Witch tourism, referring to tourism associated with witchcraft, witch hunts and witch trials, is a form of dark tourism with roots in heritage tourism. Although Sweden is rarely recognized for its history of extensive witch hunts during the seventeenth century, a growing number of heritage tourism sites emerged that interpret this darker chapter of the nation’s past. Building on the limited research on Swedish witch tourism and the growing field of studies on witch tourism sites and visits by female tourists, this study addresses this gap by exploring how such visits may contribute to processes of empowerment. By using semi-structured interviews with female visitors to witch tourism sites in Sweden, this paper examines, through a feminist approach, how female tourists construct empowerment and develop critical understandings of contemporary gender dynamics through witch tourism as a transformative, embodied heritage experience. Through thematic analysis, several recurring themes were identified in relation to empowerment: emotional involvement; education and reflection on modern society; community building and sharing; feeling of responsibility; reclamation of the figure of the witch. By using witch tourism as a lens to study empowerment through tourism, the paper concludes by stating that heritage tourism is a suitable context for empowerment.
Thulemark et al. (Mon,) studied this question.