Reader Poll: The Anna Nicole Smith Tour?
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| Is everyone on the Anna Nicole tour? |
Have you seen this Anna Nicole Smith story from Reuters?
“Visitors to the Bahamas can sunbathe, snorkel, golf, gamble and shop. Now there is a ghoulish new tourist attraction: touring the sites connected to deceased former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith. The Anna Nicole tour starts at Doctors’ Hospital in Nassau, where her son Daniel died in September just days after she gave birth to a daughter, Dannielynn. From there it weaves up to Lake View cemetery where he is buried in an unmarked grave and where she will most likely be buried too, lawyers permitting.”
What started here at Viator.com as a tongue-in-cheek conversation (ha ha ha, wouldn’t it be weird if we offered this tour…) has blossomed into a mini-controversy. At Viator we offer dozens of tours and activities in Nassau and the Bahamas but not (as of yet) the so-called ‘Anna Nicole Smith’ tour.
First of all the whole Anna Nicole Smith saga is incredibly sad, and not a little strange. And profiting from it seems wrong, pure and simple.
But then there’s the Bahamian view. A political science professor quoted in the Reuters story made an interestintg point: “The Bahamas competes for tourists with Caribbean nations so many view the publicity as a blessing… We are sorry that she is dead but look at the tourists!”
Taxi drivers, hotel owners, restaurant staff — tourism is a critical part of the Bahamas’ economy. And from a local perspective the Anna Nicole obsession can help sustain travelers’ interest in visiting Nassau for weeks or even months to come.
So is it wrong? Is it right? And should we sell it on Viator.com? We do offer things like the Dearly Departed Tour and Movie Star tours in Los Angeles. Is an Anna Nicole tour in the Bahamas that much different? Or is it taking the obsession with celebrities to a new — and unwanted — level?
What do you think?
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March 1st, 2007 at 5:33 pm
I think it’s human nature to want to see the darker side to celebrity life. Elvis died (on his, ahem, throne) at Graceland even if they don’t let you upstairs to see where it happened. You can bet that if they would let tours up there, fans would be intrigued enough to go. Really, in a few years, there could be a ghost sighting and, voila, Anna Nicole Ghost Tours or a Bahamian Departed Tour.
March 1st, 2007 at 6:19 pm
You just have to look at Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris for proof of our obsession with the tragic or early deaths of celebrities. Jim Morrision’s grave site is one of the most visited sites in the city. Memphis would be nothing without Elvis and who goes to LA and doesn’t sneak a peek at The Viper Room where River Phoenix passed away?
You never know, Anna Nicole might just become the “Elvis of the Bahamas”…
March 2nd, 2007 at 9:54 am
There’s no accounting for taste. Would I take the tour? No way. Do I think it’s somehow morally wrong? Nope. One good thing that could come out of the fiasco that is the Anna Nicole Smith saga is some more travel dollars to low income workers in the Bahamas. If someone was hurt by this tour, I’d maybe disagree, but I can’t see how it hurts anyone, and it’s not as though Anna left a legacy of propriety behind. In light of her career in life, it seems only appropriate that this kind of tour crop up in the wake of her death.
March 2nd, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Well I think Anna Nicole is great…but would about a Britney Spears Tour?
It could be a combo Las Vegas + LA trip with stops at Pure, The Palms Hotel and Casino, the Starbucks where she drove with her baby in her arms and ending at Promises.