“Tourists’ experience” in dark tourism: a systematic literature review and future research directions

This paper systematically reviews previous studies on the dark tourism experience by utilising the theory-context-characteristics-methodology (TCCM) based approach. The review shows that only half of existing studies use pre-defined theoretical frameworks, and other studies do not report any theories (T); there is a lack of understanding about tourists’ experience from the lighter end of the dark tourism spectrum compared with the darker end (C); most dark tourism destinations generate an emotional experience rather than a cognitive experience (C) and qualitative research approaches are employed more than quantitative approaches (M). Finally, this study suggests future research direction using a TCCM lens.