Fourth International Conference on Tourism and Leisure Studies

Abstract

In this paper, we focus on museums that reflect the recent political past within Eastern and Central Europe including the Museum of Occupations in Tallinn, Museum of Occupation in Riga, and Museum of Genocide Victims in Vilnius which cover roughly the same period (1939 to 1991). As memorial museums, their aim is to commemorate and reclaim the unique suffering of specific geographically located individuals, and to project a united present and renewed sense of nationalism. They focus on Soviet and Nazi occupations of these countries which also led to forced migration and deportation. Drawing on our ethnographic study, we seek to determine how visitors engage with these museums and parks. We question whether there is an expected role and “appropriate” behaviour/responses of tourist/visitors to such sites. We question how their relationship with the recent past shapes their memories and experience of being a visitor. Are tourists also “ghost hunters” or “bringer of ghosts” to these sites? We conclude that being a tourist is a complex experience often requiring a respectful approach regardless of background or country of origin. However, our study shows that in some cases tourists are invited to mock, to actively perform ‘disrespect’ in ways which would be unthinkable for local people.