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Born from a 'Day of Terror'
In 2002, the ruins of the World Trade Center in New York attracted
3.6 million visitors; the observation deck from the intact
towers used to pull in an average of 1.8 million tourists
per year. 'Ground Zero' as the site became known in the aftermath
of the terrorist attacks on September 11 2001 appears to be
the newest, most unlikely tourist attraction in the Big Apple.
Within months of the attacks the area became the latest home
of sightseers and hawkers; around the site's perimeter all
manner of souvenirs, from Ground Zero NYC T-shirts and baseball
caps to 'Day of Terror' commemorative books and DVD montages
of the disaster are available. There's even a big line in
Osama bin Laden printed toilet paper feeding into people's
anger against the supposed terrorist mastermind. Tour guides
lead groups around the site, pointing out places like the
spot where fire fighters erected the American flag in rubble.
Other 'dark tourism' sites
But is this really such a surprising phenomenon? Across the
world there are lots of sites of human depravity which attract
visitors. Auschwitz in Poland was listed a UNESCO World
Heritage Site in 1979; it's mandatory for all German schoolchildren
to visit during their education and it's virtually an Israeli
right-of-passage to visit this Nazi extermination camp. The
Killing Fields of Pol Pot's genocidal regime in Cambodia
are drawing more and more tourists and Hiroshima in
Japan (where the Allies dropped the atomic bomb that ended
World War II in the east) is also on the tourist trail.
Within the United States itself there are already several
tourist destinations defined by tragedy. The Sixth Floor
Museum in Dallas' former Texas Book Repository is one
such place. It opened 26 years after gunman Lee Harvey Oswald
shot President Kennedy from a sixth-floor window there - it
has since become the city's biggest attraction, with 450,000
people a year. Ford's Theater, where President Lincoln
was assassinated, the museum in the Lorraine Motel in
Memphis where Dr Martin Luther King was shot and Pearl
Harbour are all historic memorial sites.
Therapy or morbid obsession?
Because of the cataclysmic effect 9/11 had on the American
psyche and the shockwaves it had across the world, this latest
manifestation of disaster tourism has brought the whole issue
into sharp relief. Papers in the States have been full of
articles debating its moral validity and the New York tourist
board has found it hard to approach its newest attraction,
conscious of the need not to appear to be capitalising on
the tragedy. Opinions differ radically; for some it's like
slowing down to look at a crash site - like September's
Mission (a victims' families advocacy group) who called
the vendors near the site and their customers 'unbelievably
sick'. Residents near the site, finding it hard to recover
from the trauma anyway, feel that the throngs of tourists
are intruding on their community. Others however, see it as
a legitimate part of the national grieving process - a form
of therapy. Others still, see it as the ultimate example of
the American habit of commodification at work - like the authors
of 'Dark Tourism' who suggest that it's a typically westernised
response to horror.
The question of its legitimacy are tied up in questions of
memory, trauma and politics. In fact, it's something that
hasn't really been seriously addressed until now. What is
certain is that 'dark tourism' isn't a new phenomenon - the
violent death of the British Archbishop of Canterbury in the
town's cathedral in the twelfth century attracted throngs
of people to the site. Perhaps they were pilgrims or perhaps
it was morbid curiosity. With such a long history, it's safe
to say, whether you like it or not, dark tourism is here to
stay.
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