Dark tourism on the rise in India

New Delhi: Two weeks ago, a mid-level operations specialist in Mumbai walked out of a hospital with a stage-three breast cancer diagnosis. Shock gave way to fear and resignation. In a counselling session soon after, she voiced her darkest anxieties: what if the disease was terminal, what if life unravelled overnight? Instead of reassurance, she said her counsellor offered an unexpected nudge—confront impermanence head-on.Days later, over the Republic Day weekend, she is in Bhuj, revisiting the scars of the 2001 earthquake to understand how fate can compress lifetimes into seconds. She is not alone.A growing number of Indians are engaging in what travel experts describe as dark tourism—travel to sites associated with death, tragedy, conflict or human suffering, undertaken not for spectacle but for reflection, learning and emotional processing.“There’s an emerging trend towards ‘memento mori’ tourism—an awareness of mortality that resonates deeply with visitors to sites of tragedy and conflict,” said Hari Ganapathy, cofounder of Pickyourtrail, which provides customised tour packages.The segment is no longer fringe. “Interest in dark tourism has grown steadily over the past two to three years,” Rikant Pittie, chief executive and cofounder of travel portal EaseMyTrip said. Enquiries for such experiences have risen 60-65% in this period, he said.According to Global Industry Analysts, a market research firm, the segment internationally was valued at about $35 billion in 2025 and would grow to $41 billion by 2030.In India, destinations associated with historical trauma are receiving renewed attention. Pittie points to sites such as Jallianwala Bagh and Wagah in Amritsar, Gandhi Smriti and Nicholson Cemetery in Delhi, The Residency in Lucknow, the Union Carbide plant and Remember Bhopal Museum, and Tranquebar in Tamil Nadu.Popular international sites include the 9/11 Memorial in New York, the Killing Fields in Cambodia, Hiroshima in Japan and World War-era landmarks in Germany.While still niche, according to Ganapathy, enquiries have grown 7-8% year-on-year, and dark tourism now accounts for about 14% of Pickyourtrail’s total travel demand.The demographic profile of these tourists is varied but telling. According to Pittie, Gen Z and millennials—particularly working professionals—are strongly represented, drawn by learning, reflection and cultural context.Travellers are typically aged 25-40, often travelling solo or in small groups, with motivations ranging from curiosity to personal or ancestral connections with conflict, said Ganapathy. “There’s also a poignant trend of individuals with personal ties to past conflicts, for whom these visits offer an emotional experience of remembrance or closure,” he added.Trip lengths and pricing vary by geography. Domestic visits are often day trips or short add-ons, while international itineraries typically span three to seven days. EaseMyTrip’s battlefield tours range from ₹5,000-7,000 for short packages to ₹25,000-30,000 for multi-day experiences like the Kargil circuit.International dark tourism trips can cost ₹1.8-3.5 lakh per person, according to Pickyourtrail, with travellers willing to pay a premium for expert guides and curated storytelling.“While social media and documentary content are awareness drivers, the underlying demand is linked to post-pandemic travel maturity and a shift towards meaningful, context-driven travel,” said Ravi Gosain, president of the Indian Association of Tour Operators. “This segment will not become mass tourism, but it is clearly expanding as a defined experiential layer in India’s outbound travel market.”Echoing his sentiment, Rajiv Mehra, general secretary of the Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality, said these places are visited out of reverence and historical respect, more than for leisure. “Those who travel solely for such sites remain a very small minority,” he said.