11Original Scientific Paper UDC: 338.48-6:7/8
719:7(497.11)
doi: 10.5937/menhottur2301127M
Dark tourism in Serbia: Case study of the
Kragujevacki oktobar Memorial Park
Radovan Miletic1, Danijela Pantovic1*, Linda Veliverronena2
1 University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Hotel Management and Tourism in Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia
2 Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, Institute of Social, Economic and Humanities Research, Valmiera, Latvia
Abstract: The study presented in the paper employs the benefit-based approach to analyse the potentials of dark tourism as a context which outlines cultural tourism within a broader framework of contemporary tourism development. The focus of the research is the Kragujevacki oktobar Memorial Park, which is one of the most infamous dark tourism spots in Serbia - well known among its residents as well as the Balkan region. The research looks into the travellers’ reasons for visiting the sight, their on-site experiences and benefits gained. The results of the study highlight the identified motivation and reasons for visiting the Memorial Park, as well as provide a comprehensive overview of the ways the visitors are affected.
Keywords: memorial park, dark tourism, benefit-based approach, Kragujevacki oktobar JEL classification: Z10, Z32
Mracni turizam u Srbiji: Studija slucaja Spomen-parka Kragujevacki oktobar
Sazetak: Studija predstavljena u radu koristi pristup zasnovan na koristima za analizu potencijala mracnog turizma kao konteksta koji kulturni turizam ocrtava u sirem okviru savremenog razvoja turizma. U fokusu istrazivanja je Spomen-park Kragujevacki oktobar, koji je jedno od najzloglasnijih mracnih turistickih mesta u Srbiji - dobro poznato medu stanovnicima, ali i na Balkanu. Istrazivanje se bavi razlozima putnika za posetu znamenitosti, njihovim iskustvima na licu mesta i stecenim koristima. Rezultati studije isticu identifikovanu motivaciju i razloge za posetu Spomen parku, kao i sveobuhvatan pregled iskustava posetilaca.
Kljucne reci: memorijalni park, mracni turizam, pristup zasnovan na koristima, Kragujevacki oktobar JEL klasifikacija: Z10, Z32
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
1. Introduction
With an increasing amount of information becoming ever more readily available and accessible to the general masses - greatly aided by the rapid growth of ICT and the use of the Internet - tourists nowadays are better-informed compared to those that travelled in the last century. Due to this fact, travellers tend to use ICT to best aid their tourism-related needs (Charkina et al., 2022). Being acquainted with the users’ needs and knowing the ways of fulfilling them, the tourism service providers have been trying to meet the specific needs of users by developing numerous niche branches, one of them being dark tourism.
Traveling to locations that have traditionally been linked to tragedy and death is referred to as dark tourism, also known as thana tourism (as in Thanatos, the embodiment of death in Greek mythology), black tourism, or grief tourism (Foley & Lenon, 1996). However, the attention has recently been drawn to the fact that the concept of dark tourism should also incorporate the reasons or the motivation for tourists to visit such places because of their role in making a ‘dark tourist’ (Antic et al., 2021; Issac & Qakmak, 2013). Many tourists visiting these types of destinations may just be interested in the destination’s history or cultural and heritage value, or they might be the family and relatives of the affected. Dark places are more popular for their history than for their association with sorrow and death (Reed, 2007). According to the studies on motivation for visiting dark tourism destinations (Biran & Poria, 2012; Biran et al., 2011; Du et al., 2013; Miles, 2014), visitors who are interested in these destinations tend to have an interest in attempting to understand and learn about past events. In this sense, dark tourism has common motivations for visiting with heritage/cultural tourism (Light, 2017).
There is an abundance of destinations and historical sites that can be used to attract dark tourists and further educate them about the history of the Serbian people, while promoting the cultural heritage of the country. Since there is no recorded activity on promotion of dark tourism in Serbia known to the authors, the major problem that could be faced in the implementation is the limitations originating from the improper and inefficient promotion of tourist products to their respective target audiences. Another problem that arises is a lack of financial support from the Government when it comes to securing and preservation of these historical sites.
2. Theoretical background
The definitional framework for dark tourism was too narrow prior to the 1996 publication of the monograph Dark Tourism: the attraction of death and disaster (Lennon, 2017). The author did, however, posit that the spectrum of dark tourism may be used to identify elements of the ancient, modern, and post-modern. He goes on to say that dark tourism entails: “(1) Visits to death sites and disaster scenes, (2) Visits to sites of mass or individual death, (3) Visits to sites of incarceration, (4) Visits to representations or simulations associated with death and (5) Visits to re-enactments and human interpretation of death” (Lennon & Powell, 2018, p. 1).
For a long time, people have been drawn to places that have seen death, calamity, misery, bloodshed, and killing. Death has always been an attraction, from gladiatorial combat in ancient Rome to seeing public hangings in London. On the day following the first battle of the American Civil War, Manassas, the location of battle was advertised as a prospective tourist destination (Foley & Lennon, 2000) and the viewing of the battlefield of Waterloo by non-combatants was recorded in 1816 (Seaton, 1999). The beginning of the 21st century was marked by one of the worst terrorist attacks known to modern society. Ground Zero, i.e. the place where the World Trade Centre used to stand is now a memorial park that is visited by
thousands of people every year (Sharpley, 2018). The final resting place of Diana, Princess of Wales, who passed away in Paris and buried at Althorpe, United Kingdom, serves as another illustration of the point. Althorpe achieved significant visitation for the three years immediately following her death (Rowe, 2007). Academic interest in these phenomena was pioneered in the work of Rojek (1993) and Ashworth (1996) and Foley and Lennon (1996) and this has, in turn, contributed to considerable interest both in academia, mainstream and electronic media. Today, a wide variety of locations are connected with dark tourism, ranging from Holocaust sites—which may contain evidence of genocide, mass murder, incarceration, and experiments—to the manufactured Merlin Entertainment PLC business (Lennon, 2017).
Due to its complex nature, dark tourism can often be misidentified or improperly noted as heritage tourism, one of the most prominent examples being Rome. Namely, when talking about the Colosseum, which is one of Italy’s most well-known destinations, it is very hard to distinguish the true reason for some tourist visits, even in the eyes of the tourists themselves (Martini & Buda, 2020). The issue of whether they visit this destination purely because it is a cultural symbol of Italy, or because they can appreciate the events that took place there and have shaped the history and entertainment industry from such early times (Buda, 2015) does not imply a simple answer. The complexity of providing the answers is further deepened by the fact that all the mentioned reasons are mutually interwoven and do not often function on a solitary basis. Some people might only be visiting the Colosseum because it is one of the ‘New seven world wonders’ and might never consider the tragedy and suffering that took place on its stage (Stone, 2013).
Jamin et al. (2020) see dark tourism as one of many examples of tourism products that can respond to tourists’ constant search for new trends. The findings of these authors indicate that dark tourism can substantially contribute to the development of the future tourism industry. Additionally, when taking media into consideration, it has also helped increase the demand for dark tourism through all the attention it has been giving to such places through various recreations and reproductions either for educational or entertainment purposes. This type of content has become ever less censored over the years allowing the media and the movie industry to portray what happened in these places with greater accuracy and true-to-life storytelling (Miles, 2014). Another thing worth mentioning regarding media’s influence is the awareness function in real-time reportage and informing the general masses of crimes that may be brutal. Current media trends require the audience to know exactly what is happening, as it is happening (Ashworth & Isaac, 2015). As a result, the audience has a higher awareness of the presence of destinations of aforementioned crimes and develops a higher level of understanding of their importance. In regard to that, with higher awareness, people are more likely to do the research themselves and to visit and explore these places (Biran & Hyde, 2013). Certainly, as Bowman and Pezzullo (2009) emphasised, dark tourism is not a bright or cheerful travel practice, but it causes cultural learning through instructive moral, spiritual and ideological rewards.
As the paper of Ivanova and Light (2018) reports, a majority of participants of the survey, who actually visited dark tourism spots, did so with general or incidental reasons unrelated to the site itself and a limited few have reported informal education as their main motive for visiting such places. Zheng et al. (2020) pointed out that places of death for modern tourism could be places of spiritual transformation and sanctity. These authors have shown how emotional experiences can be transformed and constructed into the meaning of a place from the aspect of tourism. In addition, the motivations and visits of tourists within dark tourism are increasing, as shown in research by Lewis et al. (2021), who show travel choices in dark tourism that result from personal beliefs and preferences.
Stone (2012) classifies and uses examples to map dark tourism places, based on different topics: “(.1) Dark Tourism as Narrative; (2) Dark Tourism as Education; (3) Dark Tourism as Entertainment; (4) Dark Tourism as Haunting (Memories); (5) Dark Tourism as Memorialisation; (6) Dark Tourism as Moral Instruction; and (7) Dark Tourism as Memento Mori” (p. 1577). In Stone’s research, dark tourism places are often identified with multiple themes and include more than one category. However, as Stone and Sharpley (2008) point out, dark tourism plays an important role in ‘reviving mortality’ through its modern representation and commemorative situations. Taking into account Stone’s classification, most studies are mapped from multiple aspects, and the current study can be first related to dark tourism as education and dark tourism as memorialisation.
In order to understand the correlations between travelling to learn, gaining experience or having a sense of moral obligation, this study employs a benefit-based approach used in a similar study (Kang et al., 2012) focusing on a memorial park in South Korea. Originally, this approach was utilised by Driver et al. (1987). Kang et al. (2012) point out the effectiveness of using a benefit-based approach in the evaluation of visitors’ experiences along with Driver et al. (1991) and Lee and Driver (1999) who have applied this approach to recreation sites and Prentice et al. (1998) who have applied it to heritage parks. McIntosh (1999) further applied it to product development of heritage tourism as well as its promotion. This paper aims to contribute to the existing literature on the topic of dark tourism employing tested approaches by examining the correlation of personal and moral obligations and motives for visiting a dark tourism destination, i.e. the Kragujevacki oktobar Memorial Park.
3.Research area
The Kragujevac Massacre was the mass murder of around 2700 Serbs carried out by the troops of the Wehrmacht following the order of Franz Friedrich Bohme. After having liberated the town of Gornji Milanovac, Chetniks and Partisans intercepted Nazi troops near the city of Kragujevac, killing 10 Nazi soldiers and wounding 26. On October 10th, an order was issued to shoot 100 people for one German soldier killed, and fifty for one wounded - a plan originally devised by Adolf Hitler in order to suppress the resistance in Eastern Europe (Glisic, 1970). The main casualties of this crime were the male population of Kragujevac and nearby villages, ranging in age from twelve to sixty-five.
In 1953, the Kragujevaki Oktobar Memorial Park was created covering an area of 352 ha. Total of 30 mass tombs are located there. (Kragujevacki oktobar Memorial Park, 2023). The area has been laid out by the urban project of two architects Mihailo Mitrovic and Radivoje Tomic. To date, ten sculptural-architectonic pieces have been built over ten of the tombs. A true emblem of the city is one of them, the Monument to the Shot Pupils and Teachers (Martinovic, 2013). Apart from the main museum building, there are memorials in the memorial park, such as the Monument of Pain and Defiance, Crystal Flower, Stone Sleeper and A Hundred for One. The Memorial Park was declared a Cultural Heritage of Extreme Importance on 27th December 1979 (Kragujevacki oktobar Memorial Park, 2023) (Figure 1).
On February 15, 1976, the 21. Oktobar Museum was established in the Memorial Park with the purpose of collecting, processing, preserving, and presenting the records pertaining to the shooting and the victims through displays and written materials. Additionally, the Park organises traditional manifestations every year on 21st October, when, inspired by the event, many foreign visitors come to Serbia. Every year since 1971, on the grounds surrounding the Monument to the Shot Pupils and Teachers, the main manifestation called the Great School Lesson has been held. Famous actors, opera singers, and choirs perform original pieces with uplifting themes in honor of the Kragujevac students and citizens. The pieces were composed by renowned domestic and international composers (Kragujevacki oktobar Memorial Park, 2023).
Figure 1: Location of the Kragujevacki oktobar Memorial Park
Source: Authors’ adaptation of MapChart.net
The purpose of the Memorial Park is to preserve and honor the memory of this awful incident, as well as to inform and mobilize the next generation to prevent such a crime from happening again (Kragujevacki oktobar Memorial Park, 2023). According to the most recent statistics, school field excursions were the main reason that students visited the Memorial Park over the past ten years, making it a mandatory stop for most Serbian primary schools because of the park's educational capacity (Dimitrovski et al., 2014).
4. Methods of research
The survey presented in the research employed an anonymous questionnaire (Millan et al., 2021). The questionnaire was first developed in .doc format and then exported in electronic form. The cover page instructed participants to provide a truthful answer on whether they had visited the Memorial Park. The respondents were informed about the type and duration of the questionnaire, as well as the protection of their data. They were free to accept or decline participation, without explanation (Karacic & Oreskovic, 2017). A questionnaire was created on a Google form (Google Forms, Google, Inc., USA) which accepted only the answers provided by the tourists who had visited the sight. The form of the questionnaire was created so that anonymity was guaranteed with the option not to collect emails (Makwanise & Masunda, 2023). Apart from emails, participants did not leave any personal information. The data collection process began on June 5, 2022, when it was sent to 355 email addresses. The eliminatory question was about everyone who visited the Memorial Park in the past two years. The spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus made it very difficult to collect data from a large on-site sample. Therefore, the sample consists of 112 respondents.
A review of recent literature on dark tourism indicates an increasing academic interest in this topic. Most of the findings are related to motivation and interest in learning, education, cultural heritage and understanding of dark tourism events (Stone & Sharpley, 2008). The idea of applying correlation and factor analysis arose from the results of Kang et al. (2012) and Lewis et al. (2021). In addition to these studies, Zheng et al. (2018) investigated the motivation of dark tourism using a 5-point scale through correlation by adding the value of Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, which was also applied in this paper. The greatest contributions of the research are the relationships between motivation and the positive and
negative factors that create the motivation. Moreover, Tang (2014) significantly emphasised the importance of the correlation between motivation, experience and benefits in dark tourism locations. In line with our study, this author also uses correlation, whereby the analysis is also preceded by the calculation of Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and Kaiser Normalisation for varimax rotation (KMO). The current survey had four categories of questions. The first one focused on the reasons for visiting the site, the visitors’ activities on the site and the settings of the occasion, and the second group of questions focused on cognitive on-site experiences, as well as visitors’ thoughts and attitudes. The third group of questions was related to affective experiences, whereas the fourth concerned the benefits gained from visiting the site.
The majority of the survey participants were female (70.5%). As for the age range, 32.1% of the participants were 41 to 50 and 30.4% of them were 51 to 60, which makes this survey mostly answered by mature adults from many different walks of life, with various life experience. Regarding the level of education, 34.8% of participants had a bachelor’s degree, and 20.5% had a master’s degree. The results point to the fact that the participants are quite highly educated and, as such, have more academic knowledge and world experience, which has helped them decide what to look for, or notice while travelling. Upon completion of the gathering process, the data were processed and analysed by use of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS, version 26). The exploratory factor analysis allowed a reduction in the number of key items. Accordingly, the following reductions have been made: reasons to visit - from 8 to 3; cognitive experiences - from 12 to 3; affective experiences - from 10 to 3 and gained benefits - from 15 to 4 dimensions. Using Pearson’s correlations these dimensions as well as their interrelationships were examined.
5. Research results and discussion
Four different levels of the benefit-based approach were identified within the research, i.e. reasons for visiting, the setting, experiences and gained benefits upon visiting the Kragujevacki oktobar Memorial Park. By identifying these fo ur factors, it was possible to examine their relationships and the way they correlate with each other. The setting factor was considered to be a fixed one, which lead to the research being primarily focused on the relationship between reasons for visiting the site (R), and visitor experiences (TA & E) as well as gained benefits (GB) from their visit and such experiences.
Table 1 indicates three key dimensions of reasons to visit, i.e. willingness to learn, general interest in ideological conflict and moral obligation to get informed and visit the site. These reasons were related to cognitive and affective experiences to the highest degree. Willingness to learn more about the incident was not as significantly associated with the other six dimensions representing cognitive and affective experiences as some of the other reasons to visit, e.g. the factor of innocent victims of the incident proved not to be significant. However, the factors of the way of life during the period of the incident (r(112) = 0.208, p<0.05) and the importance of education (r(112) = 0.271, p<0.01) both have a strong positive correlation with the factor of learning (RL). Such findings are in line with Zheng et al. (2020), who pointed out that the places of death from the perspective of tourists become very significant in the impact of emotional experiences in dark tourism.
When it comes to affective experiences related to sadness because of the circumstances people were in to fight each other (AS) (r(112) = 0.323, p<0.01), the obtained results point to their importance to the research. Namely, the correlation coefficients for affective experiences related to compassion for the innocent victims (AC) and empathy with the painful lives of the survivors (AE) proved to be r(112) = 0.194, p<0.05, i.e. r(112) = 0.195, p<0.05, respectively. All six examined dimensions have a positive relationship with learning
(RL), the strongest being the relationship between learning and sadness because of the circumstances people were in to fight each other (AE) (0.323), while the weakest proved to be the relationship between learning (RL) and compassion for the innocent victims (AC) (0.194).
The next factor to be observed is general interest in ideological conflict (RH). It was more strongly associated with the same six dimensions compared to RL. Thus, the following correlation coefficients for the observed dimensions were calculated: innocent victims of the incident (r(112) = 0.267, p<0.01); the way of life during the period of the incident (r(112) = 0.238, p<0.05); the importance of education (r(112) = 0.380, p<0.01); in regard to affective experiences: sadness because of the circumstances people were in to fight each other (r(112) = 0.318, p<0.01); compassion for the innocent victims again is not a significant dimension (r(112) = 0.150, p<0.05); while empathy with the painful lives of the survivors is with r(112) = 0.260, p<0.01. This means the strongest relationship for the factor of RH is the importance of education (CE) (0.380) and the weakest relationship is the one between RH and way of life during the period of the incident (CL) (0.238). These results coalign with Bowman and Pezzullo (2009) who maintain that a trip aimed at researching dark tourism is a redirection of the gaze from a tourist tour to a real representation of the history of a tourist destination.
Lastly, the moral obligation to get informed and visit the site (RO) had the strongest association with the six mentioned dimensions belonging to the factor of the reasons to visit. Thus, the calculated correlation coefficients are as follows: innocent victims of the incident -r(112) = 0.438, p<0.01; the way of life during the period of the incident - r(112) = 0.295, p<0.01; the importance of education - r(112) = 0.383, p<0.01; sadness because of the circumstances people were in to fight each other - r(112) = 0.461, p<0.01; compassion for the innocent victims - r(112) = 0.306, p<0.001; and empathy with the painful lives of the survivors - r(112) = 0.331, p<0.01. All of the six dimensions in correlation to the RO had a strong association, with the relationship between the RO and AE being the strongest (0.461) and the relationship between RO and CL being the weakest. The findings are in line with Lewis et al. (2021) who showed that the dark experience is the most influential construct of dark tourism tested through the method of factor analysis.
Table 1: Correlation test between Reasons (R) and Experiences (TA & E)
Cognitive Affective
CI CL CE AS AC AE
RL Pearson Correlation 0.102 0.208* 0.271** 0.323** 0.194* 0.195*
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.283 0.027 0.004 0.001 0.041 0.040
N 112 112 112 112 112 112
RH Pearson Correlation 0.267** 0.238* 0.380** 0.318** 0.150 0.260**
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.004 0.011 0.000 0.001 0.114 0.006
N 112 112 112 112 112 112
RO Pearson Correlation 0.438** 0.295** 0.383** 0.461** 0.306** 0.331**
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.002 0.000 0.000 0.001 0.000
N 112 112 112 112 112 112
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) Source: Authors’ research
Similarly to the previous relationships, Pearson’s correlation was also used to determine the significance of the relationships between the six dimensions of visitor experiences and the four dimensions of gained benefits. The results in Table 2 indicate a strong correlation between the before-mentioned dimensions.
The factor of innocent victims (CI) was significantly associated with all four dimensions of gained benefits. Thus, the calculated correlation coefficients are as follows: realised how terrible the incident that took place in the destination was (GT) - r(112) = 0.554, p<0.01; learned that a large number of innocent people lost their lives in the incident (GS) - r(112) = 0.383, p<0.01, gained an insight into the tough lives of one’s ancestors (GL) - r(112) = 0.330, p<0.01 and understood the value of peace (GP) - r(112) = 0.451, p<0.01. For the first dimensions in the table, the strongest relationship can be noticed between CI and GT (0.554), while the weakest is the one between CI and GL (0.330). The factor of the way of life (CL) was also significantly associated with the four dimensions: terrible incident (GT) (r(112) = 0.239, p<0.05); innocent people (GS) (r(112) = 0.230, p<0.05); tough lives (GL) (r(112) = 0.237, p<0.05); and the value of peace (GP) (r(112) = 0.209, p<0.05). CL has the highest correlation coefficient with GT (0.239), while the lowest correlation coefficient is with GP (0.209). The third dimension, the importance of education (CE) is more strongly associated with the given four dimensions compared to CL which is illustrated by the following correlation coefficients: the terrible incident (GT) - r(112) = 0.474, p<0.01, innocent people
(GS) - r(112) = 0.337, p<0.01, tough lives (GL) - r(112) = 0.378, p<0.01 and finally, (GP) -r(112) = 0.479, p<0.01. The last of cognitive experience dimensions shows the strongest correlation coefficient with GP (0.479) and the lowest correlation coefficient with GS (0.337), which is still considered a strong association.
Further insight into the data presented in Table 2, points to a rather strong relationship between the three dimensions related to affective experiences and gained benefits. When it comes to the affective experiences noted by the visitors, sadness because of circumstances (AS) is very strongly associated with the dimensions of gained benefits, i.e. terrible incident
(GT) (r(112) = 0.498, p<0.01); innocent people (GS) (r(112) = 0.448, p<0.01); tough lives (GL) (r(112) = 0.471, p<0.01) and value of peace (GP) (r(112) = 0.571, p<0.01). Albeit all of the dimensions have a strong relationship with AS, the strongest one is between AS and GP (0.0.571), while the weakest relationship is between AS and GS at (0.448). As indicated by the obtained data, compassion for innocent victims (AC) has the strongest significance related to the gained benefits: terrible incident (GT) (r(112) = 0.516, p<0.01); innocent people (GS) (r(112) = 0.467, p<0.01); tough lives (GL) (r(112) = 0.323, p<0.01) and lastly value of peace (GP) (r(112) = 0.648, p<0.01). When it comes to the next relationship, the strongest was the one between AC and GP, which was overall the strongest relationship in the table (0.648) and the weakest one for these dimensions is the relationship between AC and GL (0.323). The final dimension in the table empathy with the painful lives of the survivors (AE) shows a strong correlation with the four dimensions of gained benefits, but a less strong one than the previous dimension. This affective experience dimension records the following coefficients: for the terrible incident (GT) - r(112) = 0.410, p<0.01; for innocent people (GS) - r(112) = 0.415, p<0.01; for tough lives (GL) - r(112) = 0.451, p<0.01 and finally, for the value of peace (GP) it shows the coefficient of - r(112) = 0.407, p<0.01. In this final correlation, the strongest relationship can be observed between AE and GL at (0.451), while the weakest is the one between aE and GP at (0.407).
Table 2: Correlation test between visitor experiences and gained benefits
GT GS GL GP
CI Pearson Correlation 0.554** 0.383** 0.330** 0.451**
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
N 112 112 112 112
CL Pearson Correlation 0.239* 0.230* 0.237* 0.209*
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.011 0.015 0.012 0.027
N 112 112 112 112
CE Pearson Correlation 0.474** 0.337** 0.378** 0.479**
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
N 112 112 112 112
AS Pearson Correlation 0.498** 0.448** 0.471** 0.571**
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
N 112 112 112 112
AC Pearson Correlation 0.516** 0.467** 0.323** 0.648**
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.000 0.001 0.000
N 112 112 112 112
AE Pearson Correlation 0.410** 0.415** 0.451** 0.407**
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
N 112 112 112 112
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) Source: Authors’ research
Table 3 shows Cronbach’s Alpha value, which is used to measure the reliability or the internal consistency of a questionnaire using the Likert scale. It is shown as a number between 0 and 1 and describes to which extent the items or the questions in the survey measure the same concept or construct (Tavakol & Dennick, 2011). Cronbach’s Alpha value for this particular survey is 0.955 which is generally considered to be an exceptionally reliable score, which means the questions in the survey are indeed measuring the same concept.
Table 3: Cronbach’s Alpha
Cronbach’s Alpha N of items
0.955 45
Source: Author’s research
In order to better understand the reasons underlying visitors’ choice to visit the observed dark tourism destination, first, it was necessary to evaluate the overall experiences the visitor would gather upon visiting the Kragujevacki oktobar Memorial Park. To this end, an approach based on benefits from the visit was implemented and found to be effective. There were three dimensions related to the reasons for visiting the destination that stood out: to learn more about the incident itself, being interested in national history in general and feeling a moral obligation to get informed and visit the site. According to the authors, the obligation has not been found to be a reason for visiting other destinations of neither cultural nor other
types of tourism. This means that dark tourism, albeit closely related to cultural tourism, is, in fact, independent, and has separate experiences that are unique to it.
It would be important to note that the main reason for visiting the site, i.e. learning about the incident, had the lowest correlation with cognitive and affective experiences. Still, when comparing its correlations between cognitive and affective experiences, it was more strongly associated with the latter ones, which implies that the visitors were more concerned with the incident itself and especially the victims, that they felt compassion and empathy for the victims, and their families, i.e. those who have been, in any possible way, affected by the incident. Being interested in national history was identified to be the second most popular reason to visit the site and as such, it also had the second highest correlation with the on-site experiences. Being interested in national history was found to have a greater effect on cognitive experiences compared to affective ones, which means the visitors who were interested in national history were more likely to have had their cognitive experiences met upon visiting the Memorial Park. The tourists that had been interested in national history as their main reason for visiting were especially concerned with the importance of education and the history of the innocent victims of the incident. Keeping in mind that obligation was the third most likely reason for visiting the site of the Memorial Park, it is important to note that it had the highest overall correlation with cognitive and affective on-site experiences, with tourists associating it with the affective side. Additionally, Serbia is a country with a very turbulent and unpleasant past and as such further develops the moral obligation a lot of people feel, to visit and learn more about its history, especially the tragic history of the Kragujevacki oktobar Memorial Park. Furthermore, this is in line with the authors such as Thurnell-Read (2009) who has noted that a previous tragic event that had happened to a generation can later engender moral obligations in the generations that follow, motivating them to become more familiar, to learn, experience and commemorate that particular event and its victims, as well as to be more sensitive and sympathetic towards other incidents as well. There were four types of benefits that were most likely to be gained by the visitors: learning how terrible the incident was and how many innocent people lost their lives in the incident, gaining an insight into the tough lives of one’s ancestors and understanding the value of peace (Kang et al., 2012; Min et al., 2021). All of the dimensions were strongly associated with each other but realising how terrible the incident truly was (GT) was particularly strongly associated with innocent victims of the incident (CI) and slightly less strongly with the way of life during the period of the incident (CL). The benefit of learning more about the large number of innocent people that lost their lives in the incident and their history (GS) was most strongly associated with affective experiences, especially the compassion for innocent victims that were killed or injured during the incident (AC). The next benefit that was observed was gaining an insight into the tough lives of one’s ancestors (GL) which had a strong relationship of correlation with empathy with the painful lives of the survivors who were physically or psychologically harmed during the incident (AE). Understandably, with some remaining living victims and people who were alive during that period, the tragic tales of the incident are told to younger generations and it truly allows visitors to learn more about how their ancestors lived and what led to this incident to happen. The final benefit observed was understanding the value of peace (GP) which had a very strong relationship with all dimensions apart from the way of life during the period (CL). Understanding the value of peace (GP) had an especially high association with compassion for innocent victims that were killed or injured (AC) followed by sadness because of the circumstance people were in to fight each other (AS). Similar to Jamin et al. (2020), the findings indicate the importance and strength of the correlation between benefits, learning and psychological benefits. Generally speaking, the data from Table 2 indicate that when it comes to the effect of on-site experiences and their effect on the gained benefits, there is a noticeable difference in favour of affective experiences being more significant and being
associated more highly with the mentioned benefits. In addition, the findings improve the understanding and significance of tourists’ motivations for visiting dark places, enabling organisers to better manage and develop the attractiveness of dark tourist destinations (Min et al., 2021).
6. Conclusion
This research paper acts as a preliminary investigation into dark tourism in Serbia after the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, and it can serve as a basis for any related studies in the future, both in Serbia and abroad. The benefit-based approach used in the paper proved to be an effective tool in understanding the motivation for travelling to Kragujevacki oktobar Memorial Park, and getting a comprehensive review of the effects and experiences, both cognitive and affective, such travel has on tourists, and lastly, gaining an insight into the benefits achieved from visiting the site. The analysed data indicate the existence of a moral obligation to visit the site and learn more about the incident as the most highly associated reason to visit the Memorial Park, which is not commonly associated with leisure travel. Furthermore, this proves that dark tourism is, in fact, a unique and independent form of tourism that does not closely follow other subcategories of cultural or heritage tourism. Moral obligation or the personal duty that many people feel and later become visitors of such destinations needs to be recognised and taken into consideration from the aspect of tourism service providers and their target groups. As there has not been much research done to examine the correlation of personal or moral obligation as a motive for visiting dark tourism sites, this paper serves to provide evidence and justification for any further research. With all this in mind, this study has considered findings that will be meaningful for future research in the areas of dark tourism. The results significantly contribute to improving the understanding of the interpretation of dark research in the Republic of Serbia.
However, it would be important to note the difficulties and limitations the research has faced. Namely, talking about SARS-CoV-2, there were very limited numbers of visitors to the Memorial Park, and its museums and exhibitions. This made the data somewhat scarce and the survey sample was not as big as would perhaps be considered necessary. Once the tourism industry recovers after the pandemic, the study should be repeated, hopefully on a bigger scale. The expected data can be used to compare the two conditions - freshly out of the lockdowns and the pandemic, and the state after recovery, or perhaps pre-pandemic levels. In future research, the authors remain to enhance the quality of the research by using focus groups, bearing in mind that some authors (Light, 2017; Wyatt et al., 2022) prefer the use of focus groups in dark tourism research allowing for qualitative research.
As previously mentioned, the results of the study can help aid a better and more conclusive definition of tourism services for particular tourists by identifying their individual needs and wants as well as gained benefits and on-site experiences. As such, it can help both tourists and destination management by decreasing the gap of knowledge between the actual sought-after services and tourism products and the perception of the mentioned wants by the tourism service providers. Since the study has been conducted at just one of many dark tourism spots in Serbia, it is expected that its results can and will vary for other ethnicities and nationalities, as each has its own reasons and motivation for visiting the sites. Additionally, similar research will need to be conducted at other, similar destinations in Serbia and hence identify the differences in opinion even within the country’s borders. Lastly, the study aims to help the overall development of tourism in Serbia, by drawing attention to and raising awareness of the existence of sites such as the Kragujevacki oktobar Memorial Park.
In 2019, domestic tourists made up around 56% of the total 53,800 tourists who visited Kragujevac, whereas 44% were international visitors. The average stay was two nights and
most tourists visited attractions such as Milosev venac, 21. oktobar Museum and Kragujevacki oktobar Memorial Park (Vukasinovic, 2020). On the other hand, according to the official Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, a total of 2,320 million visitors toured the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum in 2019 (Auschwitz-Birkenau, 2020). This information further proves the potential that dark tourism spots around the world hold and can even further be useful in creating appropriate strategies for promotion and investment.
Appendix
Table A: Descriptive statistics for reasons for visiting the Kragujevacki oktobar Memorial
Park
Item Description N Mean Std. Deviation
R1 To learn more about the incident 112 3.7143 1.21869
R2 Interested in national history 112 4.2768 1.01529
R3 Generally interested in ideological conflict 112 3.5982 1.19654
R4 To take part in an educational program provided by the group, organizer, school, etc. 112 3.2500 1.43634
R5 Brought by friends and/or family 112 2.7589 1.34396
R6 Brought friends and/or family 112 3.2679 1.30820
R7 Felt a moral obligation to get informed and visit the destination 112 3.6250 1.28837
R8 To spend the day with friends and family in a meaningful way 112 3.3571 1.30043
Valid N (listwise) 112
Source: Authors’ research
Table A shows reasons for visiting dark tourism destinations such as the Kragujevacki oktobar Memorial Park. It provides an insight into three factors as well as the corresponding descriptive statistics. There are three items with the highest means measuring reasons for visit: R1 (M = 3.7143), R2 (M = 4.2768) and R7 (M = 3.6250), while the two items with the lowest mean value are R4 (M = 3.2500) and R5 (M = 2.7589). The highest and lowest mean values indicate the reasons for visiting with the highest, i.e. lowest importance to the visitors, respectively.
Table B: Descriptive statistics of visitor cognitive experiences
Item Description N Mean Std. Deviation
TA1 Innocent victims of the the Kragujevacki oktobar Memorial Park 112 4.4375 1.01148
TA2 Way of life during the period of the incident 112 4.1964 1.00305
TA3 Comparisons between life then and now 112 3.9732 1.12674
TA4 History of the Republic of Serbia 112 3.8304 1.31443
TA5 Ideological conflict in general 112 3.6696 1.25482
TA6 Human rights issues 112 3.9107 1.21961
TA7 Importance of education 112 4.2054 0.99674
TA8 Guilt and empathy system 112 3.9554 1.09370
TA9 The actual state of the destination and the expected state 112 3.9018 1.03070
TA10 The actually found content of the destination and the expected content 112 3.7946 1.13215
TA11 The impact of the incident on me personally 112 3.6964 1.30031
TA12 Hard life of my ancestors 112 4.0714 1.11270
Valid N (listwise) 112
Source: Authors’ research
Table B serves to show the descriptive information about cognitive experiences the visitors had after visiting the destination and the items which were given the most or least amount of thought. There are three extracted factors for cognitive experiences and three items that had the highest mean: TA1 (M = 4.4375), TA2 (M = 4.1964) and TA7 (M = 4.2054). On the opposite side, the two items with the lowest mean are TA5 (M = 3.6696) and TA11 (M = 3.6964). This means the items with the highest mean are thought about the most.
Table C: Descriptive statistics of visitor affective experiences
Item Description N Mean Std. Deviation
E1 A sense of fear from the cruel nature of the people who caused such a tragic event 112 3.8839 1.25738
E2 A sense of dread from the scenes of battle and carnage that took place at the destination 112 3.9821 1.14673
E3 Sadness because of the circumstances people were in to fight each other 112 4.3482 1.01084
E4 Surprised about the way of life of the locals at that time 112 3.3929 1.26175
E5 Compassion for innocent victims, killed, injured or those who have lost parents, family members, etc. 112 4.4554 0.93855
E6 Empathy with the painful lives of survivors who are psychologically or physically harmed by the incident 112 4.4018 0.90504
E7 Appreciation of today’s quality of life 112 4.0000 1.12306
E8 Appreciation of the current state of peace in the country 112 3.9107 1.17445
E9 Depressed by the content and theme of the destination and exhibition 112 3.2411 1.27516
E10 Depressed by a small number of visitors to the the Kragujevacki oktobar Memorial Park 112 3.5714 1.27847
Valid N (listwise) 112
Source: Authors’ research
The results shown in Table C represent visitor affective experiences (E) and provide descriptive information as well as the three extracted factors. The three items with the highest mean value are E3 (M = 4.3482), E5 (M = 4.4554) and E6 (M = 4.4018), whereas the two ones with the lowest mean value prove to be E4 (M = 3.3929) and E9 (M = 3.2411).
Table D: Descriptive statistics of visitors’ gained benefits
Item Description N Mean Std. Deviation
GB1 Realized how terrible the incident that took place at the destination was 112 4.3482 1.02851
GB2 Learned that a large number of innocent people lost their lives in the incident 112 4.4554 0.89933
GB3 Gained a deeper understanding of how and why the event took place 112 3.9821 1.18536
GB4 Changed one’s own view and understanding of the incident 112 3.3750 1.41501
GB5 Learned the history of the destination 112 3.9286 1.20595
GB6 Understood the problems of ideological conflict and human rights 112 3.5714 1.27847
GB7 Fulfilled the moral obligation to visit the destination as a local 112 3.3750 1.49549
GB8 Comfort from sharing the pain and sorrow of the incident with others 112 3.5268 1.28722
GB9 Grateful there were no members of one’s family among the victims 112 3.9821 1.32190
GB10 Understood the value of family 112 4.0089 1.32540
GB11 Gained an insight into the tough lives of one’s ancestors 112 4.0357 1.22238
GB12 Felt gratitude for living in today’s age 112 3.9554 1.24037
GB13 Understood the value of peace 112 4.3929 0.96195
GB14 Meaningfully spent the day 112 3.8839 1.21363
GB15 Had a nice time with family, relatives or friends 112 3.7411 1.24297
Valid N (listwise) 112
Source: Authors’ research
Table D shows the gained benefits (GB) the tourists felt after having visited the Kragujevacki oktobar Memorial Park. The four items with highest mean values are GB1 (M = 4.3482), GB2 (M = 4.4554), GB11 (M = 4.0357) and GB13 (M = 4.3929). On the other side, the three items with the lowest mean values are GB4 (M = 3.3750), GB7 (M = 3.3750), and GB8 (M = 3.5268).
Acknowledgement
This paper is a part of a research program of the Faculty of Hotel Management and Tourism in Vrnjacka Banja University of Kragujevac, which is funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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Received: 21 November 2022; Revised: 22 February 2023; Accepted: 12 June 2023
