooted in popular culture – whether novels, film, television, music, clothing and even video games. The West combines myth and history, rugged natural scenery and wide open spaces, popular culture and promises of transformation. These imagined places draw in tourists, attracted by a cultural heritage that is part fictional and mediatised. In turn, tourism operators and destination marketing organisations refashion what they present to fit these imagined images. This book explores this imagining of a mythic West through three key themes, travel, film and frontiers to offer new insight into how the imagination of the West and popular culture has influenced the construction of tourism. In doing so, it examines the series of paradoxes that underlie the basic appeal of the West: evocative frontier, a boundary zone between civilisation and wilderness and between order and lawlessness. It draws on a range of films and literature as well as varying places from festivals to national parks to showcase different aspects of the nexus between travel, film and frontiers in this fascinating region. Interdisciplinary in character, it includes perspectives from cultural studies, American studies, tourism and film studies. Written by leading academics, this title will be valuable reading for students, researchers and academics in the fields of cultural studies, tourism, film studies and media studies and all those interested in film tourism.

Seeing and Being Seen

Seeing and Being Seen PDF Author: David M. Wrobel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
You can see them cruising for Indian art in Santa Fe, waiting for Old Faithful at Yellowstone, or pausing for shrimp cocktails on San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf. The American West attracts vacationers of every stripe, who comb its varied landscapes for the ultimate trip. And for better or worse, those who come to see this multifaceted region have changed what they have come to see. "Seeing and Being Seen" explores the history of tourism in the American West and examines its effects on both the tourists and the places and people they visit. Scholars from the humanities, social sciences, and business-Patricia Nelson Limerick, Hal Rothman, and others-join government and National Park Service professionals to investigate the dilemmas that tourism poses for western communities, from economic and environmental questions to cultural change. The selections are organized around three broad topics: scholarly perceptions of tourism, tourists, and those toured upon; tourism in its historical context, including an assessment of its cultural impact on communities and on tourists themselves; and the history and impact of tourism on the West's national parks, with particular emphasis on efforts to maintain the delicate balance between natural preservation and public enjoyment. These essays cover the span of tourism history, from early-twentieth-century "See America First" campaigns to the problematic place of automobiles in national parks today. They also pay special attention to policy choices that the growth of tourism sometimes forces on communities, as towns try to bounce back from failed economies by capitalizing on an "Old West" image or even, in the case of Kellogg, Idaho, "Old Bavarian." In response, the authors offer suggestions by which communities can begin to make rational choices about the role and place of tourism in their lives. "Seeing and Being Seen" is enlightening and necessary reading for scholars, policy makers, residents of the West, and even tourists themselves."

Dark Tourism and Place Identity

Dark Tourism and Place Identity PDF Author: Leanne White
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136483128
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
Dark Tourism, including visitation to places such as murder sites, battlefields and cemeteries is a growing phenomenon, as well as an emergent area of scholarly interest. Despite this interest, the intersecting domains of dark tourism and place identity have been largely overlooked in the academic literature and this book aims to fill this void. The three main themes of Visitor Motivation, Destination Management and Place Interpretation are addressed in this book from both a demand and supply perspective by examining a variety of case studies from around the world. This edited volume takes the dark tourism discussion to another level by reinforcing the critical intersecting domains of dark tourism and place identity and, in particular, highlighting the importance of understanding this connection for visitors and destination managers. Written by leading academics in the area, this stimulating volume of 19 chapters will be valuable reading for postgraduate and advanced undergraduate students in a range of discipline areas; researchers and academics interested in dark tourism; and, other interested stakeholders including those in the tourism industry, government bodies and community groups.

The Dark Tourist

The Dark Tourist PDF Author: Dom Joly
Publisher: Robinson
ISBN: 1472146050
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
Ever since he can remember, Dom Joly has been fascinated by travel to odd places. In part this stems from a childhood spent in war-torn Lebanon, where instead of swapping marbles in the schoolyard, he had a shrapnel collection -- the schoolboy currency of Beirut. Dom's upbringing was interspersed with terrifying days and nights spent hunkered in the family basement under Syrian rocket attack or coming across a pile of severed heads from a sectarian execution in the pine forests near his home. These early experiences left Dom with a profound loathing for the sanitized experiences of the modern day travel industry and a taste for the darkest of places. In this brilliantly odd and hilariously told travel memoir, Dom Joly sets out on a quest to visit those destinations from which the average tourist would, and should, run a mile. The more insalubrious the place, the more interesting is the journey and so we follow Dom as he skis in Iran on segregated slopes, spends a weekend in Chernobyl, tours the assassination sites of America and becomes one of the few Westerners to be granted entry into North Korea. Eventually Dom journeys back to his roots in Beirut only to discover he was at school with Osama Bin Laden. Funny and frightening in equal measure, this is a uniquely bizarre and compelling travelogue from one of the most fearless and innovative comedians around.

Dark Tourism and Pilgrimage

Dark Tourism and Pilgrimage PDF Author: Daniel H. Olson
Publisher: CABI
ISBN: 1789241871
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
In recent years there has been a growth in both the practice and research of dark tourism; the phenomenon of visiting sites of tragedy or disaster. Expanding on this trend, this book examines dark tourism through the new lens of pilgrimage. It focuses on dark tourism sites as pilgrimage destinations, dark tourists as pilgrims, and pilgrimage as a form of dark tourism. Taking a broad definition of pilgrimage so as to consider aspects of both religious and non-religious travel that might be considered pilgrimage-like, it covers theories and histories of dark tourism and pilgrimage, pilgrimage to dark tourism sites, and experience design. A key resource for researchers and students of heritage, tourism and pilgrimage, this book will also be of great interest to those studying anthropology, religious studies and related social science subjects.

Devil's Bargains

Devil's Bargains PDF Author: Hal Rothman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
The West is popularly perceived as America's last outpost of unfettered opportunity, but twentieth-century corporate tourism has transformed it into America's "land of opportunism." From Sun Valley to Santa Fe, towns throughout the West have been turned over to outsiders—and not just to those who visit and move on, but to those who stay and control. Although tourism has been a blessing for many, bringing economic and cultural prosperity to communities without obvious means of support or allowing towns on the brink of extinction to renew themselves; the costs on more intangible levels may be said to outweigh the benefits and be a devil's bargain in the making. Hal Rothman examines the effect of twentieth-century tourism on the West and exposes that industry's darker side. He tells how tourism evolved from Grand Canyon rail trips to Sun Valley ski weekends and Disneyland vacations, and how the post-World War II boom in air travel and luxury hotels capitalized on a surge in discretionary income for many Americans, combined with newfound leisure time. From major destinations like Las Vegas to revitalized towns like Aspen and Moab, Rothman reveals how the introduction of tourism into a community may seem innocuous, but residents gradually realize, as they seek to preserve the authenticity of their communities, that decision-making power has subtly shifted from the community itself to the newly arrived corporate financiers. And because tourism often results in a redistribution of wealth and power to "outsiders," observes Rothman, it represents a new form of colonialism for the region. By depicting the nature of tourism in the American West through true stories of places and individuals that have felt its grasp, Rothman doesn't just document the effects of tourism but provides us with an enlightened explanation of the shape these changes take. Deftly balancing historical perspective with an eye for what's happening in the region right now, his book sets new standards for the study of tourism and is one that no citizen of the West whose life is touched by that industry can afford to ignore.

I Am The Dark Tourist

I Am The Dark Tourist PDF Author: H.E. Sawyer
Publisher: SCB Distributors
ISBN: 1909394599
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 411

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Book Description
Dark Tourism is the practice of visiting sites associated with death. While participation increases, dark tourism remains a mystery, regarded as the tourist industry’s dirty little secret. This book challenges the misconceptions of a ghoulish practice through the eyes of a self-confessed dark tourist, who has spent forty years visiting the world’s dark sites. From the cobbled streets of Whitechapel on a Jack The Ripper walking tour to the snowy suicide forest of Aokigahara, Japan, H. E. Sawyer ticks off the darkest sites on earth. He visits locations that have promoted themselves to become major tourist attractions, contrasting with those dark places that seek to remain hidden from view. In the course of his travels he wrestles with the ultimate question regarding dark tourism; why would anyone want to visit sites touched by death in the first place?

The Palgrave Handbook of Dark Tourism Studies

The Palgrave Handbook of Dark Tourism Studies PDF Author: Philip R. Stone
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137475668
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 768

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Book Description
This handbook is the definitive reference text for the study of ‘dark tourism’, the contemporary commodification of death within international visitor economies. Shining a light on dark tourism and visitor sites of death or disaster allows us to better understand issues of global tourism mobilities, tourist experiences, the co-creation of touristic meaning, and ‘difficult heritage’ processes and practices. Adopting multidisciplinary perspectives from authors representing every continent, the book combines ‘real-world’ viewpoints from both industry and the media with conceptual underpinning, and offers comprehensive and grounded perspectives of ‘heritage that hurts’. The handbook adopts a progressive and thematic approach, including critical accounts of dark tourism history, dark tourism philosophy and theory, dark tourism in society and culture, dark tourism and heritage landscapes, the ‘dark tourist’ experience, and the business of dark tourism. The Palgrave Handbook of Dark Tourism Studies will appeal to students and scholars with an interest in aspects of memorialisation and morality in sociology, death studies, history, geography, cultural studies, philosophy, psychology, business management, museology and heritage tourism studies, politics, religious studies, and anthropology.