The Transmission of Dark Tourism from Screen to Destination: the Impact of the Film Ayla on Travel Motivation Toward South Korea

Dark tourism is defined as a type of tourism that provides individuals with both historical awareness and emotional experiences by visiting places associated with wars, disasters, and social traumas. Cinema is one of the most powerful triggers for this type of tourism. This is because the visualization of traumatic pasts evokes empathy in viewers while also increasing their motivation to travel to these places. This study will examine how watching the film Ayla, a Turkish film about the Korean War, affects students' desire to travel to South Korea in the context of dark tourism and which elements they see in the film influence their travel motivation. In this context, semi-structured interviews were conducted with students who had watched the film Ayla. These interviews will be analyzed using the thematic analysis method, one of the qualitative research methods. The study will reveal how dark tourism destinations become visible through cinema, how the motivation to travel to the country in question can be influenced through cinema, and which elements in the film bring about this effect.