Mystery and thriller tourism: Novel solutions for European cities

This paper describes the potential of the mystery and thriller aspect of a new dark, kind of virtual tourism in European cultural destinations in engaging young people in discovering and promoting cultural heritage. One of the ways how this can be achieved is through the game-like apps for smartphones and tablets involving local myths and legends constituting the backbone of local fright tourism and blending them with popular culture, represented by mystery and thriller literary works and films. Further, this paper demonstrates the use of in-depth focus groups to assess residents and tourists preferences for such apps that would enhance access to mystery and thriller cultural heritage in the city of Prague. The results show any potential game-like app should feature a narrative (storytelling), an interactive, GPS-based map, a virtual tour, a "treasure hunt" game with a possibility to play on-line, and it should be offered at both App Store and Android Market Play for a price of 2.99 EUR or less