Motivations for War-related Tourism: A Case of DMZ Visitors in Korea

Bigley, James D.; Lee, Choong‐Ki; Chon, Jinhyung; Yoon, Yooshik

doi:10.1080/14616688.2010.494687

Cited by 85 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…The majority of respondents have finished high school (29 per cent), followed by those who have a university qualification. Isaac and Ç akmak (2014) and Bigley et al (2010) had similar findings in their studies. The majority of respondent's hail from urban areas (75 per cent), they are English speaking, it is however important to note that languages represented such as Dutch, German, and Italian were significantly represented.…”

Section: Respondent's Demographic Characteristicssupporting

confidence: 76%

Who visits the apartheid museum and why? An exploratory study of the motivations to visit a dark tourism site in South Africa

Mangwane

Hermann

Lenhard

2019

IJCTHR

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Purpose This paper attempts to fill the gap that exists in research regarding visitor motivations at dark heritage sites. The purpose of this paper is to explore the motivations of visitors to the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum (HPMM) as an iconic dark site in South Africa to identify what motivates visitation and which demographic variables may have an influence on these motivators. Design/methodology/approach To achieve the goal of this research, 205 participants completed a self-administered questionnaire using a random sampling technique at the HPMM. A statistical analysis through the use of factor analysis revealed seven motivational factors. Findings Novelty and knowledge seeking, remembrance and curiosity were identified as the three main motives for visiting HPMM. Novelty and knowledge seeking was found to be the main motive that contradicted similar research done in other parts of the globe. Escape and relaxation, which is usually found to be one of the main motivators to heritage sites, was revealed to be one of the least motivators for this study. The results also identified significant relationships between demographic and motivator variables. Practical implications The findings of this study revealed that people visit the HPMM primarily for novelty and knowledge seeking, remembrance and respect for victims and curiosity. From the results, it is clear that visitors are driven to visit the site for different motives and that these motives, although common amongst visitors, differ from person to person subject to demographic differences. This study provides an improved understanding of dark tourism demand, which is essential for the sustainable development and promotion of sites in South Africa and globally commemorating people’s struggle against injustice and for democracy. Social implications South Africa is a country with a cosmopolitan history; however, the history associated with apartheid has only recently become topic of tourism research. This study provides a basis to better understand the type of tourist visiting these sites of historical sites, thus leading to better provision of services to visit such attractions. Originality/value This study is one of the first to delve into understanding the motivational typology of tourists to a tourism attraction in South Africa associated with the country’s Apartheid-era heritage. It provides an insight into enhancing the current fragmented understanding of dark tourism demand.

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Section: Respondent's Demographic Characteristicssupporting

confidence: 76%

Who visits the apartheid museum and why? An exploratory study of the motivations to visit a dark tourism site in South Africa

Mangwane

Hermann

Lenhard

2019

IJCTHR

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“…Similarly, global Jewish citizens tended to avoid tourism to holocaust sites, and this goes beyond simple animosity, and instead takes on further meanings related to equity restoration, controllability, and discounting (Podoshen and Hunt 2011). These growing bodies of research can offer insight into different dark tourist motivations (Bigley et al 2010); however, previous studies exclude cases like earthquakes with extreme mortality, and that makes it unclear whether tourists are attracted to seismic memorial sites in ways different from other tourist attractions, in particular, the death-scapes. Consequently, the reason for focusing on natural disasters like the Wenchuan earthquake is that it offers a rare opportunity for comparing the travel motivations of Chinese domestic tourists at seismic memorial sites with that motivating tourist visiting other touristic sites in a variety of contrasting ways.…”

Section: Theoretical Contextmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…The survey instrument was a two-page structured and self-administered questionnaire, developed primarily from prior research of dark tourist behavior at sites such as Great War Town in Ieper, Danish-Osu in Ghana, Penal History Museums in Ontario, Canada, and Korean Demilitarized Zone (Winter 2011;Yankholmes 2010;Walby 2011;Bigley 2010). Though previous studies did not focus on seismic memorial sites in particular, the survey questions they used provide a good template for this study.…”

Section: Survey Instrumentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dark touristic perception: Motivation, experience and benefits interpreted from the visit to seismic memorial sites in Sichuan province

Tang

2014

J. Mt. Sci.

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This study investigates the motivations of Chinese domestic tourists visiting seismic memorial sites after the great Wenchuan earthquake of 2008, and examines their interpretation of experiences and benefits of the visits. Recent research on dark tourism has raised the possibility that people are attracted to death and memorial sites in ways different from other tourist attractions. The study used an empirical research design employing questionnaires to collect data from 255 Chinese domestic visitors at seismic memorial sites in west Sichuan. Analysis revealed that the obligation of commemoration mixed with curiosity represents a different set of travel motivation in dark tourism settings than in other kinds of tourism. In addition, the empirical evidence also suggests an interrelated pattern between motivations, experiences and benefits. This study implies that Chinese domestic tourists were attracted in ways different from other tourist attractions both because they tended to fulfill their obligation of commemoration and were interested in destruction; and visitor experiences played an important mediating role between travel motivations and benefits gained.

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“…Much thanatourism research has adopted an almost Marxist approach to the phenomenon, focussing on the production of tourist landscapes of death, exploring the various commercial and political economies of commodified death and in particular the ethics of the journey of ''death'' as the final human act, to its new found position as tourism product. This work has variously focussed on tour guides (Macdonald, 2006), museum interpretation (Miles, 2002), guidebooks (Siegenthaler, 2002), sites of incarceration (Wilson, 2008;Strange and Kempa, 2003) and national geopolitics (Bigley et al, 2010), among exploration of many other organic and autonomous production agents. Drawing from this body of research, various theoretical papers emerged to locate the diversity of supply, including Stone's typology of thanatourism sites, which proposed a ''spectrum of supply'' (Stone, 2006, p. 157), locating sites on a framework relating to their ''shade'' of darkness.…”

Section: Thanatourism and The Production Of Tourist Deathscapesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mark Twain andThe Innocents Abroad:illuminating the tourist gaze on death

Johnston

2013

International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research

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Motivations for War-related Tourism: A Case of DMZ Visitors in Korea

Cited by 85 publications

References 22 publications

Who visits the apartheid museum and why? An exploratory study of the motivations to visit a dark tourism site in South Africa

Who visits the apartheid museum and why? An exploratory study of the motivations to visit a dark tourism site in South Africa

Dark touristic perception: Motivation, experience and benefits interpreted from the visit to seismic memorial sites in Sichuan province

Mark Twain andThe Innocents Abroad:illuminating the tourist gaze on death

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