The travel and tourism industry is always evolving. What was popular with tourists yesterday may not be popular with them today. What is consistent is tourists desire to do something or see something different. Eco-tourism and adventure tourism have become a major trend in the travel industry. However, over the past years we have also seen the rise of niche market holidays that have been tailor-made to appeal to individual’s hobbies and interests such as gourmet and cooking vacations, garden tours, or scuba holidays. Add to the mix a decidedly different kind of tourist the ghost hunter.
Today there are hundreds of different companies, groups, and clubs that offer a diverse variety of ghost tours and paranormal holidays. Paranormal tourism can range from a short guided walking tour though the historic section of town, visiting grave yards and old jails like Charleston, South Carolina’s Ghost Walks, to groups with names such as Supernatural Entity Anomaly Research & Cryptid Hunters or the Northern Ireland Paranormal Research Association who seriously investigate all aspects of the paranormal and the occult. Armed with electromagnetic field meters, cameras and tape recorders, these investigators take ghost hunting to a whole new level.
Naturally with its rich history and many ancient castles, ghost hunters have for years been travelling throughout Ireland and Great Britain hoping for a chance encounter with a ghost. In the UK, there are numerous ghost tours available to choose from. The Haunted Hotel Guide lists over 450 haunted hotels and haunted castles that offer a wide variety of haunted weekend adventures. Tourists even have the chance to team up with paranormal investigators in order to get the most excitement out of their haunted hotel stay. Guests from all over the world come to the UK for the unique experience of sleeping in a historic castle or a haunted inn and perhaps the chance of a haunting.
Whether one wishes to hunt for ghosts, or just experience the thrill of staying in a famous sixteenth century castle, there are many popular options throughout the UK. However, if one is seeking the most fulfilling ghost hunter weekend, it may be beneficial to choose a location that is well known by ghost hunters and paranormal investigators and has a long-standing reputation as one of the UK’s most haunted castles. Although nothing is guaranteed, this increases the likelihood of ghost sightings. Additionally, many find that these castles are seeped with a rich history, amazing location, and beautiful scenery. So whether you actually have a “chance encounter”, you will have nonetheless experienced a property’s many legends of ghost sightings.