As the only Australian town home to two former mental asylums, Ararat in western Victoria has a unique and dark history, and the local council plans to use that to its advantage to tap into the so-called dark tourism market.
Dark tourism involves travel to sites that are marked by death, suffering or trauma.
Ararat Rural City Council’s tourism manager Julie Kilpatrick said dark travel was a niche market.
“Ararat has one of the best examples of dark tourism,” she said.
“We already capture a lot of metro Melbourne visitors who come up to do the ghost tours, but we want to look at further promoting our historic sites through events as well as boutique accommodation.”
The council is also researching other dark tourism sites in Australia such as Port Arthur and Tasmania’s Dark MOFO festival to use as a model, to grow its visitation.
Visitation on the rise
The Friends of J-Ward Society president John Mawson said Aradale and J Ward attracted 15,000 people to the region last year.
“You get a lot of your grey nomad tourists coming to do our tours,” he said.
“I’m amazed at how many people specifically drive from Melbourne just to see J Ward.
“I think accommodation would be a great idea. It would mean people would stay in the region and spend more time here.”
Dark tourism a ‘tricky moral area’
Dark tourism is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the tourism industry.
A senior lecturer at the University of Tasmania’s School of Humanities, Dr Robert Clark, said it had only become an explicit category of tourism in the past decade.
“There is definitely a lot more talk about dark tourism,” he said.
“Up until the mid-1990s, we didn’t hear the term used at all.
“We’re noticing more people turning up to these sites than ever before.
Dr Clark said the dark tourism category was a tricky moral area.
“There is a bit of exploitation and opportunism which are happening at some sites.
“There’s a shift from just looking at the history of places to emphasising the suffering that happened there.”