Exploring the psychological benefits of dark tourism basing on Environment Restoration Theory

• Main Authors: Pi-chun Lu, 盧碧純
• Other Authors: Chen-yin Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/22484518351501965437

碩士 === 南華大學 === 旅遊事業管理學系碩士班 === 97 === 　　In recent ten years, tourists have started to show great interest in sites associated with death, disaster and atrocities. Therefore, this phenomenon has drawn scholars’ attention in putting more emphasis on ‘Dark Tourism’. Dark Tourism does not only recount historical wounds, but also touches the emotions and deep feelings in the tourists’ hearts. However, very little literature has probed into the psychological benefits of Dark Tourism. For this reason, this research is based on the viewpoint of environmental restoration theory to explore the psychological reaction and feelings that tourists might have while taking part in Dark Tourism. This research also attempts to understand the psychological impact and healing effect of Dark Tourism on tourists of various traumatic experiences. 　　 　　Taiwanese people have many traumatic recollections of the 921 Earthquake occurring in 1999. The Memorial Park in Jioufenershan in Nantou is built on the epicenter and retains the site of the mud slide caused by the earthquake. This research uses questionnaires taken on location to interview tourists who visited the Memorial Park. There were a total of 395 valid questionnaires collected. For the information analysis, we employ Gradual Regression Verification to see the effect on the variable relations. 　　 　　The verification result shows that tourists with various traumatic experiences have remarkably different environment perceptions towards visiting the sites, and these perceptions have also remarkable impact on the psychological benefits brought upon the tourists. The benefits include a sense of relief and relaxation, and positive reflections, which indicates that the sites of death or disaster are worthy to preserve and will facilitate trauma healing.Finally, based on the result of this research, we provide relevant recommendations as a source of reference in the future studies for industry, the government and academia as references.