The long shadow: marketing Dachau

John J. Lennon, Dorothee Weber

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The town of Dachau lives in the shadow of its terrible past, known for its association with the Nazi regime and as the place of the former concentration camp. Although town o cials have attempted to market the town’s cultural and historic features, visitor numbers for Dachau’s other sites have been a fraction of those of the memorial site/concentration camp. Using a quantitative intercept survey, the aim of this chapter is to investigate the reasons why tourists visit Dachau and consider what such fi ndings mean for destinations with ‘dark’ history and pejorative place names. The study utilises a mixed-methods approach, triangulating a literature review, a pilot intercept survey and a number of key stakeholder interviews. The fi ndings explore the relationship between Dachau’s various identities as a town, a Holocaust site and tourist destination, and the impossible legacy it carries. Throughout the chapter, the term ‘dark tourism’ will be used as a general term to refer to the visitation of sites associated with recent death, disaster and atrocities, and KZ (the German abbreviation for ‘Konzentrationslager’) will be used to denote ‘concentration camp’.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationDark Tourism: Practice and Interpretation
EditorsGlenn Hooper, John J. Lennon
PublisherRoutledge
Pages26-39
Number of pages14
ISBN (Electronic)9781317154754
ISBN (Print)9781472452436
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2016

Keywords

  • dark tourism
  • holocaust sites
  • case studies

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The long shadow: marketing Dachau'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this