The tour guide mans the wheel, driving his guests around the city of MedellÍn. The Spanish architecture features bright colors and plenty of activity. The man is a lookalike of Pablo Escobar, and he is leading a tour of the city where the infamous cocaine kingpin hung out and killed anyone who got in his way – and many who didn’t.
The World of Dark Travel
This scene is from the Netflix series Dark Tourist, with host David Ferrier delving into the world’s seedier side. In Colombia, that includes a private tour of Escobar’s “prison” named La Catedral (The Cathedral), complete with a soccer field, bar, jacuzzi, and waterfall.
He and his henchmen served their time by partying for two years at the facility. That is until Escobar escaped when government forces attempted to move the drug lord to a traditional prison. Ferrier is led on a tour by “Popeye,” who knew Escober personally. Popeye, Escobar’s hitman, admits to 250 murders, including his girlfriend. He served 22 years in prison and now has a loyal following on YouTube.
At one point, Popeye takes visitors to the top of one of the site’s buildings. He grips a pistol and acts out a scene of his former life as an assassin for YouTube. He “fires” a few rounds, and his “enemy” falls to the ground dead. This time, it was all for the show, and this victim hops back up but offers some insight into Popeye’s former profession.
“It was an eerily convincing performance,” Ferrier says. “I could tell he’d done this before.”
Dark Tourist offers viewers a first-hand account of some of the globe’s hellholes, war zones, disaster sites, and creepy places. Dark tourism sees travelers not hitting the ski slopes but instead heading to strange yet memorable locations. Part history lesson, part travelog – these trips offer insight into the world’s underbelly. The growth of streaming and documentaries appears to pique the interest of history buffs and curious people worldwide.
Anything But All-Inclusive
Those looking for buffets and endless margaritas at the beach may not be the dark tourist type. Ferrier is interested in this type of vacation, and he’s not the only one. One recent survey put the global market for dark travel at $31.9 billion and climbed to $40.8 billion by 2034.
“I’ve always been drawn to the weirder side of life,” Ferrier says in the first episode of Dark Tourist. “So I’ve decided to investigate dark tourism, where people avoid the ordinary and head for holidays in war zones, disaster sites, and other offbeat destinations.”
That journey includes a trip to the Fukushima radiation disaster site in Japan. Still, Ferrier finds that his tour group’s radiation readings are higher than what they are told is safe. His other excursions include:
- Visiting a forbidden city in Cyprus.
- Witnessing the cleansing of a mummified corpse in Indonesia.
- Attending a voodoo festival in Benin.
Early Exploration
Hohenhaus’s father wasn’t interested in a traditional outing with his boy growing up. He often took Hohenhaus to an out-of-commission peat bog in northern Germany, where they climbed on rusty, abandoned cutting and transportation equipment. Another stop was Hamburg’s harbor – checking out the boats, cargo vessels, and heavy equipment. Other outings included scrap yards and quays (platforms projecting into the water for loading and unloading ships).
A trip to the inner frontier border between East and West Germany allowed Hohenhaus and his father to explore abandoned houses and to drive and walk on the then-unused old Hamburg-Berlin motorway. The highway was primarily unused and littered with potholes and debris as far as the eye could see. His father’s sense of adventure has stuck with him. Seeing the Berlin Wall, then in full use by the communist eastern section of the city, was another memorable trip that made an impact.
The Road Less Traveled
“I’ve always been drawn towards dark tourism, even long before I knew the term existed,” he says. “This is quite common; I’ve heard the same thing from others too. You have to remember that ‘dark tourism’ is a term that was invented in the 1990s within British academia – and few travelers bother with what’s going on in those ivory towers. Yet journalists got wind of it and subsequently sensationalized the concept, often misrepresenting actual dark tourism in unjustifiable and even malicious ways as morally dubious and voyeuristic – which is certainly not beyond what any tourism as such inherently is.”
To Hohenhaus, these trips were simply a way to immerse oneself in the world – warts and all. He first encountered the term “dark travel” in 2007 while reading about an academic research topic. The professor named several places Hohenhaus had already visited over the years, including Chernobyl, North Korea, and Robben Island, a longtime prison island off the coast of South Africa where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years. Robben was also used as a leper colony and animal quarantine station in the 19th Century.
“So I thought, ‘Cool, there’s a word for what I like when traveling,” he says. “I did not have that common knee-jerk reaction when encountering the term dark tourism for the first time, and I automatically assumed it must mean something negative. That could have to do with the fact that, at the time, I was into the Gothic music scene, where ‘dark’ is not a negative word but quite a key positive marker of the genre, something you specifically look for.
Simply Another Type of Travel
After many trips to what many might consider unsavory locations, Hohenhaus looks to dispel some of the negative connotations with these types of outings. The term “dark travel” is a broad term, and what may seem dark to one may be an interest in history or adventure to another – from visiting Auschwitz to Alcatraz to the 9/11 Memorial.
“The reasons for dark tourists visiting the places they do visit are as diverse as are the places in question and the people visiting them,” he says. “The only vague common thing is that the places are in some way related to historical tragedy, death, disasters, persecution, wreckage, etcetera – things that history has always been full of, though dark tourists tend to concentrate on modern dark history. Moreover, a common thread of most dark tourism sites is that they are somewhat off the beaten track, offering something different from the standardized offerings of mainstream tourism and guidebooks.”
Points of Interest
Many visitors are simply paying homage to the dark location and the events that went on there or to learn about unique events of the past. About 2.5 million people visit the Alamo each year, a place where a couple of hundred Texans died defending the fort. In London, tours of White Chapel to check out sites of the Jack the Ripper murders are extremely popular.
Shows like Discovery’s Mysteries of the Abandoned also take viewers to bizarre locations, making these travels even more popular. Even PBS’s Secrets of the Dead looks at some grisly murders and creepy places, and science and archaeology are thrown in.
However, the idea that travelers are getting involved in hazardous activities may be more Hollywood than reality – although some might argue that trips to nuclear disasters and the hermit kingdom of North Korea may not be the safest choices. More remote locations may also bring some logistical challenges. Hohenhaus points to his visits to Kazakhstan, the Falkland Islands, and Jonestown in Guyana as a few examples.
No Special Clearance Required
Other places are relatively easy to visit. Hohenhaus has also visited the Titan II Missile site in Arizona, the Minuteman missile site in South Dakota, and the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas. As these locations show, dark tourism doesn’t have to mean risking life and limb.
“As I’ve said on numerous occasions: I have learned more about the world through dark tourism than through all my formal education or previous academic career,” Hohenhaus says. “In short, dark travel is a good thing. No doubt.”
The tour guide mans the wheel, driving his guests around the city of MedellÍn. The Spanish architecture features bright colors and plenty of activity. The man is a lookalike of Pablo Escobar, and he is leading a tour of the city where the infamous cocaine kingpin hung out and killed anyone who got in his way – and many who didn’t.
This scene is from the Netflix series Dark Tourist, with host David Ferrier delving into the world’s seedier side. In Colombia, that includes a private tour of Escobar’s “prison” named La Catedral (The Cathedral), complete with a soccer field, bar, jacuzzi, and waterfall.
Unmatched Exploration
He and his henchmen served their time by partying for two years at the facility until Escobar escaped when government forces attempted to move the drug lord to a traditional prison. Ferrier is led on a tour by “Popeye,” who knew Escober personally – his hit man who admits to 250 murders, including his girlfriend. He served 22 years in prison and now has a loyal following on YouTube.
At one point, the heavily tattooed Popeye takes his guests to the top of one of the site’s buildings with an expansive view of the surrounding city and mountains. He grips a pistol and acts out a scene of his former life as an assassin for YouTube. He “fires” a few rounds, and his “enemy” falls to the ground dead. This time, it was all for the show, and this victim hops back up but offers some insight into Popeye’s former profession.
“It was an eerily convincing performance,” Ferrier says. “I could tell he’d done this before.”
Dark Tourist offers viewers a first-hand account of some of the globe’s hellholes, war zones, disaster sites, and creepy places. Dark tourism sees travelers not hitting the ski slopes or toasting in the wine country but heading to strange yet memorable locations. Part history lesson, part travelog – these trips offer insight into the world’s underbelly. The growth of streaming and documentaries appears to pique the interest of history buffs and curious people worldwide.
Anything But All-Inclusive
Those looking for buffets and endless margaritas at the beach may not be the dark tourist type. Ferrier is interested in this type of vacation, and he’s not the only one. One recent survey put the global market for dark travel at $31.9 billion and climbed to $40.8 billion by 2034.
“I’ve always been drawn to the weirder side of life,” Ferrier says in the first episode of Dark Tourist. “So I’ve decided to investigate dark tourism, where people avoid the ordinary and head for holidays in war zones, disaster sites, and other offbeat destinations.”
That journey includes a trip to the Fukushima radiation disaster site in Japan, where visitors are told the area is safe. Still, Ferrier finds that his tour group’s radiation readings are higher than what they are told is safe. His other excursions include:
- Visiting a forbidden city in Cyprus.
- Witnessing the cleansing of a mummified corpse in Indonesia.
- Attending a voodoo festival in Benin
Dr. Peter Hohenhaus
Dr. Peter Hohenhaus is at the forefront of this niche type of travel. The 60-year-old writer is the creator and curator of dark-tourism.com, the largest online resource for dark tourists, and the author of the 2021 book Atlas of Dark Destinations. Originally from Hamburg, Germany, and now living in Vienna, Austria, Hohenhaus became interested in the subject early.
Hohenhaus’s father wasn’t interested in a traditional outing with his boy growing up. He often took Hohenhaus to an out-of-commission peat bog in northern Germany, where they climbed on rusty, abandoned cutting and transportation equipment. Another stop was Hamburg’s harbor. Checking out the boats, cargo vessels, and heavy equipment. Other outings included scrap yards and platforms used for cargo.
A trip to the border between East and West Germany allowed Hohenhaus and his father to explore abandoned houses. They also explored the then-unused old Hamburg-Berlin motorway. The highway was primarily unused and littered with potholes and debris as far as the eye could see. His father’s sense of adventure has stuck with him. Seeing the Berlin Wall, then in full use by the communist eastern section of the city, was another memorable trip that made an impact.
World Travelers
“I’ve always been drawn towards dark tourism, even long before I knew the term existed,” he says. “This is quite common; I’ve heard the same thing from others too. You have to remember that ‘dark tourism’ is a term that was invented in the 1990s within British academia. Few travelers bother with what’s going on in those ivory towers. Yet journalists got wind of it and subsequently sensationalized the concept. Often misrepresenting actual dark tourism in unjustifiable and even malicious ways as morally dubious and voyeuristic. Which is certainly not beyond what any tourism as such inherently is.”
To Hohenhaus, these trips were simply a way to immerse oneself in the world, warts and all. He first encountered the term “dark travel” in 2007 while reading about an academic research topic. The professor named several places Hohenhaus had already visited over the years. This included Chernobyl, North Korea, and Robben Island. A longtime prison island off the coast of South Africa, where Nelson Mandela remained imprisoned for 18 years. Robben was also used as a leper colony and animal quarantine station in the 19th Century.
“So I thought, ‘Cool, there’s a word for what I like when traveling,” he says. “I did not have that common knee-jerk reaction when encountering the term dark tourism for the first time, and I automatically assumed it must mean something negative. That could have to do with the fact that, at the time, I was into the Gothic music scene, where ‘dark’ is not a negative word but quite a key positive marker of the genre, something you specifically look for.
Simply Another Type of Travel
After many trips to what many might consider unsavory locations, Hohenhaus looks to dispel some of the negative connotations with these types of outings. The term “dark travel” is a broad term, and what may seem dark to one may be an interest in history or adventure to another. From visiting Auschwitz to Alcatraz to the 9/11 Memorial.
“The reasons for dark tourists visiting the places they do visit are as diverse as are the places in question and the people visiting them,” he says. “The only vague common thing is that the places are in some way related to historical tragedy, death, disasters, persecution, wreckage, etcetera – things that history has always been full of, though dark tourists tend to concentrate on modern dark history. Moreover, a common thread of most dark tourism sites is that they are somewhat off the beaten track, offering something different from the standardized offerings of mainstream tourism and guidebooks.”
Many visitors are simply paying homage to the dark location and the events that went on there or to learn about unique events of the past. About 2.5 million people visit the Alamo each year, a place where a couple of hundred Texans died defending the fort. In London, tours of White Chapel to check out sites of the Jack the Ripper murders are extremely popular.
The Power of Television
Shows like Discovery’s Mysteries of the Abandoned also take viewers to bizarre locations, making these travels even more popular. Even PBS’s Secrets of the Dead looks at some grisly murders and creepy places, and science and archaeology are thrown in.
However, the idea that travelers are getting involved in hazardous activities may be more Hollywood than reality. Some might argue that trips to nuclear disasters and the hermit kingdom of North Korea may not be the safest choices. More remote locations may also bring some logistical challenges. Hohenhaus points to his visits to Kazakhstan, the Falkland Islands, and Jonestown in Guyana as a few examples.
Other places are relatively easy to visit. Hohenhaus has also visited the Titan II Missile site in Arizona, the Minuteman missile site in South Dakota, and the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas. As these locations show, dark tourism doesn’t have to mean risking life and limb.
“As I’ve said on numerous occasions: I have learned more about the world through dark tourism than through all my formal education or previous academic career,” Hohenhaus says. “In short, dark travel is a good thing. No doubt.”
