Viet Nam – a famous “dark tourism” destination in the world

The term Dark Tourism, War Tourism, or Conflict Tourism is tourism involving travel to sites associated with death and tragedy. They may be sites of famous battles, places where atrocities have occurred, and other such sobering locations. Often, former servicemen and women wish to revisit places where they fought for their country, lost comrades, and made lifelong friends. Some visit due to ancestral links to the area and what happened there, and others for historical interest, and such is the attraction of these places that they often become tourist sites, sometimes with museums and other exhibitions that detail what occurred in the past.

In Viet Nam, there are many options for those seeking sites significant to the country’s wars. Tourists visiting Ha Noi in the north of Vietnam, may wish to visit Hoa Lo Prison, known to American prisoners of war held there. Visitors to Hoi An in the central of the country, meanwhile, can book tours to the nearby site of the My Lai Massacre, where hundreds of women and children were brutally murdered by US soldiers during the Vietnam war. Besides, a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels in the south of the country near Ho Chi Minh City is also an ideal selection. The 121km complex of tunnels, part of a much larger network throughout the country, was used by Viet Cong forces during the conflict and has been preserved as part of a war memorial park.

Despite the uncomfortable nature of dark tourism, it seems to be something most of us will have engaged with at one point in our lives. And, Viet Nam is really an ideal destination for this kind of tourism.