From the Alcatraz East Crime Museum to Jack the Ripper guided tours, ‘dark tourism’ is now a multi-million-pound global industry. Highlighting 50 travel destinations across six continents, expert criminologists, psychologists and historians expose a worrying trend in contemporary consumer culture in which many of us partake.

Reaching some of the darkest and most unsettling corners of the world, this is a compendium of travel destinations like no other. Author Peter Hohenhaus has visited and photographed all the places featured in the book, and brings his first-hand knowledge to the reader. Dark tourism has seen a surge in popularity in the last decade and this is the first book to bring together 300 destinations in a readable and fascinating guide. From nuclear bunkers and disaster sites to strange medical museums and eerie catacombs, this book has something for everyone who seeks a travel experience with true meaning.

From the Alcatraz East Crime Museum to Jack the Ripper guided tours, 'dark tourism' is now a multi-million-pound global industry. Highlighting 50 travel destinations across six continents, expert criminologists, psychologists and historians expose a worrying trend in contemporary consumer culture in which many of us partake.

Dark Tourism has seen a surge in popularity in the last decade as people seek a richer travel experience, choosing to meaningfully engage with humankind’s more troubling heritage, rather than opting for merely escapist vacations.

Ever since he can remember, Dom Joly has been fascinated by travel to odd places. In part this stems from a childhood spent in war-torn Lebanon, where instead of swapping marbles in the schoolyard, he had a shrapnel collection -- the schoolboy currency of Beirut. Dom's upbringing was interspersed with terrifying days and nights spent hunkered in the family basement under Syrian rocket attack or coming across a pile of severed heads from a sectarian execution in the pine forests near his home. These early experiences left Dom with a profound loathing for the sanitized experiences of the modern day travel industry and a taste for the darkest of places. In this brilliantly odd and hilariously told travel memoir, Dom Joly sets out on a quest to visit those destinations from which the average tourist would, and should, run a mile. The more insalubrious the place, the more interesting is the journey and so we follow Dom as he skis in Iran on segregated slopes, spends a weekend in Chernobyl, tours the assassination sites of America and becomes one of the few Westerners to be granted entry into North Korea. Eventually Dom journeys back to his roots in Beirut only to discover he was at school with Osama Bin Laden. Funny and frightening in equal measure, this is a uniquely bizarre and compelling travelogue from one of the most fearless and innovative comedians around.

From the Alcatraz East Crime Museum and Jack the Ripper guided tours to the Phnom Penh killing fields, ‘dark tourism’ is now a multi-million-pound global industry. Even in the most pleasant tourist destinations, underlying harms are constantly perpetuated, affecting both consumers and those who work or live around such tourist hotspots. Highlighting 50 travel destinations across six continents, expert criminologists, psychologists and historians explore the past and contemporary issues which we often disregard during our everyday leisure. This captivating book is the ‘go-to’ guide for anyone interested in crime and deviance-related tourism. Accessible and digestible, it exposes a worrying trend in contemporary consumer culture, in which many of us partake.

The ebook edition of this title is Open Access, thanks to Knowledge Unlatched funding, freely available to read online. Drawing on the emerging deviant literature perspective, this book explores a range of culturally embedded harms and other activities to offer new insight on the idea that video games are intertwined with forms of deviancy.

"West Virginia is famous for its mountains, nature, and scenery, but it's also a treasure trove for tourists who prefer to visit history's darker and stranger side. Hitch along with the author as he visits over 60 West Virginia strange and spooky landmarks, including the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum and haunted Moundsville State Prison. Learn about Charles Manson's childhood hometown, the "Hillbilly Black Dahlia," and serial killer Harry Powers, whose story inspired Night of the Hunter. Haunted houses, colleges, and cemeteries, otherwordly alien encounters, cursed amusement parks, and more are explored in detail. You'll even discover Bat Boy's cave, Sasquatch's hideouts, werewolf country, and read about the time Teddy Roosevelt went monster hunting. Each location is complete with visitor information and a bounty of odd history."--Page 4 of cover.

Atlas Obscura says this lushly illustrated New York Times bestselling guide to dozens of dangerous, eerie, and infamous locations is the perfect gift for "those who believe the world is still full of mysteries to investigate." Pick up the acclaimed Atlas of Cursed Places and visit the world's most nerve-wracking locations. With pithy historical profiles, vintage full-color maps, and haunting tales that will color your perspective (and send tingles down your spine), this is a clever gift for the intrepid traveler or armchair adventurer who wants to explore destinations both remarkable and daunting. Visit: a coal town where the ground is constantly on fire a Zambian national park where more than 8 million bats darken the skies the infamous suicide location of Aokigahara Forest near Mount Fuji the lesser-known Nevada triangle, in which dozens of aircraft have inexplicably disappeared Beautifully packaged and written with a twisty sense of humor, Atlas of Cursed Places puts your quirky side on the map.

From California's legendary Death Valley to the lagoons around Bora Bora in French Polynesia, from Norwegian fjords to the Lascaux cave paintings, Great Destinations roams far and wide to find the world's most outstanding accessible locations. The natural and man-made wonders include such places as the waterfalls at Plitvice in Croatia, the striking rock formations in the marble caves on General Carrera Lake in Chile/Argentina, and the Sandstone Mountains in German Saxony. For every destination, there's geographical and historical background.