Revealing reviews: employing Tripadvisor to explore children’s experiences at medical museums

Abstract

Today more than 170 medical museums in 29 countries across the globe welcome tourists. Given their long history and increasing popularity, it is surprising that researchers have ignored medical museums, now heralded as must-see dark tourism destinations. This paper explores the experiences of young tourists visiting three such medical museums. To launch this research into medical museums, we chose an untapped data source for child tourism: Tripadvisor reviews. Although Tripadvisor reviews appear frequently in adult tourism literature, they have yet to be used in child tourism research. Using specific exclusion and inclusion criteria, we gathered and analyzed 97 online comments that depicted young tourists’ reactions. Qualitative analysis using descriptive coding yielded four themes, from physical illness and disgust to fascination and delight.