![\"Nemeth\"](\"http:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Nemeth.jpg\")
<\/a>Nemeth<\/p><\/div>Nemeth, UT professor of geography and planning, believes \u201cdark niche\u201d destination tourism has the potential to revitalize pockets of distressed rural economies in America. He specifically focuses on roadways numbered 666 and \u201cphantasmal niche\u201d destinations, where visitors experience imagined supernatural, magical or mystical allure with a touch of evil.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the big enemies of scientific method is called the fallacy of selective thinking, or confirmation bias,\u201d Nemeth said. \u201cIf you have an expectation to see something, then you\u2019re going to see it. If you expect to see the beast, you will.\u201d<\/p>\n
The number 666 carries a dark connotation because of its ties with Satan in the Christian faith. In the Bible, Revelation 13:18 states, \u201cHere is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nemeth co-authored an article with Dr. Deborah Che, lecturer at the Southern Cross University School of Tourism and Hospitality Management in Australia, about the idea of capitalizing on roads numbered 666. The article, \u201cAlternative Tourism Geographies: Leveraging the Ironic Case of Pennsylvania\u2019s Route 666 for Economic Development,\u201d was originally published in Applied Geography and featured by the London School of Economics and Political Science in December.<\/p>\n
The article focuses specifically on the David Zeisberger Highway (Route 666) in Pennsylvania, which already has some appealing irony because it\u2019s named for the well-known missionary. Areas along Pennsylvania 666 are in rapid decline due to regional deindustrialization and depopulation, which make it an ideal place for revitalization through the promotion of dark-niche tourism, according to Nemeth.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have this odd juxtaposition of good and evil at this one place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Dark-niche tourism focuses on historic death and tragedy and has been successful in other parts of the world. The tourism ranges from \u201cvery dark,\u201d such as tours of Auschwitz, to \u201cvery light,\u201d which is where these \u201croads to hell\u201d fall, Nemeth said.<\/p>\n
In total, there are about 58 roads in the United States numbered 666, and that figure is decreasing because religious groups have petitioned local governments to change the digits. The most famous case is that of Routes 491 and 191, a former Route 666 that circled the Four Corners of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona. It appeared to be a noose shape around the Four Corners, which looked like a crucifix, Nemeth said.<\/p>\n