Dark tourism: concepts, practices, ethical challenges and future research
Wondemsew Mesafint KebadiePurpose
This review paper critically synthesizes contemporary scholarship on dark tourism, integrating conceptual foundations, visitor motivations, management practices, ethical dilemmas, sustainability challenges, and emerging research directions. It aims to advance a coherent understanding of responsible dark tourism development through an interdisciplinary lens.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic critical literature review of peer-reviewed literature published between 2000 and 2025 examined on tourism, heritage, psychology, ethics, cultural studies, and sustainability research. Through an iterative thematic synthesis, the literature was organized into four interconnected dimensions. These dimensions informed the development of an integrated conceptual framework for contemporary dark tourism scholarship.
Findings
The review reveals that dark tourism is not inherently exploitative; its ethical and social implications depend on governance, interpretation, stakeholder engagement, and management practices. Visitor motivations extend beyond morbid curiosity and include education, remembrance, identity formation, and moral reflection. Ethical concerns about commodification, authenticity, and digital representation underscore the need for inclusive governance and community participation. Sustainable dark tourism development requires historical sensitivity and the integration of triple bottom line principles.
Research limitations/implications
As a conceptual review based on secondary sources, the proposed framework requires empirical validation across diverse cultural and institutional contexts using qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods approaches.
Originality/value
This paper advances dark tourism scholarship by proposing an interdisciplinary framework linking conceptual debates to ethical governance, sustainability, destination management, and emerging technologies. By synthesizing fragmented literature into a coherent theoretical perspective, the study offers practical guidance for destination managers and policymakers. It identifies priority research areas, including postcolonial dark tourism, Global South perspectives, terrorism-related tourism, digital memorialization, virtual reality, and responsible governance.