This study examines the emotional experiences of 152 respondents visiting ‘light’, ‘lighter’, and ‘lightest’ dark tourism sites and the relationship those experiences have with positive word-of-mouth. Therefore, the theoretical contribution of this study fills in the research gap by focusing on the destinations on the ‘lighter’ periphery of Stone’s Dark Tourism Spectrum. The ‘lighter’ destinations which are more commercialized, education- or entertainment-based in nature. In contrast to the destinations on the ‘darker’ periphery of the Dark Tourism Spectrum which are commemorative and where death and tragedy actually occurred. Our results suggest that tourists experience a broad range of both positive and negative emotions when visiting these destinations. Specifically, emotions like Interest, Positive Surprise, Disgust, and Negative Surprise have been found to have a positive relationship with Positive Word-of-Mouth. The results also suggest the practical contribution of this study and confirm that the suppliers of ‘lighter’ destinations are properly managing the dark tourism sites which results in their visitors to spread positive word-of-mouth.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-118704 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Szalaiova, Dana, Vidrinskas, Mark |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för marknadsföring och turismvetenskap (MTS) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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