Exploring sub-dimensions of intrapersonal constraints to visiting “dark tourism” sites: a comparison of participants and non-participants

ABSTRACT

Previous studies have focused on exploring why people seek out sites of death, whereas little is known about why they do not visit or revisit such sites. This paper aims to fill this gap by exploring the inner constraints on visiting the darkest edge of the dark tourism spectrum among both participants (N = 460) and non-participants (N = 275). By identifying four sub-dimensions of intrapersonal constraints in the context of dark tourism (i.e., traumatic memory, emotions of fear and depression, taboos and cultural ideas and lack of interest), an extension of a leisure constraints framework was created. The findings move beyond the prior studies on tourism constraints, which solely measure intrapersonal constraints as an overall construct, and thus explain the non-homogeneity of this construct. This study also contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how non-participants differ from dark tourists on the psychological constraints of visiting sites of death.

KEYWORDS:

• Intrapersonal constraints
• dark tourism
• death
• sub-dimensions
• Nanjing Massacre

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) [grant number 41171121 and 41301134]; the Ministry of Education (MOE) in China Project of Humanities and Social Sciences [grant number 13YJC790193] and the National Tourism Youth Expert Training Project [grant number TYETP201525].