Because I will fly to Dublin on Thursday for my personal reason but I will do pilot study during a visit.
It will be a simple interview with visitors in Kilmainham Goal and Arbourhill cemetery. I'm not going to interveiw with many visitors. I might interview around 20 visitors to ask the reason to visit these sites.
Here is the part of my research proposal. Good luck with you and me!
Research proposal for MA International Tourism Management 2010-2011
Title of Research Topic
The tourist motivations and typology for travelling to sites of death, sorrow and conflict: ‘The Easter Rising’ in Dublin and its relationship with tourists’ past experiences
Background
When people consider a holiday, they may have an idea of the time and duration of their dream journey. They may also have a plan of where they want to go and what they want to see. Once holidaymakers decide on a destination, the type of journey they make could be an individual trip or a group package tour. This applies to both international and domestic travel (WTO, 2007).
When they decide to go specific areas or sites, what factors influence their decision making? And what kinds of factors encourage them to travel to a particular destination? Needless to say, there might be various reasons depending on their own personal situations or interests. Also they might seek a novelty trip, or something distinct to satisfy their needs and wants (Holloway, 2009).
For the past couple of decades, it was the dominant trend among mass market European tourists to search for the three S’s - ‘Sun’, ‘Sea’ and ‘Sand’. In recent years, it has become common to seek out distinct and unique experiences, which sharply differs with previous mass tourism patterns (Derrett, 2001). Nowadays, a number of different types of tourism have been researched energetically, not only by tourism academia but also by the tourism supply sectors. Nevertheless, still many tourists look to take their holidays in sunny beach resorts, while other tourists wish to experience something unique to satisfy their desires.
If a tourist wishes to visit specific areas associated with death, horror and massacres, what are the reasons that make them travel to these areas, where death and atrocity occurred? What do they expect to find in the fields of death? This research project, therefore will examine the motivation of tourists who travel to sites where death and atrocity took place. It will analyse tourists’ motivations in travelling to a destination where a specific fight or conflict happened in the past, as distinct from an analysis of the general motivations of dark tourists. This research project will examine why tourists visit sites associated with the 1916 ‘Easter Rising’ rebellion in Dublin, Ireland.
This author believes that this event is strongly linked with Irish patriotism and other issues such as remembrance and nationhood. Therefore this research project will take into account tourists’ links with this event and what part their ties to Ireland might play in encouraging them to visit places associated with the failed rebellion. After analysing the motivations of tourists in visiting ‘Easter Rising’ sites, this research project will then create a typology of tourists to classify their characters.
Research Questions, Objectives and Hypotheses
Questions
● Is there a dark side of the human psyche which generates a morbid fascination with death and sorrow?
● Do people take an interest in specific sites because of their own ancestral links with the event?
● Do people visit the battlefields as a type of pilgrimage?
● If the main purpose of travelling is to make a pilgrimage, do tourists also enjoy other leisure activities which are not linked with pilgrimage?
Objectives
● To clarify tourists’ motivations in visiting sites which are associated with death and atrocity.
● To discover the correlation between tourists’ backgrounds and motivations.
● To conceive a typology of so-called dark tourists visiting Easter Rising sites.
Hypotheses
1. Tourists take an interest in a specific site due to their own ancestral links with that site, especially if a site is related with their struggle for freedom.
2. Tourists who are not linked ancestrally with a specific site can be engaged deeply if they have an emotive experience as dark tourists.
