“Smile for the Camera”: Online Warehouse Tours as a Form of Dark Tourism within the Era of Late Capitalism

Lynes, Adam and Wragg, Esme (2023) “Smile for the Camera”: Online Warehouse Tours as a Form of Dark Tourism within the Era of Late Capitalism. Tourism and Hospitality Research. ISSN 1467-3584

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Abstract

Over the past 50 years dark tourism has also seen exponential growth in terms of both physical and digital contexts. Dark tourism is primarily a concentration around documented accounts of physical violence, and theorisations centred on dark tourism studies have generally fallen within either behavioural or interpretivist perspectives. Such perspectives are indicative of the continually evolving nature of dark tourism and its receptiveness to new definitions, conceptual frameworks, and theorisations. Taking this into consideration, this concept paper seeks to develop and broaden the notion of “dark tourism” within the era of late capitalism by presenting a content analysis of Amazon’s virtual warehouse tour. In drawing upon critical notions of violence and the emerging deviant leisure framework, this paper will aim to instigate fresh academic enquiry into the nature of dark tourism, expand its theoretical underpinnings, and subsequently provide a means in which to examine how banal forms of tourism play an integral part in the proliferation of some of the most serious harms that populate the contemporary neoliberal landscape. Within this fresh interpretation of dark tourism, this paper also examines the relationship between the Internet, technology and late-stage capitalism, and the implications that this has in studying how corporations use such forms of media in tourism production in order to downplay and obfuscate the realities behind their activities.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number:	10.1177/14673584231173507
Dates:	Date Event 12 April 2023 Accepted 2 May 2023 Published Online
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Critical violence, deviant leisure, online, dark tourism, neoliberalism
Subjects:	CAH15 - social sciences > CAH15-01 - sociology, social policy and anthropology > CAH15-01-01 - social sciences (non-specific) CAH15 - social sciences > CAH15-01 - sociology, social policy and anthropology > CAH15-01-03 - social policy
Divisions:	Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences > College of Law, Social and Criminal Justice
Depositing User:	Adam Lynes
Date Deposited:	09 Jun 2023 13:58
Last Modified:	11 Jun 2024 12:49
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/14362

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