Abstract
This study aims to discuss the experience model for visitors participating in Dark Tourism. The Hsiaolin Village relics, which were destroyed by the 2009 typhoon in Taiwan, are selected as the research subject. A total of 341 visitors to Hsiaolin Village Memorial Park were interviewed through a survey questionnaire. Structural equation models (SEMs) were utilized to verify the causal relationship among the visitors ’Dark Tourism motivation, environmental attitudes, and benefits of experience in Dark Tourism relics. The benefits of experience in Dark Tourism are divided into social benefits, learning benefits, and pressure relief for psychological benefits in this study. The empirical results show that the higher Dark Tourism motivation could enhance the visitors’ environmental attitudes towards Dark relics and further affect the acquired benefits of experience. Moreover, the stronger Dark Tourism motivation could directly influence the psychological benefits of experience such as emotional and pressure relief. The direct effects of learning and social benefits are not as strong where the benefits of experience are affected by the emotional perception of environmental attitudes. In other words, environmental attitudes present partial mediating effects. The research results provide useful reference information for the planning of Dark Tourism relics and the development of tourism activities.
Highlights
People are gradually attracted to and focus on Dark Tourism in the past decade mainly because of their strong curiosity about death (Lennon & Foley, 2000). Yuill (2003) indicated that Dark Tourism is attractive and emphasized that as people appealed to the issues of death and disaster, modern people no longer purposely neglected death but started to focus on the chaotic world (Lennon & Foley, 2000; Yuill, 2003)
Seaton (1999) pointed out the significant differences between visitors participating in Dark Tourism and the general recreation model which implied that such research on Dark Tourism was essential
The results show the visitors ‘tourism motives to Dark Relics present positive effects on the perceived environmental attitudes after interacting with the tourism environment
Summary
People are gradually attracted to and focus on Dark Tourism in the past decade mainly because of their strong curiosity about death (Lennon & Foley, 2000). Yuill (2003) indicated that Dark Tourism is attractive and emphasized that as people appealed to the issues of death and disaster, modern people no longer purposely neglected death but started to focus on the chaotic world (Lennon & Foley, 2000; Yuill, 2003). The Taiwan Government established Hsiaolin Village Memorial Park near Hsiaolin Village in Kaohsiung to show the authentic disaster site to visitors, enabling visitors to perceive the power of nature, learn to respect the natural environment, and to understand the importance of peaceful coexistence between human beings and nature. In this case, when the visitors’ minds and needs are realized and the design of environmental interaction and experience in dark tourist attractions are integrated, visitors could acquire introspection and inspiration from negative events. There have not been many relevant literature studies presenting research on Dark Tourism which could focus in this direction
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