Eureka! Institutional Repository

People are usually fascinated by representations and images of death, tragedy and disaster. In order to realise that, all it takes for someone is to notice how the traffic "freezes", when he witnesses a car accident. However, this fascination does not limit itself on a busy highway, in fact, it extends into the sphere of tourism. Today, many sites and places of death and disaster attract millions of visitors from around the globe such as Auschwitz - Birkenau Museum in Poland, Anne Frank's house in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the World Trade Center in New York, U.S.A., and, the Museum of Apartheid in Johannesburg, South Africa. Due to the growing demand of this tourism product, many academics and writers have conducted studies on this phenomenon at an early age. Lennon and Foley lead the way, defining this phenomenon as "dark tourism", along with Seaton who conceived the term "Thanatourism", and Rojek, who developed the notion of "black spots". However, despite ongoing research, there is still a weakness in understanding this phenomenon, as well as what really motivates people to visit dark tourism sites. Therefore, the need to understand the visitors' motives becomes imperative, due to the importance of this matter and its sensitive nature being related to the dark tourism sites. Although there are signs of destruction and abandonment in some of them, however, it is widely accepted that visitors can play an important role in their maintenance, as well as providing managers with the necessary tools to achieve appropriate and proper management of their sites. Some argue that people's interest in visiting places of death and dark tourism in general, simply derives from their morbid feelings and desire to see scenes and images of horror, disaster and death, nevertheless, the range of factors involved in dark tourism includes interest not only in history and heritage, but also in education and remembrance. In order to suit the needs of the present research study, an attempt to compile all dark tourist motives has been made, which have occupied many scholars in the past. Then, to get a better comprehension of these motivations, visitors to the Auschwitz - Birkenau Museum were surveyed as a case study, using a data collection method, particularly that of questionnaires. As a "commercialized" place of death and savagery, the Museum possesses the features that comprise a dark tourism destination, as the latter has been defined by academics and scholars. Upon asking visitors what prompted them to visit the Museum, the answers and findings of the research may vary and perhaps be the subject of study in future research projects. Finally, the present study attempts to uncover whether visitors' motivations in Auschwitz - Birkenau Museum are identical with those found in other dark tourism sites and destinations.