Faculty Publications

Justice in Dark/Thanatourism: Three Cases from the State of Iowa (USA)

Document Type

Book Chapter

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Justice in Tourism Destinations Avenues for Destination Governance and Management

First Page

11

Last Page

34

Abstract

When it comes to thanatourism, the practice of traveling to places associated with death and tragedy, is it ethical for tourist sites to celebrate past serial killers? Should a tourist spot allow visitors to hear the voices of past serial killers tell their stories? Should there be a policy on what is considered appropriate behavior at death sites, such as when tourism agencies let visitors attend funeral proceedings simply to see culturally different death rituals for entertainment purposes? This paper adds a praxis element to the tourism justice and ethics body of knowledge by introducing a critical thinking framework that tourism professionals can use in ethical decision-making to thanatourism. The latter part of this manuscript provides three tourism examples from the State of Iowa (USA) of applying this critical thinking approach to ethical decision-making so that just behavior or treatment (justice) of sites where death has occurred is upheld.

Department

Department of Health, Recreation, and Community Services

Department

Office of the President

Original Publication Date

2-27-2025

DOI of published version

10.4324/9781003406242-3

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