A study on tourist motivation specifically dark tourism sites of Rajasthan

Abstract

Tourism has become key global economic activity, which people want to do in their leisure moments. People are now curious and like to visit unconventional sites connected with death, disaster, and tragedy. Visiting places related to death, tragedy, and suffering is termed Dark tourism. These sites could be the actual dark event place or a simulation of the actual dark event place. The researcher is curious to know the stories behind these unconventional places and visited many such places that come under the dark tourism umbrella. The Researcher s curiosity and the influence of the supervisor motivated her to take dark tourism as the key research area. newlineThe thesis focuses on understanding the nature of demand, motivations, expectations, and experiences of tourists for sites associated with unusual or exceptional death and suffering. Rajasthan has enormous potential for dark tourism that could be tapped by formulating favorable policies, keeping away the taboos, coordinating with the local community, advertising by the government, avoiding controversies, and following the world tourism strategies. Preserving dark sites is important as it is part of our heritage. People are emotionally connected with some sites, some are part of their history or their ancestor s history, some sites are a significant part of our history, and some sites educate us on the value of sacrifices and motherhood. newlineThis research is useful for tourism policymakers, students of tourism and management, and researchers for future related research. newline newline