GUELPH POLITICAST #394 – Guelph, After Dark

Maybe you’ve heard the term "dark tourism", there’s a whole Netflix series about it, but you don’t have to go abroad to somewhere famous to get a taste of dark tourism. Would it surprise you to learn that we have a hot little dark tourism industry right here in Guelph? As we approach Halloween on Tuesday, perhaps it’s time we appreciated just what kind of a sorted little town we have here, historically speaking.

Now there’s an actual definition for “dark tourism” and we will get into that in the podcast, but what’s interesting about dark tourism as it pertains to Guelph is multifaceted. First, the City of Guelph has been dedicating time and resources lately to developing a tourism strategy, and the focus has been on some of the usual suspects like sports tournaments, music festivals, and classical heritage like Catholic Hill.

Second, our thriving dark tourism industry is largely grassroots. It’s people like Greg Taylor, and Jay Wilson, and Bonnie Durtnall, people who have turned their fascination with the dark corners of Guelph into a lucrative side hustle. But would it surprise you to know that the University of Guelph actually has a professor who studies dark tourism? Perhaps he might be able to answer this question: Is Guelph a dark tourism hot spot and we don’t know it?

This week, we're joined by Brent McKenzie, who is a professor in the Department of Marketing and Consumer Studies at the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics at the University of Guelph. He will give us a formal definition of “dark tourism” and talk about the local examples of the trade. He will also talk about the grassroots nature of dark tourism, whether dark tourism can go "too far", and some of McKenzie’s favourite dark tourism experiences whether they’re in Guelph or not.

So let's talk about Guelph's dark tourism future on this week's Guelph Politicast!

If you’re interested in some local dark tourism experiences, there’s no shortage of things to do this Halloween week. Ghost Walk of Guelph will be running walks from Thursday to Saturday at 8 pm. Jay Wilson will be leading one more walk this season with his performance of “The Unfortunate Man” on Friday at 7 pm, and you can get tickets at Eventbrite. You can check out a wide variety of history walks from the OR lands to Guelph’s hidden burial grounds with Guelph Urbex. And finally, local historian Bonnie Durtnall will talk about her new book Haunted Guelph at the main library on Thursday October 26 at 7 pm.

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Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.