Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the prospects of Belfast as a Tourism City with a special focus on dark (troubles) tourism.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses two surveys – one for overseas-based potential tourists and one for Northern Ireland residents; one focus group with potential tourists; and three interviews, one with a Belfast MP and two with tour-guide operators, one from each side of the Northern Ireland divide. This paper is less theoretical than exploratory.

Findings

Generally, there is strong and widespread support for the concept of troubles tourism. Stakeholders must ensure that troubles tourism is intelligently and sensitively handled and builds up communities.

Originality/value

This is a relatively new and under-researched area. Belfast has been rarely looked at in urban-tourism studies. Findings have applicability for other post-conflict and divided countries, such as the countries of the former Yugoslavia.

中文翻译：

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北卡罗来纳州贝尔法斯特黑暗（麻烦）旅游的前景

目的

本文的目的是调查贝尔法斯特作为旅游城市的前景，特别关注黑暗（麻烦）旅游。

设计/方法/方法

本文使用两项调查——一项针对海外潜在游客，一项针对北爱尔兰居民；一个有潜在游客的焦点小组；和三个采访，一个是贝尔法斯特议员，两个是导游运营商，一个来自北爱尔兰分界线的每一方。这篇论文是探索性的，而不是理论性的。

发现

总的来说，烦恼旅游的概念得到了强烈而广泛的支持。利益相关者必须确保问题旅游业得到明智和敏感的处理，并建立社区。

原创性/价值

这是一个相对较新且研究不足的领域。贝尔法斯特在城市旅游研究中很少被关注。调查结果适用于其他冲突后和分裂国家，例如前南斯拉夫国家。