Impact of Dark Tourism: Shrines

Impact of Dark Tourism: Shrines
by Student’s Name
Course
Professor’s Name
Institution
City, State
Date
Impact of Dark Tourism: Shrines
Tourism is an important part of the economy. Martini and Buda (2020) notes that the tourism sector contributes trillions to the global economy. An important part of tourism is dark tourism. The concept of dark tourism is relatively new but has gained significant attention. Dark tourism often refers to tourism involving places and locations historically linked with death and tragedy. Specifically, this paper explores the impact of dark tourism shrines.
One impact of dark tourism shrine is educating and honoring people who have played a significant role in history. The shrines are in place to pay respect, honor, and remember important aspects of history (Stone 2006). When a person visits a dark shrine, it provides an opportunity to honor and learn about the reason for their death or suffering. For example, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a place where people can go and learn about the U.S. armed forces that fought and died during the Vietnam War. Visiting the site allows a person to be educated about the events that occurred leading to the war. Having learned about the Vietnam War, people across the world can visit the memorial or shrine as a remembrance to what happened during this period. Chang (2017) notes that while some criticize dark tourism, it provides essential information to learn about history. The shrines provide essential information to understand history and even learn from it.
However, dark shrines can also be a source of misinformation to the public. Heuermann and Chhabra (2014) argue that some dark tourism can be misleading or fail to represent history as it occurred. In the process people including the younger generations within the country become misinformed. A common shrine cited for misinformation is the Yasukuni Shrine in Japan. The shrine was created to honor those that died in the service of Japan since 1868 to 1954. Basically, the shrine honors Japan’s war heroes. However, the controversy arises because some of the soldiers and individuals in the shrine commi...