The tanatoturismo: a worldwide trend that is booming

Ecuadornews:

The recreation of the tragedy is a world trend under the name of tanatoturismo, also known as dark tourism or pain. Circuits on the legends of Count Dracula, the dungeons of the castles, museums of terror and all the fiction around the blood have been developed in some cities.

This trend began after researchers J. John Lennon and Malcolm Foley published the book ‘Dark Tourism’, in 1996, where inhuman acts are interpreted in iconic sites such as the Tower of London, the Edinburgh Castle or the Wall of Berlin, explains Xavier Contreras, professor at the University of the Americas (UDLA).

“One of the countries that most opened to dark tourism was Austria, with tours through neighborhoods and Jewish cemeteries. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, countries such as Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, Lithuania and Latvia show their old prisons and there are even options to stay, “explains Contreras.

Another city that opted for tanatoturismo is Paris. The more than 33.8 million tourists who receive on average annually, now have new options that add to attractions such as the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum or the Seine River. It is about the catacombs located under the gala capital, where nearly six million skeletons have been registered, some of them before the Middle Ages.

In Romania, several tourists come to the region of Transylvania attracted by the fame of the legendary Count Dracula, to learn about the story of Vlad III, prince of Wallachia in the fifteenth century, known as ‘The Impaler’, due to his brutal techniques of punishment.

Another proposal that seeks to raise awareness of the migration to the United States is in the Mexican state of Hidalgo, where the Hnahnu Indians recreated a simulation of what it means to sneak across and at midnight the US border through the Rio Grande the visitor feels the anguish of being persecuted by the police, the dogs and the paramilitaries.

These stories also inspired the journalist David Farrier, to bring to the Netflix screen the series ‘Dark Tourism’, where the protagonist meets a Pablo Escobar hitman in Colombia, he witnesses an exorcism in Mexico, he participates in an illegal crossing USA, eats with vampires in New Orleans, swims in a lake formed after a nuclear explosion, cleaned a mummified body in Indonesia, among other adventures.

In Quito there are three organizations that recreate this kind of stories: Eternal Quito, Nocturnal Legends and Mediarte. Nocturnal Legends will premiere this Saturday, February 16 (6:30 pm) a recreation of the legend of María Angula in the San Diego Convent. Mediarte, on the other hand, goes through places in the city where there were 11 famous crimes. (I)

Source: https://www.elcomercio.com/tendencias/tanatoturismo-tendencia-mundial-auge-terror.html