Abstract:
Dark tourism involves tourists visiting sites of death, disaster and
depravity. Well known dark tourism sites include Chernobyl in the
Ukraine, the 9/11 Memorial in New York, and the Auschwitz
concentration camp in Poland. Battlefields of World War I and II
are also excellent examples of dark tourism sites. Dark tourism
has become a niche tourism sector with great potential for future
tourism growth. In South Africa, the FSGLTA acting as the
marketing arm of the Free State, targets to increase its tourism
numbers and therefore are looking for means of growing the
tourism arrivals towards the province. Dark tourism has been
identified as one of their ways to grow tourism. The main
objective of the paper is to reveal the niche tourism potential of
the Free State by focusing on the South African War (1899–1902).
The broader aim is to establish the typical profile of South African
War enthusiasts.
