| Product: |
Ghost Walks |
| Date: |
18/06/08 (60 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Interesting
Disadvantages: Good weather not guaranteed
Ghost walks are an interesting little thing to consider. Of course, they're not all ran by the same company so it would be impossible to say something generalising the lot of them so I am going to focus on what I think about the concept.
Some people like to be scared. In the same way that extreme sports give some folk their thrills, scary films, spooky stories and ghost walks are top entertainment to others. Some people do genuinely believe that there are ghosts out there to be introduced to but this won't be the case for everyone attending a ghost walk.
The idea of these tours is mostly to appeal to tourists and visitors to new areas. For this reason you can usually see them advertised in places where you are likely to find tourists and visitors. For example, I have seen adverts in York, Edinbrugh, and a few on the Yorkshire coastline. Also, at university they also advertise one to new students in Freshers' Week. A lot of visitors to a new place are keen to learn a bit of history about where they are and this is basically what a ghost walk is: history about a place with a few added stories and tales to make it interesting. The ghost gimmick is needed to 'sell' the tours.
The last ghost walk I took part in was on a Cub Leaders' trip to York. It was pretty typical of this kind of thing. We had to phone and book our places before hand on a phone number we had found through their website which advertised the starting time and meeting place of the tour. We were met at the start point by about 10 other people and a charismatic man with the gift of the gab and a period costume. This was the most important part. Any historian could, in theory, run a ghost walk but it's making the stories interesting that makes the concept work. We were led around the city at a manageable pace with frequent stops at places of interest where we were told about the history of places such as 'The Lanes'. Most of the stories wern't scary but characters were brought into the tales to bring them more to life.
Ghost walks are just a bit of fun with some learning thrown in. From my perspective, the stories aren't mean't to be really harrowing or even particulary factual where the characters are concerned but they are interesting none the less. I don't even think the majority of the people on the walk even believe that there are ghosts. They are just tourists looking for entertainment.
I know ghost walks aren't everybody's idea of fun but they're certainly not dangerous or exploitive. They're a little tongue in cheek fun with some good stories, a chance to explore and a little history lesson. Not recommended for easily frightened children or extremely guillible/nervous adults but taken in the right way, good fun and interesting!
Summary: All in good jest
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