🏚️ Ghost Tourism: Why People Travel to Be Scared 👻

Ever wonder why millions of people pay good money to be terrified? This week on The Common Historian, we're exploring the booming world of ghost tourism—a multi-billion-dollar industry where history meets horror, and fear becomes a vacation destination.

From Salem's witch trial sites to Edinburgh's underground vaults, from Gettysburg's haunted battlefields to the Stanley Hotel's infamous rooms, ghost tourism has exploded into a global phenomenon. But what drives us to seek out the very thing that should send us running?

In this episode, we dive into:

The psychology behind why we crave controlled fear. How ghost tourism impacts historical preservation (for better and worse)

The economics of the paranormal—who's profiting from our fascination with the dead