Mortality salience and meaning in life for residents visiting dark tourism sites

Abstract

Reflections on meanings of life and death are rarely comfortable or linear, and can be triggered by crises and disasters. This study explores the meanings of dark tourism sites for residents, including their visitation motives, and subsequent reflections on death and life. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 37 residents of Christchurch in Aotearoa New Zealand, following the Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. Our findings suggest that visits to disaster sites that have dark tourism connotations trigger mortality salience, prompting residents to reflect on memories of the disaster, which are often accompanied by deep and meaningful reflections on death and meaning in life, nostalgia for the past, and the significance of the sites themselves. We argue that dark tourism sites provide spaces for residents to assess and address socio-emotional distress caused by disasters. We suggest that interpretations of disaster-related dark tourism sites should memorialise death and disaster, but should also celebrate the lives of survivors. In this way, dark tourism sites can take on a more productive role in facilitating individual and community coping with post-disaster recovery.