Tourism & death

Abstract

Although death is an inevitable part of life, tourism scholarship has not comprehensibly engaged with this concept. Death-related tourism literature has focused disproportionally on places and experiences of dark tourism, leaving a vast array of other dying-related tourism discourses at the periphery. Drawing on anthropological and existential conceptualisations of death, we develop an all-encompassing theoretical framework comprised of four dimensions: Perspective, Intention, Number, and Involvement. Supported by existing studies, mass media reports, and other secondary data, we demonstrate that the interplay between death and tourism is complex and involves a range of events, tourists' behaviors and experiences. The conclusion proposes future research directions at the intersection of death and tourism.