Or Yellin, son of Amos Yellin, talks with Jerry Seinfeld during his visit to Kibbutz Bari, December 19, 2023/PR
The "Knot", the "Dsiatka", or the "Kings Mills" are names of hotels that most tourists do not know.
Those who do recognize are included in a specific niche that makes those hotels unique among world travelers.
They are part of what experts call "dark tourism".
The "note" overlooks the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima, which consists of the only building left standing in the area where the atomic bomb was dropped.
The "Dsiatka" is the only hotel located in the town of Chernobyl in Ukraine, and before the ongoing war hosted tourists curious to explore destroyed buildings and the rest of the remains of the nuclear disaster.
The "King's Mills" is located in Scotland, a few minutes' drive from the site of Culloden, where the last battle on British soil took place, where in 1746, in less than an hour, about 1,300 people were killed.
The battle is the subject of the popular TV series "Alien" on Netflix.
Millions of tourists from all over the globe travel every year to some of the most depressing places on earth: sites of horror, tragedies, disasters or monstrous death.
According to dark-tourism.com, tourists who have visited or considered visiting war museums and memorials, including the Berlin Wall while visiting the German capital, or who do not miss the 9/11 Museum and Memorial at Ground Zero in New York meet (or may meet) the definition "Dark tourists", even if they don't know it yet.
And in the case of the 9/11 memorial, they'll be in good company:
it's the most visited dark site in the world today.
Millions of tourists travel every year to the most depressing places.
The Peace Park and the Memorial Museum for the Victims of the Bomb in Hiroshima/ShutterStock
Opal tourism - just another element of the vacation
The term "Opal Tourism" was coined in 1996 by two academics from Scotland, J. John Lennon and Malcolm
Foley, who published research in a book under the name "Dark Tourism: The Attraction of Death and Disaster".
A survey conducted by the website Passport-photo.online in the USA in 2022 under the name "Opal Tourism", revealed that 82% of Americans visited an Opal tourist destination at least once in their lives.
However, Dr. Eran Keter, Head of the Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management - the Academic College Kinneret, a
more conservative approach.
"Opal tourism is a minor subcategory in a market segment called 'heritage tourism', which consists of visits to sites that embody the past and/or to places related to the heritage of nations. Most of the normative tourism in the world is built around vacation, pleasure and shopping. Visiting heritage sites is in many cases part of the experience. But the trip is definitely not built around Opal-related sites. This is just another component of the vacation. 15% of Europeans' tourism is defined as 'heritage' and this is a fairly significant figure that is important to know. This segment is considered privileged tourism typical of Americans, Europeans and Chinese, dominated by established and educated adults ".
Most of the dark tourism sites are located outside the big cities.
Memorial parks or battlefields of the past are usually located in remote rural areas.
Therefore, most tourists will stay in hotels in the big city and participate in a day trip to sites related to death, disasters and sadness.
However, small hotels, hostels, and rural accommodations are available near the tragedies.
What might be the benefits of staying there?
Hampton is a chain of small Hilton hotels and hotels aimed at those with a low budget.
One of the 6,000 Hampton hotels worldwide is located in Poland in the town of Auschwitz, 10 minutes' drive from the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
This is probably the most horrible dark tourist site imaginable.
"Why should travelers stay at your hotel and not in nearby vibrant Krakow?"
I ask Agnieszka Augustyniak, the hotel's general manager. "Oświęcim offers a positive view of the past before World War II.
The Jewish community was then the largest in the city called in Yiddish Oshpitzin.
8,000 Jews out of 14,000 residents lived there.
The hotel guests are the ones who seek to combine the town's rich past with the horrific sites of the memorial and museum in Auschwitz-Birkenau, and gain a broader meaning," she explains.
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The most horrible dark tourist site imaginable.
The march of life in the Auschwitz extermination camp/official website, Yossi Zeliger
From Masada to Yad Vashem - Israel is an Opal tourist destination
Israel is definitely and unfortunately an Opal tourist destination, and offers every tourist a visit to Yad Vashem - the country's official memorial to the 6 million victims of the Holocaust.
Masada is another destination - an archeological site where almost 1,000 Jewish rebels committed mass suicide during the Roman era.
With the atrocities committed by Hamas in the surrounding settlements, a question arises: will this be another sad destination for Opal tourists, when incoming tourism will recover and tourists will feel safe visiting here.
A visit to the destroyed police station in Sderot, the burned houses in many kibbutzim and the site of the Nova Party in Ra'i have become since the seventh of October sites that are constantly visited by guests from abroad and Israelis. Some tourists come for visits organized by officials and groups of workplaces. Others come independently to pay their respects . The numbers are quite significant even as border police officers at Ben Gurion Airport hardly sign passports as before. Visitors walk quietly, some weeping or carrying wreaths and soul candles.
These sites will certainly feature official memorials in the future. What will those look like? It's too early to think
. Clifford Chanain, executive director of the 9/11 Museum in New York, is the most experienced person
in the world when it comes to memorials.
"We live in an age where people want quick decisions. The commemoration
of the terrible events that Israel experienced will take time and patience. Legitimate debates are expected
and there will be different opinions in the many communities about how, how and where to erect a monument and a commemorative site," he says.
According to him, "Transparency of all opinions will finally lead to trust and as soon as all opinions are heard a decision can be made.
Preservation of original buildings and artifacts that were damaged is also a serious challenge. The September 11 memorial was opened
on September 11, 2011, the 10th anniversary of the attack. The museum itself was inaugurated in May 2014, almost 13
years after the terrible disaster New York experienced. Since then, almost 6 million people visit the
9/11 Memorial and Museum every year. Planning for the future with a vision has resulted in the development of the entire area with a priority
for housing and tourism. Southern Manhattan is now definitely a tourist attraction. There is Today there are many more hotels
and restaurants around the monument than before 2001."
Nearly 6 million people visit the 9/11 Memorial and Museum each year.
Ground Zero/ShutterStock
It is too early to think about the future monuments
"Hotels need a profitable business model aimed at diverse market segments. A hotel that only serves Opal Tourism customers is a one-dimensional product with no prospects," explains Dr. Kater. The traffic, I can't expect any significant future developments in the field of accommodation in the area.
Ashkelon may benefit from such development more than rural settlements due to its proximity," he says. The annual festival of "Drom Adom" during the anemone blooming season, the Eshkol and Ashkelon national parks, or even the grave of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, will probably not be additional attractions that will convince tourists to spend the night in Otef and lead to significant hotel development.
It is too early to think about future monuments, but in Israel time is always pressing. The field will not remain in a vacuum for long. In the last 24 hours, 364 trees were planted at the site of the Nova Music Festival where the Hamas atrocities took place.
The National Fund for Israel initiated an event and plantings in memory of all the young people who were murdered.
Planting a tree is a symbol of hope, love and life that will last for generations.
Future tourists in the Gaza Envelope must experience optimism and life in Israel.
not opal
The writer is a tourism expert and hotel blogger.
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