‘Dark tourism’ study centre launched by university
BBC News
“Dark tourism” – where visitors travel to sites of death, brutality and terror – is to be the subject of a dedicated centre for academic research at the University of Central Lancashire.
The Institute for Dark Tourism Research is said to be the world’s first such academic centre.
Researchers say they want to examine why people “feel compelled to visit sites like Auschwitz or Ground Zero”.
Director Philip Stone says such places make people face their “own mortality”.
The institute, which is being launched on Tuesday, will look at the relationship between places with terrible associations – and tourists who use their leisure time to visit them.
China Planning Tourism Package in Disputed Islands
Voice of America
A Chinese provincial official says the country is planning for tourism development on a set of islands in the South China Sea that are claimed by both China and Vietnam.
The tourism plan, announced by Hainan provincial Vice-Governor Tan Li, comes as tensions continue to rise across Southeast Asia over competing maritime claims to vast areas of the sea thought to be rich in oil and gas reserves.
China and Vietnam lay claim to the cluster of islets, known in China as the Xisha Islands, and elsewhere as the Paracels. To the south, China and five other nations hold competing claims to another area of the South China Sea.
Purse-snatching baboons harass tourists at Yankari Reserve
eTurboNews
Female tourists at Yankari Game Reserve in Bauchi State have said the ‘love’ for their handbags by the large population of baboons at the Reserve is worrisome.
In separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yankari, the female tourists said they were often taken by surprise when the animals “snatch their handbags and flee”. According to them, the baboons do not discriminate between male and female tourists but they often make the latter their targets.
With environmental spotlight on Greenland more tourists want closer look
CNN
There’s a good chance you’ve seen more of Greenland in magazines or on TV recently.
With its ice cap and glaciers melting at a rapid rate, the island is at the center of climate change conversation. The stories are troubling, but it’s not all bad news for the folks in Greenland.
You see, the increased attention has helped Greenland. Its tourism business is, by Greenland standards, booming.
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