Paranormal Tourism Planning: Stakeholder Views on Development in South East Asia

Abstract

Activities of paranormal interest occur in many international destinations, but few empirical studies exist that would benefit the management of such sites. Bali, Indonesia and Udon Thani, Thailand are selected as examples to highlight the development potential of paranormal tourism in Southeast Asia. The study aims to explore tourism stakeholders' understanding of paranormal tourism in the context of theoretical ideas about developing destinations. This study applies three dimensions of a destination framework: destination capabilities, coordination at the destination level, and inter-destination bridge-ties. Face-to-face in-depth interviews with tourism stakeholders supplemented by onsite observations and analysed by using content analysis. The study showed that tourism stakeholders uniformly view paranormal tourism as a niche market. However, different views emerge when inter-destination bridge-ties are considered. The results suggest that for a better tourist experience, tourism planners may also need to pay attention to designing and managing amenities and accessibility at destinations.