
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
Recommended Citation
Dieser, Rodney B. and Grybovych Hafermann, Oksana, "Justice in Dark/Thanatourism: Three Cases from the State of Iowa (USA)" (2025). Faculty Publications. 6814.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/facpub/6814