Grief Tourism is possible in many countries and our aim is to share some of the various tourist destinations that appeal to grief tourists. We are referring to tourist destinations associated with both natural and man-made disasters.

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Auschwitz, in the suburbs of Oswiecim, Poland, was a complex of three concentration camps, Auschwitz I for death, II for slave labor, and III for transport.  It was the scene of one of the world’s greatest tragedies, the mass genocide of over one million Poles, European Jews, and Roma people (the gypsies) in the darkest [...]

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The town of Soham in the English county of Cambridgeshire is a peaceful village of approximately 9,000 people.  Since 1944, crime of any sort was practically non-existent, and certainly, the media had taken little notice of Soham until August 4, 2002.  The disappearance of two local 10-year old schoolgirls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman and [...]

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On the morning of December 26, 2004, Phuket, the largest island of Thailand, felt the first shock of the 9.0 earthquake that brought the “Andaman Wave” to the shores of the Andaman Sea on the Indian Ocean coastline.  Hotels along the waterfront were filled with tourists on vacation for the Christmas holidays, unaware of what [...]

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The Anne Frank Museum officially opened in 1960 to visitors from around the world, the curious, the incredulous, and the sorrowful.  In early 1942, Otto Frank and Herman Van Pels began preparing their office building in a nondescript old part of Amsterdam in the hopes of avoiding detection and capture by the German Nazis.  Their [...]

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The U.S.S. Arizona Memorial is dedicated to the 1,177 lives that were lost in the early morning hours on December 7, 194l, when the Japanese launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.  The replica of the Arizona reflects the initial, unforgettable defeat, the sad decline of the war, and the rising strength and final victory [...]

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When I went to Strawberry Fields in Central Park, I saw people in grief, flowers, and candles. There’s no doubt that traveling to New York City to visit the Dakota Building (John Lennon was murdered right outside) and Strawberry Fields (a memorial just a few steps away from the Dakota Building) is an example of grief [...]

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