Abstract Dark tourism has been recognised as a distinctive tourism phenomenon of the twenty-first century, with increasingly significant numbers of visitors and tourists going to dark tourism attractions and sites, new dark tourism products and attractions emerging, and modern global communication media generating interest in dark tourism attractions, while at the same time affecting the image of destinations. The phenomenon of dark tourism has been examined in academia from the mid-1990s; however, it remains one of the less developed areas of tourism and leisure research. Not surprisingly, knowledge of the experiences of visitors and tourists at dark tourism attractions and sites is both theoretically fragile and limited. In redressing this omission in tourism and leisure research, this study examines the effect of enduring involvement and socio-demographic variables on visitor experiences and benefits gained at a contemporary dark tourism site. The focus of the study is the April 3rd Peace Park on Jeju Island, South Korea, a site commemorating and memorialising one of the most destructive episodes in modern Korean history. In doing so, the study developed a theoretical framework for understanding visitor experiences at dark tourism sites, using a benefits-based approach along with the concept of enduring involvement. This approach provides a framework for comprehending visitors’ dark tourism experiences by identifying reasons for visit, on-site experiences, and benefits gained from these experiences. Enduring involvement is applied to investigate the effect of a visitor’s ‘personal connection’ to the tragic event when it comes to their experiences at the site. The April 3rd Peace Park on Jeju Island commemorates a violent political conflict, which began on April 3rd in 1948, and resulted in 30,000 of the inhabitants dead or missing. The park was inaugurated in 2008 for the purposes of education, commemoration, and reconciliation within the Jeju community, in which the family and relatives of both victims and perpetrators still live. The research employs qualitative and quantitative research methods to explore visitor experiences. In its qualitative component, 46 semi-structured interviews were conducted between September and October 2008 in order to identify reasons for visit, the cognitive and affective on-site experiences of visitors and the benefits gained from their visit. This data was utilised in the construction of a site-specific questionnaire. In the quantitative component, self-administered questionnaires and face-to-face interviews were conducted from June 23 to July 31, 2009. A total of 407 valid questionnaires, out of 450 distributed, were utilised to test 16 hypotheses derived from the theoretical framework. The results indicate that a benefits-based approach was effective in exploring visitors’ dark tourism experiences. With this approach, a sense of obligation or personal duty was identified as one of the key reasons for visiting the site. Emotional experiences were also found to be important, and likely to lead to the visitors’ benefits gained. However, results also indicate a benefits-based approach was not effective for segmentation of visitors. In relation to enduring involvement, visitor experiences and benefits gained from experiencing the site and its history were found to differ significantly based on visitors’ level of enduring involvement. High involvement visitors were more likely to recall actual memories of the April 3rd incident, as opposed to acquiring knowledge of it or related issues at the site itself, in stark contrast with low involvement visitors. These differences in visitor experiences and benefits gained were due therefore to visitors’ prior knowledge of and familiarity with the incident. The results of the study also indicate that high involvement visitors are more likely to be elderly, to reside locally, to be connected to the incident, or to have higher levels of education. Low involvement visitors on the other hand are more likely to be young, non-local, and with generally lower levels of education. The study concludes that an effective way of understanding dark tourism experiences from a theoretical perspective is to apply both a benefits-based approach and the concept of enduring involvement.

I denna uppsats tar vi upp frågan om besökarens upplevelse och hur detta mäts på olika museer. Vi har avgränsat oss till Stockholms läns museer. Syftet är att se vilka undersökningsmetoder som finns för att mäta besökarens upplevelse och hur dessa metoder används. Vi har även tagit reda på vad som behövs för att besökaren ska bli tillfredsställd med ett besök. För att uppnå tillfredsställelse hos besökaren tar vi upp aspekterna lojalitet, sinnen och förväntningar.   Vid insamlingen av det empiriska materialet för denna uppsats har vi använt oss av e-postintervjuer och tre djupgående intervjuer med personer som har goda kunskaper inom undersökningsmetoder. Med hjälp av våra respondenter och den teoretiska information som insamlats har vi sammanställt ett resultat. Resultatet som framkommit påvisar att enkäter och personlig kontakt är det som främst används för att mäta en besökares upplevelse. Personlig kontakt, interaktion och förväntningar hjälper besökaren att uppnå tillfredsställelse och på så sätt skapas en lojalitet mellan besökaren och museet. / In this essay we have raised the question of visitor experience and how this is measured at various museums. We have delimited our purpose by observing the Stockholm county museums. This is to make sure which inquiry methods the museums are using to measure the visitor experience and how these methods are being used. Also we wanted to find out what is needed for the visitor to be satisfied with the visit. In order to achieve the satisfaction of the visitor we have taken loyalty, senses and expectations into consideration.   To collect the empirical material for this paper we have used e-mail interviews and three profound interviews with people who have good knowledge of inquiry methods. With the help of our respondents and the theoretical information collected, we have compiled the results. The result that has emerged is demonstrating that surveys and personal contact are mainly used to measure a visitor's experience. Personal contact, interaction and expectations will help the visitor achieve satisfaction, and thus created a loyalty between the visitor and the museum.

<p>Karlstad kommun vill att Karlstad ska uppnå 100 000 invånare, mot idag dryga 80 000. För att nå dit måste tätortsnära skogar exploateras. För att få reda på hur välbesökta de tätortsnära skogarna är i Karlstad, genomfördes i november 2005, februari, maj och augusti-september 2006 en kvantitativ besöksstudie av I2-skogen i nordvästra Karlstad. I2-skogen är ett tätortsnära område omgärdat av bostäder åt tre håll. I området finns bland annat flera motionsspår, golfbana och skjutbanor. Studien visar att området är välbesökt, ca 180 000 besökare per år. 77 % av besökarna bor i närområdet runt skogen, inom ett avstånd av 500 meter. Boendeformerna i området speglar besökarna och deras aktiviteter och I2-skogen kan kallas för en ”vardagsskog” med besökare som återkommer flera dagar i veckan. Om de tätortsnära skogarna runt Karlstad exploateras enligt kommunens översiktsplan kommer det att påverka invånare som idag bor nära skogsområden till att de får längre avstånd mellan bostaden och skogen. Ett längre avstånd kan göra att det tar för lång tid att ta sig till skogsområden, vilket leder till att antal besök minskar. När människor inte har tid att vistas i skogen ökar stress och ohälsa, även barn påverkas negativt av att inte få leka fritt i en tätortsnära skog. Det är nu läge att inrätta någon form av områdesskydd för vissa av de tätortsnära skogarna runt Karlstad, då de har ett oerhört viktigt socialt värde för befolkningen i Karlstad och därför behöver bevaras för framtiden.</p> / <p>The local authority in the city of Karlstad, Sweden, want the city to increase to 100 000 inhabitants, today it has about 80 000 inhabitants. To reach the goal several urban forests needs to be exploited. To get an understanding of how well visited the urban forest is in Karlstad, a visitor study were made in November 1995, February, May and August-September in 2006 in the I2-forest. The I2-forest is an urban forest surrounded by residences in three directions. In the area there are several trails, a golf court and shooting ranges. The quantitative visitor study shows that the I2-forest is well visited by about 180 000 visitors per year. 77 % of the visitors are living in residence maximum 500 meter from the forest. The different kind of residences in the neighbourhood shows who the visitors are and what activities they are doing. Many of the visitors come several days a week to the forest. If the forests around Karlstad city will get exploited as the local authority want, it will affect a lot of people to get longer distance to a forest from their homes. A longer distance could make it take too long time to get to the forest area and the number of visitors will decrease. When people don’t have time to be in the forest the stress and ill-health will increase, even the children will be affected negatively. Therefore it would be a good idea to establish some kind of reserve in some of Karlstad’s urban forests, to protect them from future exploitations. Because the urban forest have a great social value for the inhabitants in Karlstad and therefore the urban forest need to be saved in the future.</p>

Karlstad kommun vill att Karlstad ska uppnå 100 000 invånare, mot idag dryga 80 000. För att nå dit måste tätortsnära skogar exploateras. För att få reda på hur välbesökta de tätortsnära skogarna är i Karlstad, genomfördes i november 2005, februari, maj och augusti-september 2006 en kvantitativ besöksstudie av I2-skogen i nordvästra Karlstad. I2-skogen är ett tätortsnära område omgärdat av bostäder åt tre håll. I området finns bland annat flera motionsspår, golfbana och skjutbanor. Studien visar att området är välbesökt, ca 180 000 besökare per år. 77 % av besökarna bor i närområdet runt skogen, inom ett avstånd av 500 meter. Boendeformerna i området speglar besökarna och deras aktiviteter och I2-skogen kan kallas för en ”vardagsskog” med besökare som återkommer flera dagar i veckan. Om de tätortsnära skogarna runt Karlstad exploateras enligt kommunens översiktsplan kommer det att påverka invånare som idag bor nära skogsområden till att de får längre avstånd mellan bostaden och skogen. Ett längre avstånd kan göra att det tar för lång tid att ta sig till skogsområden, vilket leder till att antal besök minskar. När människor inte har tid att vistas i skogen ökar stress och ohälsa, även barn påverkas negativt av att inte få leka fritt i en tätortsnära skog. Det är nu läge att inrätta någon form av områdesskydd för vissa av de tätortsnära skogarna runt Karlstad, då de har ett oerhört viktigt socialt värde för befolkningen i Karlstad och därför behöver bevaras för framtiden. / The local authority in the city of Karlstad, Sweden, want the city to increase to 100 000 inhabitants, today it has about 80 000 inhabitants. To reach the goal several urban forests needs to be exploited. To get an understanding of how well visited the urban forest is in Karlstad, a visitor study were made in November 1995, February, May and August-September in 2006 in the I2-forest. The I2-forest is an urban forest surrounded by residences in three directions. In the area there are several trails, a golf court and shooting ranges. The quantitative visitor study shows that the I2-forest is well visited by about 180 000 visitors per year. 77 % of the visitors are living in residence maximum 500 meter from the forest. The different kind of residences in the neighbourhood shows who the visitors are and what activities they are doing. Many of the visitors come several days a week to the forest. If the forests around Karlstad city will get exploited as the local authority want, it will affect a lot of people to get longer distance to a forest from their homes. A longer distance could make it take too long time to get to the forest area and the number of visitors will decrease. When people don’t have time to be in the forest the stress and ill-health will increase, even the children will be affected negatively. Therefore it would be a good idea to establish some kind of reserve in some of Karlstad’s urban forests, to protect them from future exploitations. Because the urban forest have a great social value for the inhabitants in Karlstad and therefore the urban forest need to be saved in the future.

This thesis is a study of how communication takes place in museum exhibitions. The curatorial teams send themessages and the visitors are the receivers. The author uses the British Museum’s free admission special exhibition, Sir Stamford Raffles: collecting in Southeast Asia 1811-1824, as the case study. The study is done through visitor surveys and interviews with British Museum staff and its visitors. The author has also studied museological literatureand theories to strengthen and have a closer understanding of the topics and themes brought up in the study. The study and discussion on politics and identities in cultural heritage have been addressed in previous studies and so has researches on visitors’ behaviours when visiting museums and/or galleries. With the review on previous studies and the survey and interview research model, this study examines the communication flow in museum exhibitions. In interviews with the curator and the head of interpretation of the exhibition, challenges and thoughts about the process of designing the exhibition are presented. With the comparison with the results from the visitor survey, the author can then compares the results from both parties and echo with the research question of the thesis, on how communication takes place in museum exhibitions; between senders and receivers. This research is not meant to be a decider that makes a statement that all exhibitions fit this framework, but rather be considered as a model that future designers can take into consideration when planning for an exhibition. This is a two-year master’s thesis in cultural heritage and sustainability.