Dark tourism: why some travellers seek out dangerous destinations

In July 1861, Washington, D.C. residents packed picnic baskets and opera glasses and rode out to the Virginia countryside to watch the first major battle of the American Civil War unfold at Manassas. One writer later called it “the worst picnic in history”, and the trend, understandably, never took off.

More than a century and a half on, however, that same morbid curiosity has evolved into a fully-fledged travel niche known as “dark tourism”, writes Joe Yogerst for CNN. These days a growing number of thrill-seekers are choosing war zones, contaminated sites and unstable borderlands as holiday destinations.

The phenomenon splits broadly into two categories. The first involves travel to countries considered inherently dangerous, among them North Korea, Afghanistan and Haiti, all currently flagged “do not travel” by the US State Department. The second draws visitors to specific sites where notorious events took place, such as Jonestown in Guyana, scene of a 1978 mass murder-suicide, or Cambodia's Killing Fields. Social media has only sharpened the appeal, turning grim locations into content for travellers eager to document the unusual.

History over hazard

For some, the pull has little to do with danger itself. Luxembourgish traveller Arnaud Kirby said his trips to countries such as Syria, Libya and Sudan are rooted in a fascination with history and a preference for destinations that see few other tourists, which he says allows for more genuine encounters with local people.

A recent trip took him to Chad – a country both the US and UK governments advise against visiting entirely, citing terrorism, unrest, crime and unexploded ordnance. Kirby encountered none of that in the capital, N'Djamena, or in Zakouma National Park, where he was struck by the friendliness of residents and by wildlife apparently unaccustomed to vehicles, including an elephant that approached his car and touched it with its trunk.

British traveller Will Aswell, speaking under a pseudonym citing concerns over future travel permissions, said he has never felt unsafe in North Korea, Iran, Ukraine or Iraq, arguing that statistically he is at greater risk in a major American city.

He described his travels as an attempt to understand the reality behind news coverage of countries often portrayed negatively in Britain and the US, saying his experience of hospitality in the Islamic world contradicted a lifetime of being told those societies were dangerous.

That is not to say the risks aren't real. Aswell recounted being pulled off a bus at gunpoint by cartel members in Mexico's Sinaloa state in 2025 and having to hand over a large sum of money to secure his release, an incident he attributed to his own decision to travel at night. Kirby, too, said guides on trips through Syria and Afghanistan constantly revised itineraries to account for military activity and terrorist threats.

Managing the risk

Alex Hobbs, an Australian guide for British operator Lupine Travel, which runs tours to unconventional and potentially hazardous destinations including Syria, Turkmenistan, Somalia and Iraq, said he does not regard these places as purely dark, pointing instead to the resilience of their cultures and the hospitality he says he regularly encounters.

Hobbs said Lupine carries out extensive research before launching new routes, building local relationships to get real-time updates on stability and support on the ground, with contingency plans built in given how quickly conditions can change.

He said the company's willingness to postpone or alter tours when security cannot be assured is something he values, alongside his own use of apps and websites for current safety information.

For Hobbs personally, the main draw is adventure and the satisfaction of reaching unusual places, though the work does not always go smoothly – earlier this year he was stranded in Qatar for several days at the outbreak of the US-Iran war en route to guide a trip in Mali, and Mali itself was hit by a wave of terrorist attacks shortly after that tour concluded.

A larger goal

Not everyone drawn to difficult destinations is chasing danger for its own sake. In 2024, London's Hayley Kennedy became the first known sight-impaired person to visit all 193 UN member states, finishing in Libya after also passing through North Korea, Iran, Somalia, Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She said her goal is to see as much of the world as possible before losing her sight entirely, travelling solo where she can and campaigning for greater disability access, which she says is rarely a priority for airlines or transport authorities. Of all 193 countries, she said the only place she felt genuinely unsafe was the Central African Republic, where she was assaulted and robbed by a woman posing as a military officer.

Confronting the darkest history

The second strand of dark tourism – visiting sites of specific atrocities rather than simply dangerous countries – is, in the words of British author H.E. Sawyer, a different undertaking altogether. Sawyer, who has written extensively on the subject, traced his interest to relatives who lived through the Blitz, a friendship with a Holocaust survivor, and an early fascination with cemeteries, though it was a visit to Chernobyl that turned that interest into academic study. He said he became interested in observing how other visitors react to and photograph such sites, while remaining conscious of how governments can use memorials for their own purposes.

Among the places Sawyer names as genuinely dark are the Welsh village of Aberfan, where a 1966 coal-tip collapse killed dozens at a primary school; Japan's Aokigahara forest, a well-known suicide site; the wreck of the passenger ferry Salem Express in the Red Sea; and the basement of Austria's Hartheim Castle, where the Nazis murdered thousands of disabled and mentally ill people before the wider Holocaust began.

One such site only recently opened to tourism is Jonestown in Guyana, where more than 900 followers of Jim Jones's Peoples Temple died in a 1978 murder-suicide. Georgetown-based operator Wanderlust Adventures began running tours there in early 2025, after first consulting the local community, according to founder Roselyn Sewcharran. She said the sensitivity of the site meant securing residents' input and support was essential before proceeding.

Visitors now fly into Port Kaituma airfield – where a US congressman and several others were shot dead by cult members shortly before the mass suicide – before driving six miles through jungle that has reclaimed most of the original settlement, save for a few rusted vehicles and machinery. Sewcharran described the tours as an educational experience aimed at both academics studying cult psychology and visitors seeking a fuller picture of the tragedy's impact on Guyanese communities, rather than only the American story usually told.