Resumo: Since the neologism of 'dark tourism' was created in the 1990s to refer to the practice of tourists visiting heritage sites related to pain, grief, death or trauma, this subsector has not stopped growing. Supply and demand increase every year, which has led to the multiplication of research, as well as debates about the ethical boundaries of its practice. The reality is that tourism consumption is not limited to the destinations of our distant past, but is being directed towards current war conflicts, where tragedy and trauma are part of the daily life of the inhabitants of a territory. This article presents the state of the tourism sector that we call traumatic memory; its social, cultural and economic impacts; the shortcomings of the narratives in their enhancement that are leading, in some cases, to the generation of a dystopian offer. Our contribution as a possible solution is based on working with empathy as a tool for raising awareness of democratic values in these spaces activated by the tourism industry.
