Exploring Chiaroscuro as a metaphor for the simultaneous presence of lightness and darkness in dark tourism experiences

Dark tourism is ‘a significant and rapidly growing segment of the global tourism industry’ (Saha & Husain, 2025, p.956). Although there are numerous definitions in the literature, the phenomenon of dark tourism broadly encompasses ‘any form of tourism that is somehow related to death, suffering, atrocity, tragedy or crime’ (Light, 2017, p.277). It typically involves visiting ‘places associated with conflict(s), war(s) and disaster(s)’ (Zhang et al., 2023, p.2) including locations such as “battlefields, cemeteries, genocide memorials, and disaster zones’ (Saha and Husain, 2025, p.956).

Conceptualisations of dark tourism spectrums and motivations (e.g. Czermak & Vogler, 2025), while useful for academic discourse, risk ‘marginalizing narratives of survival and hope’ (Wright, 2025, p.8). Indeed, such classifications produce a cycle of unending categorization and uncertainty (Ashworth & Isaac, 2015). As dark tourism is now considered ‘a particular type of experience, rather than a category of motivation’… ‘alternative ways of thinking about visits to places associated with death’ are needed (Light, 2017, p.295-296).

Although previous research has explored a continuum or spectrum of darkness to light (or shades of grey) (e.g. Lv et al., 2022; Stone, 2006), we argue that both light and dark are present simultaneously in dark tourism experiences. Thus, to holistically understand tourist experiences necessitates an examination of not only one position on a spectrum but the ways in which darkness changes the way we experience light, and vice versa. As a foundation for our work, we draw upon Roepke’s (2013) assertion that, ‘It may be this stark contrast of life’s darkest and brightest times that moves us, as a psychological chiaroscuro that shifts perspective and inspires change’ (p.289). As an example, although negative emotions are often associated with dark tourism sites (Ashworth & Isaac, 2015), dark tourist experiences have been described as helping to mediate ontological meanings of morality (Stone, 2012), advance reconciliation processes (Zhang et al., 2023), rebuild conflict-affected countries (Dolnicar & McCabe, 2022), and foster longer-term wellbeing via dialectical emotions, self-discovery, reflection, and growth (Zhuo et al., 2024; Oren, 2021). Clearly, there is much to explore in terms of the light and dark interplay of dark tourism experiences.

Here we use the metaphor of chiaroscuro to create a visual image which both engages the reader and adds nuanced expression to our assertions. The word chiaroscuro literally means ‘bight-dark’ in Italian. It was originally used to refer to the use of light and dark contrasting shades in paintings (Goché, 2016) and has been introduced as a concept in tourism by Seccardini and Desmoulins (2023) who wrote about ‘chiaroscuro tourism’ in their discussion of photographs shared through social media in which communities of ‘dark tourism amateurs’ are shifting the focus from dark tourism only to ‘alternative, yet positive, narratives’ (p.289).

We assert that our conceptualization of simultaneous and intertwined light and dark elements will apply to all subcategories of dark tourism (e.g., genocide, fright, grief, disaster, death, war). We also assert that it will apply most clearly in dark tourism categories in which tourists engage in ongoing altruistic- and service-driven activities, including those associated with solidarity, social and environmental change, meaning-making, leadership, psychological ‘flow,’ and sacrifice. As one example, rather than being passive consumers who gaze upon an attraction/site like war memorials or battlefields, business war volunteer tourism (BWVT) includes tourists who are actively engaged in developing ongoing connections with, and contributions to, front line and devastated communities (Gill & Kenworthy, 2025). We hope that other researchers will join us in exploring the effects of lightness and darkness on the complex psychological, social, and behavioural phenomena (Czermak & Vogler, 2025; Sahara & Husain, 2025) of dark tourist experiences.