Dark Tourism and Rural Crime

Book excerpt: Bringing a unique rural lens to the analysis of dark tourism in Australia, this book covers a range of sites including convict museums, sites of serial killings and colonial violence, ghost tours and the emerging tourism of bushfire sites. While some rural communities develop a ‘dark tourism strategy’ to maintain economic viability, others may distance themselves from what they perceive to be unethical tourism practices. Jenny Wise examines the roles geographical locations play in dark tourist sites, and how their histories are portrayed, considering how the concept of the rural idyll or dystopia plays a part in Australia’s national identity.