Chapter 3: Dark and Deep: Mapping Psycho-Somatic Decision Triggers for Visits in Trauma-Evoking Places Through Bibliometric Analysis and TCCM Framework

Death and trauma, recreated through visuals and narratives, are getting wrapped up as tourism products. The spooky and mystified events of suffering and death are the neo-thrills that the tourists are tempted to peek into. The re-engineering of sufferings, deaths, violence, and horrific incidents is getting translated into a comprehensive recreational itinerary. Dark tourism started to gain prominence during the late 1980s, and by the mid-1990s, it was inducted into the academic discourse. Since then, Dark tourism has been etymologized based on visitors’ intention and motivation, such as Ghost Tourism, Cemetery Tourism, Holocaust Tourism, Genocide Tourism, and Grief Tourism. Researchers have made attempts to understand the bouquet of reasons that pull the decision triggers for such visits. While some identified “fascination with the morbid,” “ghoulish titillation,” and “schadenfreude or malicious joy” as the motives, others found “empathy for the victims of atrocity,” “confronting mortality,” and “interest in macabre exhibitions” as the potent set of stimuli. This study invokes bibliometric analysis and the TCCM (Theory, Context, Characteristics and Methodology) framework to examine research works carried out to comprehend psycho-somatic decision-making toward visiting trauma-evoked places. The study used the Dimensions.ai database and Biblioshiny and VOSviewer to carry out the analysis. The results revealed seven focal areas where Dark Tourism could be explored in the future. Four independent thematic clusters of decision triggers were identified, namely, paranormal interlocking, metaphysical experience, dystopian consumption, liminality, and morbid temptations. Finally, the TCCM framework was used for identifying areas that could be explored in the future in the context of Dark Tourism psychology.