Dark tourists: profile, practices, motivations and wellbeing

This work aims to address whether knowing what dark tourism is (or not) impacts rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, psychological vulnerability, and tourist wellbeing, as well as practices and motivations for dark tourism. A quantitative approach, based on a survey of 993 respondents, reveals that women and more educated participants know more about dark tourism; people who know what dark tourism is have visited more Holocaust museums, sites of human tragedy and natural disasters, concentration camps, and prisons; show more curiosity, need to learn and understand, and need to see morbid things. A model was found showing that gender, age, know/do not know dark tourism, and motivations (curiosity, the need to learn, the need to understand, and pleasure) explained 38.1% of a dark tourism practice index. Most findings also indicate that rumination on sadness, self-hatred, hostility, and psychological vulnerability are associated with darker practices. Greater wellbeing was not found in participants who knew in advance what dark tourism was. Interestingly, participants who visit tragic human sites present higher values in hostility and tourist wellbeing than those who do not. In summary, people who visit more dark places and score higher on negative personality characteristics have higher values of tourist wellbeing.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Dark tourism, the holocaust, and well-being: a systematic review

Dark tourists experience negative and positive feelings in Holocaust places, suggesting emotional ambivalence. The research question of this study is, “is feeling well-being, as a consequence of dark tourism, a way of banalizing the horror?”. The purpose of this study is threefold: to provide an updated systematic literature review (SLR) of dark tourism associated with Holocaust sites and visitors' well-being; to structure the findings into categories that provide a comprehensive overview of the topics; and to identify which topics are not well covered, thus suggesting knowledge gaps. Records to be included should be retrievable articles in peer-reviewed academic journals, books, and book chapters, all focused on the SLR's aims and the research question; other types of publications were outrightly excluded. The search was performed in Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases with three keywords and combinations: “dark tourism”, “Holocaust”, and “well-being”. Methodological decisions were based on the Risk of Bias Assessment Tool for Nonrandomized Studies (RoBANS). This systematic review adheres to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. During the process, 144 documents were included, of which 126 were journal articles, 8 were books, and 10 were book chapters. The results point out a hierarchical structure with the main category (Dark tourism - Holocaust - Well-being) and three second-order categories (Dark tourism - Holocaust, Dark tourism - Well-being, and Holocaust - Well-being), from which different subcategories emerge: motivations for visiting places and guiding; ambivalent emotional experience that leads to the transformation of the self; and intergenerational trauma. The gaps identified were the trivialization of horror in Holocaust places; dark tourist profile; motivations and constraints behind visiting dark places; Holocaust survivors and their descendants' well-being; how dark tourism associated with the Holocaust positively or negatively impacts well-being. Major limitations included: lack of randomized allocation; lack of standard outcome definitions; and suboptimal comparison groups. Positive and negative impacts on the well-being of the Holocaust dark tourist were sought, as they are associated with the marketing and management, promotion, digital communication, guiding, or storytelling design of such locations.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

An exploratory study on the motivations behind visiting the Holocaust Museum of Porto

This study aims to identify the reasons why people visit the Holocaust Museum of Porto (HMP) and if other variables (sociodemographic ones, visitors’ similarity with Jewish community members, their knowledge of dark tourism, and experience with other Holocaust-related destinations) also influence such motivators. A quantitative analytical, observational and case-control study was conducted based on a survey of 488 respondents who completed a self-administered questionnaire at the HMP. Statistical data analysis included descriptive statistics, an exploratory factor analysis, a confirmatory factor analysis, convergent validity (through composite reliability and average variance extracted), and discriminant validity (through square roots of the AVE values). The findings reveal that visitors are drawn by factors such as novelty and knowledge-seeking and that the motives for visiting the museum differ according to their sociodemographic characteristics, visitors’ similarity with members of the Jewish community, and their knowledge of dark tourism and experience with other Holocaust-related destinations. Sociodemographic variables, previous practices related to the Holocaust and similarity have an impact on the drivers behind visiting dark places. These results contribute to dark tourism literature with an improved understanding of tourist behavior toward Holocaust memorial museums. In addition to filling a gap, it provides a comprehensive insight into the specific motivators behind visiting the HMP, possibly allowing this museum to better design tourist experiences, thus increasing the potential to attract more visitors and keep alive the memory of such atrocities that cannot be repeated

Diffraction by random Ronchi gratings

In this work, we obtain analytical expressions for the near-and far-field diffraction of random Ronchi diffraction gratings where the slits of the grating are randomly displaced around their periodical positions. We theoretically show that the effect of randomness in the position of the slits of the grating produces a decrease of the contrast and even disappearance of the self-images for high randomness level at the near field. On the other hand, it cancels high-order harmonics in far field, resulting in only a few central diffraction orders. Numerical simulations by means of the Rayleigh–Sommerfeld diffraction formula are performed in order to corroborate the analytical results. These results are of interest for industrial and technological applications where manufacture errors need to be considered

Far field of binary phase gratings with errors in the height of the strips

Diffraction gratings are not always ideal but, due to the fabrication process, several errors can be produced. In this work we show that when the strips of a binary phase diffraction grating present certain randomness in their height, the intensity of the diffraction orders varies with respect to that obtained with a perfect grating. To show this, we perform an analysis of the mutual coherence function and then, the intensity distribution at the far field is obtained. In addition to the far field diffraction orders, a "halo" that surrounds the diffraction order is found, which is due to the randomness of the strips height

Diffraction by gratings with random fill factor

In this work, we analyze the diffraction produced by Ronchi gratings where the fill factor is not constant, but presents random fluctuations around its nominal value. This effect can be produced while developing the grating with etchers since the process can be slightly unpredictable. We obtain the theoretical formalism to describe the intensity produced by the grating at near and far field, showing that smoothing of the self-images is produced at the near field and, consequently, cancellation of higher diffraction orders is obtained at the far field. In addition, different nominal fill factors produce different diffraction behaviors in terms of the randomness. We corroborate the analytical formalism using a direct integration method based on the Rayleigh-Sommerfeld formula and conclude that the numerical results are in high agreement with the theoretical predictions

Self-imaging of gratings with rough strips

We analyze the self-imaging process produced by a transmission grating whose strips present two different roughness levels. This kind of grating periodically modulates the transmitted light owing only to the different microtopographic properties of the strips. In spite of the fact that the grating is not purely periodic, it produces a kind of self-image at Talbot distances. These self-images gradually appear as light propagates, but they are not present just after the grating, as occurs in amplitude or phase gratings. There exists a distance from the grating, which depends on the stochastic properties of roughness, from which the contrast of the self-images becomes stable. Important cases are analyzed in detail, such as low- and high-roughness limits. We assume for the calculations that the grating can be used in a mobile system. Simulations using the Rayleigh–Sommerfeld regime have been performed, which confirm the validity of the theoretical approach proposed in this wor

Far field diffraction of gratings with two roughness levels

We investigate the far field diffraction process produced by diffraction gratings with two roughness levels, such as steel tape gratings, which are used in environments where diffraction gratings made of glass are not possible. We obtain the analytical formulation describing the formation of diffraction orders in terms of the roughness parameters. Since roughness is stochastic, we use the mutual coherence function to propagate the field to the Fraunhofer regime. We conclude that diffraction orders exists when at least one correlation length of both roughness is larger than the period of the grating and the standard deviation on heights is around or larger than the illumination wavelength. Finally, we corroborate the analytical results with numerical simulations based on the fast Fourier transform, showing a high agreement

Single-focus binary Fresnel zone plate

In this work, we propose and analyze a novel kind of binary Fresnel zone plate with single focus. It consists of a Fresnel zone plate whose zones have rough edges. We give analytical results for the intensity along the optical axis and demonstrate that lateral roughness of the zones produces the disappearance of secondary foci as a blurring of the edges. Besides, we corroborate its behavior by numerical simulations and experiments. This kind of Fresnel zone plate can be useful in a wide range of photonic applications, even for focusing with soft and hard X-rays or extreme ultraviolet radiation