There is something rather macabre, if not distasteful, about tourists flocking to disaster areas to witness death and destruction firsthand. And yet, disaster or, more broadly, dark tourism is becoming a popular niche market.

The image of tourists snapping pics of the devastation of Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 whilst the victims struggle to piece together their shattered lives is an uncomfortable one.

But the line between vulgar voyeurism and a legitimate fascination with history (or reality) is fine. What makes the camera-toting tourist any different from those of us who sit transfixed in front of our televisions as the tragedy unfolds? Watching in fascination as images of carnage — bombs, hurricanes, tsunamis — are broadcast over and over again in the guise of news.

Is armchair disaster tourism more or less macabre than the act of actually visiting disaster zones? The debate is complicated further by the fact that disaster tourism — if sensitive to the needs of the devastated population — can actually boost ailing economies.

Perhaps the most pertinent issue is that of time. At what point do current events, and all the pain that comes with them, become history?

On a trip to Italy I spent a morning exploring the dead town of Pompeii (annihilated by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius) and an afternoon in the Colosseum (which saw the brutal deaths of thousands of gladiators), without examining my morbid fascination with Mother Nature’s vengeance or the darker side of human nature. In fact, I felt rather cultured.

So perhaps disaster tourism is not quite as niche or new as we would like to think. However the time lapse between the event and the subsequent onslaught of tourists has become considerably shorter. Within years people are visiting sites of genocide, within weeks the sites of major natural disasters, and, occasionally, spectators arrive to witness the destruction as it happens.

And that is vulgar voyeurism. If you hamper rescue/recovery operations or contribute further to the pain of the people whose space you are invading, then you have crossed that fine moral line.

With that proviso in place, we have come up with a list of some of the top disaster tourism destinations. Some are natural and some are proof that humankind is perfectly capable of self-destructing without any help from nature.

New Orleans

Before Hurricane Katrina certain areas in New Orleans — such as the Lower Ninth Ward — would have attracted very few tourists. But the post-Katrina tourists are now more interested in witnessing the destruction wreaked by the hurricane than they are in visiting the French Quarter. Guided bus tours, such as Katrina Tours by Isabelle costing $58 per person, takes visitors into some of the most damaged areas of New Orleans.

Chernobyl

The nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl in 1986 proved just how catastrophic a nuclear accident can be. For many years, Chernobyl and its victims were relegated to the pages of history books, but adventurous tourists have recently begun venturing into this modern wasteland. Equipped with Geiger counters to test the still-dangerous levels of radiation and accompanied by local guides, tourists are bussed into the exclusion zone around the power station. Visit www.chernobyl.com for more.

Hiroshima

On 6 August 1945 Hiroshima became the first city in the world to be hit by an atomic bomb. Parts of the city were completely annihilated and the death toll is estimated to have been around 140 000 — almost half the population of the city.

Today, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and Museum, which covers approximately 122 100 square metres, marks the spot where the bomb landed. The museum contains A-bomb artefacts and information about the tragedy as well as information on Hiroshima’s efforts to end nuclear proliferation. The Children’s Peace Memorial in the park houses brightly coloured paper cranes which have become a symbol for peace. Over 10-million cranes are offered to the memorial every year.

Auschwitz-Birkenau

The most famous genocide of the 20th century — the Nazi Holocaust — still draws over half a million people each year. Visitors can tour the concentration/extermination camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau, where up to 1.5-million people are believed to have been killed. To date, over 25-million people have visited the museum and camps. The tour includes the barracks where the prisoners were kept and the gas chambers.

Cambodian 'Killing Fields'

Less than four decades after the Khmer Rouge genocide, Cambodia is seeing an unlikely boost to its economy from tourism. And the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek tops many tourists’ itineraries. Situated 15 kilometres from Phnom Penh, the Killing Fields document the genocide by Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge soldiers during the period 1975 to 1979, which saw the deaths of 1.7 million Cambodians (21 percent of the population). Tourists can visit the soccer-sized field which contains the mass grave of 20 000 Cambodians and pay their respects at a glass shrine containing 8000 human skulls.

Rwanda’s Gisozi Genocide Memorial

The horrific Rwandan genocide took place over a mere three months in 1994. During this time an estimated 800 000 Rwandans were slaughtered. For the large part, the violence was perpetrated by Hutus on the minority Tutsis. The Gisozi Genocide Memorial, which was opened on the 10th anniversary of the genocide in 2004, contains a permanent exhibition of the Rwandan genocide and an exhibition of other genocides around the world.

Ground Zero

In 2002 over 3.6 million people visited Ground Zero in New York — the spot where the World Trade Centre stood before the September 11, 2001 attacks. The site continues to draw throngs of visitors, some of whom come to pay their respects and others simply to observe the destruction. Souvenir stalls have sprung up around what is undoubtedly New York’s hottest tourist attraction, selling everything from t-shirts and DVD montages to toilet paper bearing the image of Osama bin Laden.