Dark Tourism and Cultural Resources: Investigating the Local Stakeholders’ Perceptions in Thessaloniki, Greece

Anna Kyriakaki (), Petros Papastefanou and Eirini Arvanitaki
Additional contact information
Anna Kyriakaki: University of the Aegean
Petros Papastefanou: University of the Aegean
Eirini Arvanitaki: Hellenic Open University

A chapter in Recent Advancements in Tourism Business, Technology and Social Sciences, 2024, pp 875-890 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Many researchers view dark tourism as the dark side of cultural tourism or an authentic glance at cultural and heritage resources. Noteworthy is the fact that there is an essential connection between cultural tourism and dark tourism. But what is the difference between them? Is Dark tourism a worthwhile development choice for destinations and historical cities? To answer these questions, this paper investigates the perceptions of local stakeholders in the historical city of Thessaloniki, Greece. The qualitative method was used through personal interviews with local stakeholders. The results of the research indicate that cultural resources, such as historical buildings or sites, local myths, urban legends, monuments, religious sites, cemeteries, historical narratives, etc., could attract not only cultural tourists but also dark tourists. Additionally, stakeholders recognize the importance of dark tourism as niche tourism based on seeking authentic experiences, especially by tourists with an emotional involvement or connection with the destination. Also, their responses indicate that dark tourism can provide many chances for historical cities to succeed in sustainable tourism development through the utilization and prominence of cultural resources (tangible and intangible).

Keywords: Dark tourism; Cultural resources; Authentic experiences; Stakeholders’ perceptions; Thessaloniki (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L83 Z32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:prbchp:978-3-031-54338-8_51

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783031543388

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-54338-8_51

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().