Research Question Proposal #1

Working Title: The Rising Industry of Paranormal Tourism

Description: 

    I plan on looking into paranormal tourism, and why people are drawn towards it. This will most likely follow the ideas of human curiosity and commercialization in relation to paranormal encounters. I would likely focus on the commercialization of the Mothman as well as the Extraterrestrial Highway in Nevada as a reference point for my discussion.

Research Question: 

Why are people drawn towards paranormal tourism, and how has the commercialization of the paranormal affects its study?

Theoretical Frame:

In the article, Morbid Curiosity, Popular Media, and Thanatourism by Emily D. Edwards, the author brings up the ideas of perceptual, epistemic, normal, and morbid curiosity as well as media priming as reasons for why people engage in dark tourism. These tourist trips serve to bolster the interest in these attractions among other people and also build up the density and mystery of whatever paranormal lore draws people to these places. These ideas serve as an excellent guide to applying to my research, as while she focuses on the tourism of grim places and potentially haunted ones too, the author makes a point to talk about how this is primarily in relation to events from one’s life or a large interest in the gruesome and violent. So then why are people drawn to the less violent and gruesome paranormal encounters? Many of these encounters lack an inherent relation to people, nor do they tend to be violent or gruesome, yet the draw towards them only seems to increase over time. But is simple curiosity enough to make it a viable economic option for places?

Examples:

Extraterrestrial Highway: 

The Nevada 375 highway is a strip of road near the infamous Area 51 highway, and many people have reported UFO and alien encounters on or near this strip of road over the years, enough that the state officially gave it the name of “Extraterrestrial Highway” in 1996. The town of Rachel, Nevada near the midpoint of the highway capitalized off of these phenomena by creating several alien-themed establishments to pander to the growing number of tourists that came to the region in hopes of seeing paranormal activity.

Mothman Museum/Festival: 

    In the town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, there were several sightings of an alleged flying being dubbed the “Mothman” in the ’60s. Following this, author John Keel investigated these sightings and published them along with his own theories on the Mothman in his book, The Mothman Prophecies, which generated massive public interest in the Mothman. Years later, the town decided in a community meeting on ways to increase tourism to the town to create a festival, and eventually a museum as well, in honour of the Mothman. This led to a boom in the local economy and is why both the festival and museum are still operational to this day.

Phoenix Lights Festival: 

Over the skies of Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding areas in 1997, multiple massive UFOs were spotted by numerous witnesses, which the government poorly attempted to cover up. Years after the event, a music festival was created called the “Phoenix Lights Festival” which only really uses the UFO encounter for branding purposes and not for content. While it isn’t as directly related to its paranormal event as other examples, it provides another method that businesses use to increase profits by drawing on the notoriety of the UFO sightings to increase the festival’s interest. 

Winchester House: 

    Sarah Winchester created a mysterious mansion in the 1880s that has stairs to nowhere, doors with no rooms, one-inch cupboards, etc. created all throughout the mansion’s layout. She allegedly did this to appease the spirits haunting her of those killed by the Winchester rifle, which her family had made their fortune off of. Many movies and documentaries have been made about this place, some of which delve into the supposed supernatural affairs going on inside, and tourists to the house still claim to have supernatural encounters in the house. The troubling history of Sarah and the allegedly haunted house gained attention and led to it becoming a tourist destination for people interested in the tragic history surrounding it, as well as for those hoping to catch a ghostly encounter.

Working Bibliography:

Александрова, А. Ю. “Изменение Туристского Геопространства В Эпоху Всеобщей Мобильности.” Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta, Seriya-5: Geografiya, no. 2, Mar. 2020, pp. 3–12. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=143163641&site=ehost-live.

Beats, Relentless. "Phoenix Lights -12/31 Tickets". Phoenix Lights 1969 - - & 31, 1969, 2021, https://phoenixlightsfest.com/.

Dixon, Deborah. “A benevolent and skeptical inquiry: exploring ‘Fortean Geographies’ with the Mothman.” Cultural Geographies, 2007 (14), pp. 189–210.

Edwards, Emily D. “Morbid Curiosity, Popular Media, and Thanatourism.” Australian Journal of Parapsychology, vol. 20, no. 2, Dec. 2020, pp. 113–138. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=147786411&site=ehost-live.

"Extraterrestrial Highway". Travel Nevada, 2021, https://travelnevada.com/road-trip/extraterrestrial-highway/.

Gallant, James. “The Humiliating UFOs.” Raritan, vol. 30, no. 4, Spring 2011, pp. 66–91. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=62009047&site=ehost-live.

Keel, John A. The Mothman Prophecies. Tor, 2002.

"Mothmanmuseum.Com". Mothmanmuseum.Com, 2021, https://www.mothmanmuseum.com/.

"Welcome To The Winchester Mystery House® - Winchester Mystery House". Winchester Mystery House, 2021, https://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/.