When the Alps call you not, nor the allures of the Parisian markets enchant you, but the abandoned buildings in Pripyat intrigue you and horrifying tales of heinous crimes get your pulse racing, then you are in for a vacation that could change you forever… Anu Gulmohar throws light on dark tourism.
“We have not had any tours to the eruption site at Eyjafjallajökull as the surrounding area has been closed. We did, however, take almost 700 persons in different tours to see the eruption in Fimmvorduhals, a few weeks before the eruption in Eyjafjallajökull. One tour was a coach tour that drove into a valley next to the eruption so passengers could view from a safe distance. Another tour of ours drove the passengers up to Myrdalsjokull glacier and from there they went on snowmobiles to see the eruption up close. The third one was a super jeep tour driving in as close as one km from the eruption site. Our customers were from all over the world… UK, USA, Scandinavia. Many Icelanders went there as well. To see a volcanic eruption is once in a lifetime experience for most people. You get to see the forces of nature in action which is just indescribable,” said Gudrun Thorisdottir, Sales Manager, Iceland Excursions – Gray Line Iceland (www.grayline.is). The disastrous impact of the volcano eruption – from forcing Icelanders to flee their homes at 2am to travellers stranded for days at various airports – has captured the world’s attention. In addition to voicing their outrage, the multitudes were also seen struggling to pronounce Eyjafjallajökull (AY-uh-fyat-luh-YOE-kuutl-uh). Iceland has been grappling with a severe financial crunch and the foreign money brought in by the tourist eruption following the eruption of the volcano gave some welcome relief to the country’s government. It also posed a challenge of handling visitors 24x7 and rescuing several of those getting too close to the zone and not taking sufficient precautions.
Cut to Gopinatham, a small village in Karnataka, which is (in)famous for being home to Veerappan, the forest brigand, responsible for the reign of terror. He murdered 184 people, smuggled sandalwood worth Rs 103 crore and poached about 200 elephants for twenty long years on 6,000 sq km of forests. While the forests have finally been freed of this bandit, his exploits still arouse much interest among the people. The government has come up with a plan to launch tours based on the life and trails of the notorious smuggler/poacher. This would include a trekking scheme called Mystery Trails, which would include legends and myths around Veerappan and re-trace his hideouts and escape routes. K Viswanatha Reddy, Tourism Director, does not take kindly to the ‘terror tourism’ tag though. “It (the tour) will definitely have universal attention though not universal appeal. It will be successful because it is in a negative note,” said Reddy. When presented with the concept of the tour, Sue St Clair, a Canadian, said, “Yes, I would be interested in undertaking such a tour.” Sue is a self-confessed dark tourist. What is a dark tourist you ask? Dark tourism is ‘the act of travel to sites associated with death, suffering and the seemingly macabre’ [Stone, P.R (2006) ‘A Dark Tourism Spectrum’, 146], for people who travel not just for the sun, sand and shopping, but for a chance to glimpse at the macabre and gulp down each and every horrifying detail. While German extermination camp at Auschwitz, Poland, is perhaps the best known site for dark tourism, Sue listed her favourite dark spots to us, “The Tower of London (grisly history), Jack The Ripper walking tours (London, England), Underground Catacombs (Paris, France), Dracula Tours in Romania, all have a very dark history, and are enjoyable.” The volcano in Iceland isn’t her idea of Ibiza though. “I would not want to be breathing in that ash nor risking being too close to it, and possibly being injured or worse. I prefer dark history,” she reiterated.
Read these article :-
