The Use of New Technologies in Dark Tourism Processes: The Case Study of the Portuguese Chapels of Bones

The year 2020 will forever be known for the appearance of the pandemic COVID-19. With such a phenomenon, the use of technologies started to make even more sense. Indeed, and suddenly, in March of the same year, individuals were forced to avoid socializing and to cancel or drastically reduce tourism practices. This sector of the Economy, which helped countries like Portugal to get out of the Troika’s financial crisis entered a technical bankruptcy without the support of the other sectors of the Economy. Tourism seems to be forgotten, while financial resources were drained for the health sector and for the search for a miraculous vaccine. At the same time, the word "death" returns to daily conversations, in parallel with other words such as confinement, protection, mask or hand washing. This phenomenon so fashionable in the 16th/17th centuries baroque culture and in the “Still Lifes” art’s current, seems to emerge again. And with that the practices of Dark Tourism too. Among these practices, visits to bone chapels stand out. Before the pandemic, such visits were organized using a research service such as “google maps”. The impossibility of going to the sites personally requires that they adhere to the use of technologies applied to Tourism. Among them, the ArcGIS / ESRI application stands out. The present work intends to demonstrate that the use of technologies can be one of the arguments for the sustainability of Dark Tourism, as well as in the script of the Chapels of Bones.