Tourist experiences of genocide sites: The case of Rwanda

Dark tourism is not a new phenomenon. As long as people have been able to travel they have visited places associated with death, disaster and suffering. However, not only has the provision and consumption of dark tourism experiences become increasingly evident in recent years; so too has the academic study of the phenomenon. Nevertheless, despite the increasing attention paid to the subject, understanding of dark tourism remains relatively limited and theoretically fragile whilst, specifically, the significance of the consumption of or demand for dark tourism has enjoyed limited academic scrutiny. This is particularly the case with socalled 'genocide tourism' (visiting places of, or associated with, genocide), a form of dark tourism that is increasingly in evidence but the consumption of which is often misunderstood and, typically, considered to display voyeuristic tendencies on the part of tourists. Focusing on the Rwandan genocide, this paper addresses this issue. Locating genocide tourism within the context of dark tourism more generally, it reviews briefly how the Rwandan genocide is presented / memorialised before considering research into how tourists experience genocide memorial sites in Rwanda. Specifically, build­ing on an earlier study that explored visitor experiences of genocide sites in Rwanda as described in travel blogs, it considers the results of an exploratory survey into tourists' experiences of the Kigali Genocide Memorial, the country's principal memorial site. The results indicate unequivocally that tourists undertake their visits with positive, meaningful intent (albeit with trepidation) and that, almost without exception, find it a challenging, powerfully emotional yet, ultimately, rewarding experience in that they begin to grasp the horror and suffering of the genocide and, indeed, leave with the desire to learn more about it.