Assessment of Dark Tourism Awareness in Youtube Social Network Cover Image

Assessment of Dark Tourism Awareness in Youtube Social Network
Assessment of Dark Tourism Awareness in Youtube Social Network

Author(s): Regina Navickienė, Rūta Meištė, Egle Zaleckaite
Subject(s): Economy, Marketing / Advertising, Tourism, ICT Information and Communications Technologies, Socio-Economic Research
Published by: Великотърновски университет „Св. св. Кирил и Методий”
Keywords: dark tourism; tanaturism; YouTube social network; assessment; awareness

Summary/Abstract: This paper deals with dark tourism, as fast-developing phenomenon and a form of alternative tourism, which is defined as visiting real and artificial places of disaster, exile, poverty and death. Dark tourism does not come into existence without social media, which is commonly understood as a set of web applications that allow users to publish and share content online and is associated with international brands. One of the most popular social networks is YouTube, which captures millions of viewers. Therefore, the scientific problem arises that thanks to YouTube social media platform travellers can gather information and experience from others to widen their knowledge, but it’s not clear how dark tourism is rated and assessed on YouTube. The research aim is to assess dark tourism in the social media platform YouTube. The research object is dark tourism in the social media platform YouTube. An empirical study has shown that in order to attract more tourists to visit dark tourism sites through social networks, the technical elements of video production, their content and image quality have to be carefully considered as it is important for the viewers. Respondents were interested not only in the videos about dark tourism, but also in written or spoken information, with particular emphasis on completeness, not just the musical background. Good quality and informative footage on YouTube encourage more interest in the object being seen and lead to a desire to read comments and ratings from other active social network members. The YouTube network is well-suited to promoting a variety of tourist attractions, as it is easily accessible and at no cost. Some respondents emphasized and did not change their opinion even after the discussions that the term ‘dark tourism’ itself is macabre and unattractive and only referred to it as a new trendy word.

  • Issue Year: 2020
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 97-103
  • Page Count: 7
  • Language: English