Disaster tourism
Disaster tourism is the name for the kind of travel that has watching a disaster without an active participation in the help target. Even if the disaster tourism by the vast majority of society is considered critical, it was in some cases tour operators or travel agencies that pure " show breaks" in disaster areas offering targeted and "success". However, the disaster tourism is in most forms a form of individual tourism ( for spectators ) and not always clear from the normal tourist delineate.
Examples of events in the course of which it came to disaster tourism:
- Attacks of 11 September 2001 ( even if the total number of visitors for New York declined numerically )
- Elbe flood in 2002
- Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004
- Floods in Switzerland, Austria and Bavaria in the summer of 2005
- Disaster of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005
- Wreck of the Costa Concordia in January 2012
However, any other "lesser " disaster also attracts crowds of spectators arrived in droves, such as the
- Train wreck of Dahlerau or when
- Plane crash in Remscheid.
The trips to the area of the Chernobyl disaster and in the ghost towns of Chernobyl and Pripyat belong to a type of disaster tourism. The annual influx of tourists during the flood in Cologne, where tens of thousands are on the Rhine bridges and waiting for the flooding of the old town can be seen as a disaster tourist. One reason, psychologists in sensation seeking. The media psychologist Frank Schwab said on this phenomenon: " There are people who thirst for sensations " for this tendency there is a hereditary component. You should also be gender- specific, since mainly men at puberty, were ready until the age of 25 who have a higher testosterone level, to take more risks. " For some people it is not enough to observe dangerous situations on television. You have to drive yourself to feel the kick. "
Trivia
In 1921 Karl Kraus responded to an ad in the Basler Nachrichten, with the for Battlefield Tours by car! was promoted to Verdun.