"Dark tourism" as a repugnant market in Germany

 NPR's Planet money has a story about tourists visiting the site of Hitler's bunker in Berlin, and about "dark tourism" more generally:

Hitler's bunker is now just a parking lot. But it's a 'dark tourism' attraction anyway By Greg Rosalsky 

"As Germany made intensive efforts to memorialize Nazi victims in the 1990s and 2000s, they also had to grapple with what to do about infamous sites associated with Nazi perpetrators, like the Führerbunker. Over the years, Germans have shown resistance to anything that gives any whiff of memorializing — or even depicting — Hitler and his henchmen.

...

"For years, the German government resisted even recognizing the location of the Führerbunker. Some found visitation of this site distasteful, and they feared any official recognition of it could help it become a kind of shrine for neo-Nazis.

"The Nobel Prize-winning economist Al Roth has developed a concept he calls "repugnant markets." This is when society has a distaste for particular kinds of market activity and may take actions to outlaw or discourage it. Examples he gives include prostitution, buying and selling human organs, ticket scalping, price gouging in the wake of disasters, and eating dog or horse meat. One might add dark tourism of politically sensitive places to Roth's list.

"Heyne says that, despite official reluctance to recognize the location of the Führerbunker and offer anything interesting for tourists to see there, tourists, with the help of guidebooks, came to the site anyways.

...

"And so, in 2006, the Berliner Unterwelten, with the approval of government authorities, erected the information plaque that still stands there today, the only official recognition that this site has historical significance. They chose to make the sign in both German and English. It shows a schematic of the Führerbunker (and a connected bunker known as the Vorbunker) and a timeline of key events at the site. It has a German title, "Mythos und Geschichtszeugnis Führerbunker," or, in English, roughly, the myth and historical record of the Führerbunker.

...

"Perhaps recognizing that many tourists were coming to the Führerbunker and getting disappointed there was nothing there, a Berlin history museum, in 2016, unveiled a full replica of Hitler's bunker that tourists can now go to. (This is kind of similar to other repugnant markets; despite efforts to discourage or even ban a market, demand often proves irrepressible and finds willing suppliers. Think of the failure of Prohibition)."

Regulating legal prostitution isn't easy, even in Amsterdam

 The NYT has the story:

Amsterdam Tries to Dim the Glare on Its Red-Light District. The mayor wants to improve the neighborhood for residents, but sex workers oppose measures recently put in place. Now the city is looking to set up legal prostitution elsewhere.  By Claire Moses

"It has been a goal sought after by Amsterdam for years: dissuading rowdy, brawling tourists from overtaking the red-light district.

...

"Now the city is pushing a more drastic move: setting up a location for legal prostitution in another neighborhood to spread out demand — an idea that has set off mixed reactions from the industry.

...

"Last year, Amsterdam saw about 20 million visitors, according to figures provided by the city. It has about 900,000 residents and is on track to have 30 million annual tourists by 2030

...

"Prostitution is legal in the Netherlands, but it is not allowed everywhere or without a permit. It is illegal to practice sex work at home, in a hotel room or in the street, for example. It is unclear how many sex workers are active in Amsterdam, and experts are wary of estimates. The red-light district has about 250 active windows.

"The local government is planning to decide on a final location early next year. But the erotic center, which would not be funded by the city, is still far from becoming a reality. Some people are adamantly opposed, and the city cannot force sex workers to move to an erotic center.

...

"Even before it was made legal, prostitution was associated with the red-light district for hundreds of years because of its original proximity to the port of Amsterdam. The commercial nature of the neighborhood and of its window prostitution, which has helped make it such an international draw, originated in the late 1960s, Mr. Verlaan said."

Taiwan moves to criminalize transplant tourism to China

Taiwan Shuts Down Organ Transplant Tourism, By Jenny Li, Epoch Times |

"Taiwan’s Parliament has made amendments to its organ transplantation law that would have the effect of criminalizing the transplantation of organs from executed prisoners in China, part of a global trend to halt thetrafficking of human organs in China.

In a June 12 session in Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan, a number of important amendments to the Human Organ Transplant Ordinance were read and passed as law.

Under the updated legislation, patients who travel abroad to receive an organ acquired by illegal means can be sentenced up to five years in jail and face fines from $NT300,000 (about $9,700) up to $NT15,000,000 (about $484,000).

The new amendments place some of the responsibility of regulation on doctors and hospitals. Doctors must file a report for any patient who receives a transplant overseas and carries out follow-up treatment in the country. Both doctors and hospitals are subjected to fines of up to $NT150,000 (about $4,840) if they fail to submit reports. Medical institutions and staff will incur criminal charges for filing false reports."

Frank Delmonico on transplant tourism in China

In a News and Views article in Nature Reviews Nephrology, Frank Delmonico describes commercial transplantation in China as still depending on organs from executed prisoners, and comments on a recent paper comparing the health outcomes of transplant tourist patients and other transplant patients, all from Taiwan.

Transplant tourism—an update regarding the realities by Francis L. Delmonico,
NATURE REVIEWS | NEPHROLOGY VOLUME 7 | MAY 2011, 248-50.

Tourism-crime equilibrium in Paradise

"It is best to not leave anything of value in your rental car when parking in remote locations or at marked public beach accesses. Leave your car unlocked so thieves do not need to break the windows to discover there is nothing inside worth stealing."

That is the sensible, equilibrium advice to tourists on the (low crime)  island of Providenciales in Turks and Caicos Islands, where I recently had the opportunity to spend a week contemplating tourism as a development strategy for Caribbean nations. Here's a sign in three languages (the middle one is Creole) alerting crooks to watch out. (Creole looks sort of like French if you squint at it, and seems not to have a passive voice like the other two--the French parts says something like "everyone who sees ... something not good, immediately call the police"

The islanders discovered tourists (and Europe) in 1492 when Columbus landed.  The islanders are called "belongers," e.g. when you come through immigration there are lines for "belongers and residents" and other lines for visitors. Most belongers are descended from African slaves who worked the salt pans and cotton plantations of an earlier economy.

Looks like a great place for a satellite university campus...