How dark is day of the dead tourism?: the case of Huaquechula, Mexico.

Abstract

Although Day of the Dead tourism falls within the purview of dark tourism, no one has approached it from this perspective before. Based on a semistructured questionnaire administered to tourists and visitors and indepth interviews conducted with bereaved families, this article addresses the question of how “dark” Day of the Dead tourism is in Huaquechula, Mexico. The results suggest that Day of the Dead tourism does not fit easily within the spectra of a supply and demand framework of dark tourism as proposed in the literature. It is argued that the terms dark tourism and even thanatourism have limited applicability to Day of the Dead tourism.