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Wish you weren’t here: the dark tourism rise of nothingness
A niche form of online dark tourism is growing around the Backrooms, fictional, empty spaces that evoke unease and isolation. Unlike visits to sites of real disasters or atrocities, these explorations have no physical destination or historical context; their appeal lies in the feelings they create.
The Backrooms began with an anonymous image posted to 4chan in 2019, followed by online stories, videos and fan fiction that built a community around the idea. Lancaster University academics Sophie James and James Cronin call this “para-terrestrial dark tourism”: exploring places that seem real and human-made but exist outside reality. They suggest the imagined emptiness can offer a vivid sense of alienation and a temporary escape from everyday pressures.
In short
- Backrooms tourism explores fictional, empty spaces online.
- The idea began with a 2019 4chan post.
- Its appeal is the unease and isolation it evokes.
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The case for
Exploring the Backrooms can give people a vivid, low-risk way to engage with unease, isolation and the uncanny, while offering a temporary escape from everyday pressures. Because the places are fictional and have no victims or history of real harm, this form of dark tourism can invite imaginative play and shared creativity without exploiting actual tragedy.
The case against
The same emptiness that makes the Backrooms compelling may also make them an unsettling form of escapism, encouraging people to dwell on alienation without the grounding or context that real places provide. Calling such online exploration “dark tourism” could blur the distinction between fictional atmospheres and visits to sites marked by real suffering, making the term less attentive to the people and histories involved.
Explained simply
The Backrooms are fictional spaces that look like ordinary buildings but feel empty, repetitive and unsettling. The idea began with an anonymous image posted online in 2019, then grew through stories, videos and fan fiction made by a community of contributors.
Dark tourism usually involves visiting real places linked to disaster or suffering. The Backrooms have no physical site or historical events behind them; researchers Sophie James and James Cronin describe exploring them online as “para-terrestrial dark tourism”, meaning travel through places imagined to exist beyond reality.
Their appeal lies in the feelings of isolation and unease they evoke, and in the chance to step briefly away from everyday pressures. The phenomenon shows how online communities can turn fictional settings into shared experiences.