Beech (2000) The enigma of holocaust sites as tourist attractions: The case of Buchenwald

getCITED

Home Search Add Content Reports Help

Edit Publication | Edit Contributors | Delete Publication | Edit References | Edit Citations

Add to Bookstack | Show Bookstack | Change Bookstack

The enigma of holocaust sites as tourist attractions: The case of Buchenwald

Post a Comment

CONTRIBUTORS:

Author:

Beech, John (Coventry University)

JOURNAL:

Managing Leisure, 5(1), ?? - ??.

YEAR:

2000

PUB TYPE:

Journal Article

SUBJECT(S):

Dark tourism heritage concentration camps place memory

DISCIPLINE:

Business/Management

HTTP:

LANGUAGE:

English

PUB ID:

103-401-639 (Last edited on 2004/05/08 08:13:34 GMT-6)

SPONSOR(S):

ABSTRACT:
This paper is developed from a case study of the Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald as a tourist attraction within the German Bundesland of Thüringen in general and for the city of Weimar (Europe’s Culture City for 1999) - in reasonable weather conditions the camp is actually just within sight of central Weimar. The early part of the paper is essentially descriptive with some analysis of what is offered to the visitor in terms of tourist and tourism theoretical frameworks. It explores the way in which Buchenwald is presented within the tourism context and the extent to which it is promoted from a marketing perspective. The paper then explores the appropriacy and effectiveness of broader frameworks, those of more general tourism theory, in an attempt to evaluate the fit of such a ‘tourist attraction’ with conventional notions of tourism. If we are to accept Buchenwald Camp as a tourist attraction do we need to re-evaluate our definitions of tourism and tourist attraction? Although no totally consistent answer is reached, the paper concludes that a tourist attraction such as Buchenwald Camp can be broadly assimilated into a conventional framework, albeit with some discomfort to the host tourist destination. Comparisons are drawn with other tourist attractions in which either the historical time scale is greater or the enormity of the crime against humanity is smaller.

STATISTICS

Click on # to view
Citations		8
References		0
Comments		0
Quality		0/0.00
Interest		0/0.00
View(er)s		5/802

Quality
	N/A
High
	7
	6
	5
	4
	3
	2
	1
Low

Interest
	N/A
High
	7
	6
	5
	4
	3
	2
	1
Low

Prev | Next