Nearly 50 years after the Jonestown massacre shocked the world, the site of one of history's deadliest cult tragedies is now open to tourists, sparking debate over whether confronting the past is educational or exploitative. A new $750 tour operated by Wanderlust Adventures GY—including a flight from Guyana's capital, a van ride, and a night in nearby Port Kaituma—takes visitors to the overgrown site where more than 900 members of Jim Jones' Peoples Temple died in a mass murder-suicide in 1978 after Jones ordered followers to drink cyanide-laced punch. The site's homes and other structures have disappeared, leaving only "a small clearing" and a plaque, per the New York Times.
Tour operator Roselyn Sewcharran says the aim is to educate about the perils of manipulation and unchecked authority, not sensationalism. The tour includes a walk through what remains of the site, as well as moments of reflection and recounts of the community's history. Still, some survivors and Guyanese residents see the tour as an attempt to profit from tragedy. Survivor John Cobb, who lost 11 relatives, called it "a money grab."
Guyanese reactions are mixed. Some resent the nation's association with Jonestown and see the massacre as an American tragedy that happened on their soil. Others, like Tiffany Daniels, a local restaurant owner, say the area carries "bad energy" and see little reason to remember it, even with the niche market for "dark tourism." CNN's David G. Allan, who visited the site in April, described an "eerie" experience landing on the same airstrip where Jones' followers killed US congressman Leo Ryan and four others shortly before the mass murder-suicide. At the community site, "I anticipated feeling disturbed or creeped out," Allan wrote. But "my overwhelming emotion was deep sadness."
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