Mostly haunted: a socio-spatial analysis of ghost tourism in England and Wales

Abstract

There is now a well-established literature on ghost tourism. However, much of this work examines aspects associated with the demand side of the industry, or the motivations and experiences of consumers. There are currently no studies that have sought to explore the supply of ghost tourism and the spatial, social, and economic relationships that exist between these places. Using Lower Tier Local Authorities (LTLAs) in England and Wales as the units of analysis, this study draws on a bespoke range of local government and Census data to examine the prevalence of ghost tourism and explore how these sites are differentiated across local contexts. We find that locations with higher levels of economic deprivation and connections to rurality are more likely to contain sustained ghost tourism. The study makes three key contributions to the literature. First, it provides a spatial analysis of the regional variations in the number of ghost hunts and ghost walks in England and Wales. Second, it identifies the spatial, social and economic circumstances associated with local variations in the provision of ghost tourism. Third, it outlines a localized and robust research method through which ghost tourism can be systematically studied.

Metadata

Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Clark, T. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6871-629X Baker, J.O. Bader, C.D.
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© 2026 The Authors. Except as otherwise noted, this author-accepted version of a journal article published in Tourism Recreation Research is made available via the University of Sheffield Research Publications and Copyright Policy under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ © 2026 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Keywords:	Dark tourism; spectral geographies; paranormal; ghosts; spatial analysis; deprivation theory
Dates:	Submitted: 9 October 2025 Accepted: 5 December 2025 Published (online): 3 March 2026 Published: 3 March 2026
Institution:	The University of Sheffield
Academic Units:	The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations
Date Deposited:	04 Mar 2026 12:50
Last Modified:	04 Mar 2026 12:54
Status:	Published online
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis Group
Refereed:	Yes
Identification Number:	10.1080/02508281.2025.2611765
Related URLs:	Dataset
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:238522

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Mostly haunted: a socio-spatial analysis of ghost tourism in England and Wales

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Mostly haunted: a socio-spatial analysis of ghost tourism in England and Wales

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