Open AccessDark Tourism in Lebanon: A Bright Opportunity to be Pursued
Author(s) -
Socrat Ghadban,
Manar Abou Zaki
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
international journal of tourism and hospitality reviews
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2395-7654
DOI - 10.18510/ijthr.2015.211
Subject(s) - dark tourism , tourism , christian ministry , payment , business , government (linguistics) , great rift , destinations , marketing , dilemma , geography , political science , finance , linguistics , philosophy , physics , archaeology , epistemology , astronomy , law
Tourism in Lebanon has always been a key contributor to the national economy. It is one of the main sectors Lebanon depends on besides banking.
In this research, dark tourism was approached as an important type of tourism that has a significant potential role in Lebanon. Unfortunately, this is not reflected in the Ministry of Tourism list of tourist’s attractions. The interviews were done in this research showed that the Lebanese government gives no attention to such sites, and even dark places’ owners do not give their sites the needed attention in term of tourism development strategies. 100 questionnaires were collected in three different locations.
Results showed that the youth generation in Lebanon is interested in visiting dark-related destinations. The motivations and willingness to pay were studied for four different sites. Sources of information had a very important effect on visiting dark-related sites. As for payment, a randomized complete block design test revealed that visitors’ willingness to pay depends on the visited site.
Finally, an important aspect in this research treated the ethical dilemma in promoting dark-related sites which have an impact on the way dark tourism should be promoted.