Grief tourism 'therapeutic'

Visiting the scenes of humanitarian disasters such as the battlefields of France or concentration camps can be "therapeutic" for survivors and their relatives, a tourism PR firm has claimed.

Chelsea Orth, general manager of KWE group, said that such connection with the past can help with one's identity.

"There is something authentic and demystifying about visiting subjects and sites first hand," she added.

It is also an educational experience which can help people to experience their own histories as well as being able to empathise with other people's cultures.

A few months after 9/11 the Michigan Daily reported that the scene of the disaster was "a major tourist attraction" as people visited the site. A memorial and visitor centre, due to be completed in 2010, are now being built where the towers once stood.

The concentration camp at Auschwitz received one million visitors in 2005.