Dark Tourism, Challenges, Opportunities and Limitations: Present and Future
A special issue of Tourism and Hospitality (ISSN 2673-5768).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 6 June 2026 | Viewed by 2551
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues，
Over recent years, dark and thana tourism have established as important niches globally. In essence, dark tourism has captivated the attention of many subdisciplines such as geography, sociology, anthropology and political science (only to name a few). In the fields of tourism research, dark tourism has occupied a central position in academic conferences and events, as well as in publications located in top-tiered journals. The proliferation of this topic has invariably led scholars to critically discuss the nature of dark tourism. Dark tourism seems to encompass many things, and this makes operational definitions very difficult. Similar phenomena (in different niches), which include dark tourism, post-disaster tourism, mourning or grief tourism, or trauma tourism, allude to a new form of tourism where the “Other's pain” is gazed and consumed by the tourist. The morbid taste plays a leading role in dark tourism consumption. At the same time, the phenomenon defies the apollonian sense of beauty that historically marked classic tourism. As a result of this, dark tourism theorists have been grounded into conceptual gridlock. In this context, some pungent questions surface: What is dark tourism? What do dark tourists look for? What are their motivations? What is the future of dark tourism in an ever-changing (uncertain) world? What is the best methodology to study dark tourism issues?
The present Special Issue invites theoretical and empirical papers that focus on dark tourism as the primary object of scrutiny. The call is extended to professional researchers in tourism and social sciences interested in dark tourism and thana tourism.
Prof. Dr. Maximiliano Korstanje
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Tourism and Hospitality is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- thana tourism
- dark tourism
- tourism crisis
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