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When dark tourism goes para-terrestrial: Online legend-tripping and touring the void

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  • James, Sophie
  • Cronin, James

Abstract

Using Žižek's concept of ontological incompleteness, we theorise the touristic appeal of online legend-tripping as derived from the fantasy of traversing reality's uncharted horizons. While online legends such as ‘the Backrooms’ invoke curiosity in suffering and the macabre, they deviate from the sense of heritage, moral guardianship, and evidential integrity that characterise physical dark tourism. Drawing upon an observational netnography of the ‘r/backrooms’ community on Reddit, we unpack processes of temporal suspension, ‘good’ alienation, and transcendence downward which enable online legend-tripping to function as a ‘para-terrestrial’ variant of dark tourism. The importance of real-world referents recedes, giving way to subjective encounters with the unknown. Obscene enjoyment displaces moral engagement, and participatory mythmaking supplants the bureaucratisation and commoditisation of travel experiences.

Suggested Citation

  • James, Sophie & Cronin, James, 2026. "When dark tourism goes para-terrestrial: Online legend-tripping and touring the void," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:anture:v:118:y:2026:i:c:s0160738326000563
    DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2026.104172
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