December 8th as narrative for tourism in Suriname

Recently, the narrative of a place, city or even a nation has become a popular marketing tool to attract visitors from all over the world. Whether the narrative attracts these visitors because of their interest in the subject, the evolution of the narrative or (strong) personal ties with one of the story's characters, popular narratives often attract the interest of many.

When looking at the concept of creative tourism, it is not always the case that the narrative of the touristic product is not always good by nature. For instance the idea of 'favela tourism', where albeit save, the tourist engages in an environment which is supposedly filled with poverty and criminality. The tourist of course, considers this kind a touristic product for one of the aforementioned reasons.

So if poverty can be used as a creative tool to attract visitors, can murder?

On December 8th, 1982, Fortress Zeelandia was the stage for one of Suriname darkest narratives, the killing of 15 prominent figures in the Surinamese society, a case which has yet to be legally solved and holds current president Desi Bouterse as one of the primary suspects. The fortress, which currently serves as the national historic museum has recreated the bullet holes at the alleged crime scene, but for obvious reasons has yet to proclaim the narrative of December 8th as a touristic attraction.

Even while this narrative clearly holds a lot of grief and is a very sensitive subject to a large part of the Suriname population, could it provide possible added value for the development of Suriname as a touristic destinations? Is it morally wrong to even consider this? Is it, even after 28 years, too much of a recent event? Would this change if the case was legally closed/solved? If implemented as a touristic product, would it be socially responsible to use the revenues for community development?

The tourism sector often goes to extreme lengths to attract tourist to their products, but is their a moral line crossed when the narrative of murder is used to attract several target groups, even though these groups are willing to pay the price?