WORKING IN THE ‘DARK’ KATERINA ANTONIOU

1. WORKING IN THE ‘DARK’ KATERINA ANTONIOU

2. Post-conflict areas are ones that have experienced and overcome armed conflict and violent warfare. As their economies start to re-develop in the absence of violence, tourism becomes a vital part of this re-development. Different types of tourism are likely to develop, including leisure tourism for the masses, and dark tourism for eclectic audiences. The latter results directly from the conflict’s aftermath, with sites portraying the conflict’s disasters becoming an attraction to foreigners. Dark tourism in post-conflict areas does not only address audiences looking for a dark thrill; if one observes foreign visitors in post-conflict areas, many of the ones directly attracted by the conflict are conflict professionals – academics, journalists, mediators, trainers, writers, activists, students and so on. Conflict professionals can therefore be considered a niche tourism audience for post-conflict sites. This thesis plans to identify and analyse this audience’s preferences and at the same time present the post-conflict dark tourism product: how is the area impacted by post-conflict dark tourism (local capacity building, sharing of best practices, international attention and funding, social development)? Looking at how the product affects the setting will also reveal which factors – political, social or economic – of transitional post-conflict areas affect the product.