Tourism has always been a multi-dimensional, complex and “tricky” field to classify, considering its transdisciplinary nature. Tourism studies regularly intersects with different spheres across many disciplines, such as economic domains (business management and marketing), social studies (anthropology and psychology), and even engineering fields (virtual tourism and augmented reality). This year, the University of Pretoria’s (UP) Department of Historical and Heritage Studies (DHHS) has seen a student conducting research that branched out beyond all conventional tourism research, and aimed to bring about a “new era” of unconventional tourism in South Africa. This research challenges the “status quo” of tourism chains, networks, products and services at a local, regional and national level.

Louisa Jordaan, a master’s student in the DHHS, recently received the UP Museums Book Award for the best research report conducted at an honours level for the 2024 academic year at the annual Departmental awards function. This awards ceremony is an annual event held within the Faculty of Humanities and recognises students who have excelled in their undergraduate and postgraduate studies in this Department. This year’s joint recipient of the UP Museums Book Award has received a final mark of 84% for her research report, which focuses on past, present and future prospects of dark tourism in South Africa. Jordaan also obtained her honours degree with distinction at a recent graduation ceremony.

Dark tourism is a controversial topic – as it provides a space for tourists to indulge their fears and morbid fascinations, and is often frowned upon in contemporary societal structures. In the global North, this market segment has slowly become more accepted as a niche form of tourism. However, in South Africa this niche has remained largely overlooked, underrepresented and ignored by academia and practitioners alike. This evident in the fact that dark tourism attractions in the country are mostly limited to battlefields and concentration camps, whereas dark tourism overseas has branched out into graveyards, terrorist attacks, and even less censored interactions with death and human remains.

Jordaan’s research going forward will branch into human psychology, criminology, South Africa’s judiciary system, human rights, and ethics studies, all from a distinctly Heritage and Cultural Tourism perspective. Her research will look to bring about a new dispensation for dark tourism in South Africa, and will touch upon sensitive and controversial aspects of dark tourism that has never before been explored in this country, making it the first of its kind in South Africa’s tourism industry.