Ask Us Anything

Professor Konstantina Zerva is our guest for this episode of Ask Us Anything, she is Professor of Marketing and Market Investigation at the Faculty of Tourism, University of Girona in Spain.

Professor Zerva’s research is related to niche tourism market segments, gender and mobility, social marketing and theories of social exchange. She is the coordinator of the special interest group on ‘dark tourism’ of ATLAS, the Association for Tourism and Leisure Education and Research.

Dark tourism includes a wide range of sites and tourist activities associated with death and suffering, but also danger and survival. Such sites might include constructed memorials, abandoned places of historic events and simulated or actual environments. Dark tourism activities can be passive or active, self-reflective or communal. Increasingly, technology is used to simulate dark contexts and experiences.

As you will hear in this conversation, dark tourism is a useful analytical tool for understanding cultural exchange, tourist behaviour and the delicate balance among a variety of stakeholders, including locals, victims and survivors. We touch on some of the beneficial aspects of dark tourism, as well as the controversial aspects, including its commercialisation. Confronting the darkness of humanity is an age-old activity, however, the ways that humans - and tourists - do this are changing. Have a listen…

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