ABSTRACT
Understanding Tourist Demand is chapter explores the phenomenon of “dark tourism,” a term coined by Foley and Lennon (1996) to describe travel and tourism to places of death, disaster, and atrocity. Consideration of ways in which the dead continue to have an impact on everyday life must include the increasing commodication of places of death as tourist destinations. “Ground Zero,” the site of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001, has been visited continuously since the area was reopened aer the recovery teams had completed their work. A few weeks aer the outrage, the demand by people to pay homage to the site, or simply to see it, forced city authorities to build a viewing platform. Ground Zero and the New York State Museum’s installation WTC, 9/11 First 24 hours timeline (www.nysm.nysed.gov/wtc_timeline/) are now part of most walking and bus tours of New York. At any time of the day one can nd visitors posing for photographs against this tragic backdrop, trying to remember to not smile. e NYSM Web site states that more than 25,000 visitors from across the world visit the site and the installation each day.
