Understanding motivation and perception at two dark tourism attractions in Winnipeg, MB

While visitation and interest in dark tourism sites has been growing in the last century, little specific research was conducted in the area prior to the mid-1990s. Since that time, there has been increasing academic and media attention paid to this form of tourism.Perception of the attractions as part of visitors' own heritage was not found to be lower amongst those who visited for "dark" reasons. Visitors that scored the lowest level of dark motivation were those that did not perceive the attraction as part of their own heritage. Based on the results of this study new insight was gained into the experiences of visitors to dark tourism sites, which in turn have theoretical and practical implications.Key Terms: dark tourism, motivation, perception, heritage tourism, ghost tours, cemetery tourism, Manitoba.The purpose of this research was to understand motivation and perception at two dark tourism attractions in Winnipeg, MB (a ghost tour and a cemetery). Sharpley's typology of dark tourism was used as a framework to investigate visitors' motives and satisfaction at two different attractions that offered differing types of experiences with death to visitors (i.e. accidental or purposeful supply). The influence of respondents' perceptions of the site(s) as part of their own heritage was investigated as a possible factor in motivation. In general, several of the dark motives were rated fairly low as reasons for visiting both attractions. While overall motive satisfaction was high at both attractions, satisfaction with dark motives was found to be largely unaffected by supply and only two differences were found between the two attractions. Three motive items crossed the attractions and were identified as a potential "dark experience" motivation. It is possible that these three motives may form a triumvirate core of "dark" motivation in dark tourism.