Fifth International Conference on Tourism & Leisure Studies

Abstract

This paper analyses the Kingston Penitentiary Tours in Kingston, Canada and the ways that the city’s prison history has been mobilized by municipal actors through tourism to advance local political and economic agendas. As an example of dark tourism – the act of travel or site-visitation associated with death, suffering, and horror – the Kingston Penitentiary Tours take visitors “behind the walls” of Canada’s oldest and most notorious prison, which opened in 1835 and was decommissioned in 2013. Through extensive document analysis of promotional materials, visitor reviews, and media coverage, as well as interviews I conducted with employees of the Tours – many of whom are former Correctional Officers – and members of the Kingston community, my research examines the presentation and reception of the Kingston Penitentiary Tours and the ways that Kingston’s prison history has been utilized through tourism to enhance, rather than undermine, the city’s image. Situating my analysis within the larger theoretical discussions surrounding dark tourism, city-branding, and meta-soft power, as well as the history and practice of prison tourism, I argue that the Kingston Penitentiary Tours have been mobilized by municipal and community actors in ways which transform Kingston’s dark history as “Canada’s Penitentiary Capital” into an economic and cultural asset and a source of regional pride.