Sites associated with death and tragedy, a phenomenon known as "dark tourism," attract millions of visitors annually. Last year, the Auschwitz museum, a former concentration camp in Poland, saw almost two million visitors. In 2025, the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing, just under 15 million people visited Hiroshima.
Other popular dark tourism destinations include the island where Alcatraz prison once operated, which welcomes around 1.2 million visitors annually. These sites often serve as places of remembrance for lives lost and as reminders of historical events.
Dr Philip Stone, who founded the Institute of Dark Tourism Research in 2012, describes dark tourism as portraying and commemorating "our noteworthy dead within visitor economies." Research suggests that motivations for visiting these sites are primarily to learn about the past, remember tragic events, and pay respect to victims, rather than a "sick and morbid fascination with death."