UCF Professor Maps the Line Between Haunted Houses and Historical Sites

ORLANDO, Fla. Brianna Wyatt, an assistant professor at the UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management, is redefining how students understand the difference between a Halloween scare and a visit to a historic tragedy site. Her work focuses on dark tourism and the specific design choices required for each type of experience.

Wyatt’s career includes hands-on work in the industry before her academic role. She worked beneath the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland, at the Real Mary King’s Close. She also managed operations for both the Edinburgh Dungeon and the London Dungeon. Additionally, she wrote scripts for Halloween tours at prison museums. She recently co-edited The Routledge Handbook of Dark Events.

In her academic research, Wyatt examines dark tourism, which she defines as travel to places associated with death, tragedy, and the macabre. She notes a clear separation between these sites and typical haunted attractions. Dark tourism locations are tied to actual historical events, whereas haunted attractions are usually built purely for entertainment.

To explain this spectrum, Wyatt points to the Dark Tourism Spectrum developed by Philip Stone. This model places sites on a scale of darkness. One end includes commemorative sites like the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. The other end includes edutainment attractions such as the London Dungeon. At these venues, actors reenact historical events, such as the Great Fire of 1666, for an audience.

Wyatt argues that purpose-built haunted attractions fit better under the terms fright tourism or thrillertainment. The main goal in these settings is the excitement of being scared rather than historical education. She explains that these environments allow people to experience fear in a space they know is designed to be safe.

“These thrillertainment experiences allow people to experience being scared in an environment they know is designed to be safe,” Wyatt says. “However, fear is an individual experience, so visitors will respond to scare tactics in attractions in different ways.”

A recent study published in Annals of Tourism Research further explores how visitors interact with these spaces. Wyatt collaborated with colleagues from Robert Gordon University, Edinburgh Napier University, and King’s College London. The team examined visitor experiences in prison museums. Their findings show that visitors shape their own experiences through conversations, gestures, and interactions with other guests.

These interactions influence how people interpret difficult history. While the emotional responses in entertainment attractions differ from those in historical sites, visitor behavior still shapes the experience. Wyatt notes that effective performers bring stories to life by reacting to visitor behavior. This makes each encounter feel unique and immersive to the participants.

Experience designers must consider how different visitors will respond to their work. Wyatt emphasizes that one visitor might find a scene scary and fun, while another may find it genuinely distressing. She teaches students at Rosen College to think like attraction managers and designers. They learn to redesign experiences to make them scarier, more engaging, or more educational.

“It is important to acknowledge the difference between visiting a thrillertainment attraction designed to scare, and visiting historical sites where real people lived, suffered and died,” Wyatt says. “For future attraction managers, understanding this difference is essential.” Students in the program apply this knowledge to shape everything from Halloween thrills to meaningful historical encounters.