You don’t have to visit a war zone or a former concentration camp to be a dark tourist.

Everyone has a bit of a dark tourist in them: who wouldn’t visit Pompeii if they were going to Naples or seek out Berlin Wall remnants during a visit to the city?

This type of travel is growing exponentially and encompasses everything from war museums and memorials, to places where both man-made and natural disasters have taken place, creating an unlikely link between trauma and tourism.

The dark tourist
Before the 9/11 tragedy, the World Trade Centre’s observation deck drew around 1.8 million visitors annually. This number has doubled since it has become the Ground Zero memorial. The notorious Polish concentration camp, Auschwitz, has seen also visits rise from 500,000 people in 2001, to 1.5 million in 2014.

“There’s definitely a crossover between dark tourism and heritage tourism, but we’re seeing an explosion of niche markets in tourism and dark tourism is one of those,” says Andrew Fry, a lecturer researching the subject at the University of Plymouth. “Everyone’s motives are different. Some tourists may have a curiosity about the unusual and death, some are attracted to horror. For others, it can be voyeuristic or a desire for empathy with the victims of atrocity and suffering.

“However, more recently, we’re seeing that tourists want an authentic experience and for those who are seeking authenticity, their motivations include seeking the truth in pursuit of knowledge and social responsibilities, such as not being forgotten or making the same mistakes.”

David Farrier, a journalist from New Zealand, filmed the Netflix series Dark Tourist, to explore the subject. The eight-episode series took him to ghost towns deserted after disasters, a radioactive lake in Kazakhstan and Japan’s ‘suicide forest’. Farrier said part of the appeal was to challenge his fears and preconceptions while offering escapism and satisfying his curiosity. His trips, he said, made him realise how good he has it at home.

Nuclear tours
Chernobyl, the Ukranian site of the 1986 nuclear disaster is one site which is currently experiencing massive growth in popularity, thanks partly to the eponymous HBO series, which tells the story behind the horrific tragedy.

The former nuclear power station has been open to the public since 2011 and this year, tour operators predict visits will more than double to 150,000 people.

Despite visitors having to carry a Geiger counter to check radiation levels as they explore the site, Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky wants to “shake the dark tourist association” of Chernobyl and for the site to be recognised as a legitimate tourist attraction. Subsequently, the President has announced plans to implement an electronic ticketing system, relax restrictions for filming inside the exclusion zone and build safe walking trails in and around the area.

Rik Brinks, co-founder of tour operator, Culture Road, takes intrepid travellers to “places your mother wouldn’t want you to visit,” has noticed a spike in interest.

“Interest in visits to Chernobyl is up by 30 per cent,” he says. “The HBO series on Chernobyl has had a big impact, as has Dark Tourist. People want to visit because it’s an interesting place. They like the whole story and the mystery. It’s intriguing and feels like stepping back in time to the Soviet era. Everything is how people had left it and the tragedy is palpable. The empty streets and houses have a spooky, eerie atmosphere.”

Although visitors need to make the call on whether they are comfortable with the site’s radiation levels, Chernobyl, on the whole, is no longer deemed dangerous and isn’t difficult to visit politically, or logistically, unlike some of the other places which Culture Road visits, including Afghanistan and North Korea, which are widely regarded as two of the hardest countries in the world to access. Anyone wanting to visit needs to use a tour operator to sort out tickets, visas, logistics, accommodation and travel.

Border crossing
The Beijing-based, Koryo Tours, was founded as a result of interest in travel to North Korea, and takes around 1800 visitors to the closed-off country each year: “Prior to a visit, you might imagine that it’s full of government spies, but although it’s tightly controlled, the government is unconcerned about the tourism industry as it’s so small,” says Koryo Tours general manager, Simon Cockerell. “If you like certainty and accurate answers then it’s not the place to go. If you can embrace the complex and confusing, you might enjoy it. The tours appeal to a variety of people – open-minded and worldly travellers. Most go as part of a wider tour, but we’ve taken people who fly half the way around the world for two days in North Korea.

“People have very low expectations, and find it’s less monotone than they think it will be. North Koreans have no real first-hand experience of the outside world, as the news is biased propaganda. I like the fact that we can present an alternative to that, albeit with a small number of people, in a brief way.”

Brinks agrees that even the edgiest of destinations are frequently surprising: “Very often places are not as you would expect. North Korea has a hot climate and is full of nice people just getting on with their lives and Afghanistan is really beautiful and full of friendly people.”

Going forward, it looks likely that dark tourism will continue to grow, with a continual proliferation of experiences. Brinks believes there is plenty of scope for this niche and is currently working on tours to other edgy locations, such as Haiti and Angola. Fry predicts the trend will continue, with more specific categories to be recognised, such as dark heritage tourism.