0:02 this is six minute english from bbclearningenglish.com
0:04 bbclearningenglish.com
0:06 welcome to six minute english i'm rob
0:09 and i'm neil hello today we're talking
0:12 about an unusual type of tourism now
0:14 tourism is the business of providing
0:16 services such as transport or places to
0:19 stay or entertainment for people who are
0:22 on holiday but instead of providing
0:24 sunny holidays in a nice hotel by the
0:26 sea this is where tourists travel to
0:29 sites of death brutality and terror
0:32 it's being called dark tourism now rob
0:35 have you ever been to any dark tourist
0:38 destination or place yes i visited
0:41 auschwitz in poland a fascinating trip
0:43 but an obviously depressing place and
0:46 next month i'm planning to go to visit
0:48 chernobyl the site of a catastrophic
0:51 nuclear accident back in 1986.
0:53 so these are not your typical
0:55 sightseeing trips but a visit to places
0:57 that make you curious because of their
1:00 significance their importance in history exactly
1:01 exactly
1:02 we'll talk more about this soon but not
1:05 before i set you today's question
1:08 now robin island in south africa is one
1:10 dark tourism destination it's where
1:12 nelson mandela was imprisoned for 18
1:14 years but do you know in which year it
1:18 finally closed as a prison was it in a 1991
1:19 1991 b
1:20 b
1:24 1996 or c 1999
1:27 i don't know but i am going to guess a
1:31 1991 because i think he was released in
1:33 89 and surely they would have shut it
1:35 down pretty quickly after that well i
1:37 like your thinking i'll reveal the
1:39 answer later on so let's talk more about
1:42 dark tourism the word dark is used here
1:44 because it relates to places that are
1:47 connected with bad or sinister things or
1:49 things that could be considered morally wrong
1:50 wrong
1:52 it's strange to want to visit places
1:53 like these
1:55 there is what we call a morbid
1:57 fascination that's showing an interest
1:59 in things connected with death and
2:02 destruction and these kinds of trips are
2:04 on the increase yes there are organized
2:07 tours to places like ground zero in new
2:10 york the killing fields in cambodia and
2:12 the nuclear power station in chernobyl
2:14 and there are the battlefields of world
2:16 war one and two and the top security
2:19 prison of alcatraz there are also plans
2:21 to turn the disaster side to the
2:23 fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant in
2:26 japan into a tourist destination once
2:29 the radiation is reduced but why do
2:32 people want to visit these macabre sites
2:34 well i mentioned curiosity and a chance
2:36 to learn about history but sometimes
2:39 people just feel compelled to visit them
2:41 but what about the ethics of dark
2:44 tourism is it wrong to make this trip
2:47 are we not just exploiting or making
2:48 money or cashing in on someone's
2:51 suffering dr philip stone is an expert
2:53 in the subject he's director of the
2:56 institute for dark tourism research he
2:59 says this type of tourism isn't new
3:00 people have been visiting these types of
3:03 places for years he says it's always
3:04 been there
3:06 it's not new in the sense that we we are
3:09 fascinated by um other death and uh the
3:12 people's uh suffering
3:13 but it's it's how it's it's packaged up
3:16 by the the tourist industry
3:20 so he says dark tourism isn't new
3:23 in fact a medieval execution was an
3:25 early form of dark tourism
3:27 maybe it's just human nature that draws
3:29 us to these places
3:32 dr stone says it's all about how these
3:35 dark trips are packaged so it depends
3:38 how they're sold and how tasteful they
3:41 are are they sensitive to the horrors of
3:42 what has taken place
3:45 yes being able to walk around a historic
3:47 site or visit a museum is one thing but
3:50 how about staying in a former prison in
3:52 latvia and paying to be treated like a prisoner
3:53 prisoner
3:56 or how about crawling around vietnamese
3:58 war tunnels whilst people fire guns
4:00 outside maybe that's taking the
4:04 experience too far dr stone says there's
4:07 a blurred line between memorialization
4:09 and tourism he means it's hard to
4:11 separate going to remember an event and
4:13 the people who've died with visiting
4:15 somewhere as part of a holiday another
4:18 issue when visiting these places is how
4:20 you remember your visit you must be respectful
4:21 respectful
4:23 perhaps taking photos yes but should you
4:25 take a selfie
4:27 and should you buy a souvenir or send a
4:29 postcard home yes well you certainly
4:31 wouldn't write on your postcard wish you
4:32 were here
4:34 anyway let's now reveal the answer to
4:36 the question i set you earlier
4:39 yes this was about the former prison on
4:41 robben island which is now a popular
4:44 destination for dark tourism i asked you
4:47 when it finally closed as a prison was
4:52 it in a 1991 b 1996 or c 1999. and i
4:56 said a 1991 and you were wrong actually
4:58 it was in 1996
5:01 about 350 000 people now visit the site
5:04 every year which shows how much interest
5:06 there is in a place that you would have
5:08 once never wanted to go near
5:09 is it somewhere you would like to visit
5:13 neil uh i'm not so sure about dark
5:14 tourism to be honest
5:17 okay well could you instead remind us of
5:19 the vocabulary that we've heard today
5:21 yes we heard tourism
5:22 tourism depressing
5:24 depressing catastrophic
5:27 catastrophic curious
5:29 curious
5:35 morbid fascination macabre
5:37 macabre compelled
5:39 compelled ethics
5:40 ethics exploiting
5:43 exploiting
5:45 human nature tasteful
5:47 tasteful memorialization
5:52 respectful
5:54 thanks neil
5:55 well we hope you've enjoyed today's
5:58 program please join us again soon for
6:00 six minute english from bbc learning
6:02 english bye
6:04 that was six minute english from bbc
