Abstract

This chapter will explore the history of prison tourism and its manifestation in post-colonial contexts today. The authors will centre on three case studies: India; Australia; and Zanzibar. We will discuss the history of prison tourism across these sites, and show that there have been significant continuities in their transformation into tourist attractions today. Historically, former/ current penal sites were alluring to tourists because they were often also pristine natural spaces where flora and fauna could be enjoyed. This is particularly true of islands, where the isolation and beaches that seemed to provide ‘natural’ barriers to escape, have made them desirable as contemporary leisure destinations. In the aftermath of Empire, some sites have also been transformed into museums where anti-colonial resistance can be celebrated, new postcolonial histories can be written, and imagined communities formed. Prison history can thus be celebrated or sidelined, depending on whether it supports or challenges regional or national desires and identities. By placing a range of sites and their particular political, social and national contexts into dialogue with one another, this chapter draws our attention to both the local and global tourist audiences for whom former-prison sites cater. In doing so it sheds new light on the global legacies of colonialism and the tensions that underlie this type of heritage in avowedly post-colonial nations.