Backrooms phenomenon studied as new form of digital tourism
9 reported
A study published in the Annals of Tourism Research examines the Backrooms, an internet-created fictional setting, as a new form of digital tourism. The Backrooms began as a single image posted anonymously online in 2019 on the bulletin board 4chan, depicting empty yellow rooms. Internet users have since expanded the concept across Reddit, TikTok, YouTube, and gaming platforms, creating maps, stories, and survival guides. Researchers Sophie James and James Cronin from The Conversation suggest this collective world-building represents a shift in how audiences engage with horror and tourism. Unlike traditional dark tourism, the Backrooms have no physical location or historical tragedy, but users emotionally navigate and inhabit the imagined environment. The phenomenon has grown through filmmaker Kane Parsons’ viral “found footage” videos and is being adapted into a feature-length horror thriller.
What’s reported
The Backrooms concept originated from a single image posted anonymously on 4chan in 2019.
The fictional setting is described as an infinite network of empty, fluorescent-lit rooms.
Users on Reddit, TikTok, YouTube, and gaming platforms collectively map, narrate, and extend the Backrooms mythology.
Content tagged #backrooms on TikTok exceeds half a million posts.
The r/backrooms subreddit contains hundreds of thousands of members.
Instagram fan page @xbackroom has hundreds of thousands of followers.
Filmmaker Kane Parsons created viral “found footage” YouTube videos that helped establish the Backrooms as a recognizable horror environment.
Parsons is adapting the Backrooms for a feature-length horror thriller.
The study was published in the Annals of Tourism Research in 2026.
Key figures
Sophie James – researcher and co-author of the study (The Conversation)
James Cronin – researcher and co-author of the study (The Conversation)
Michael Kinsella – folklore scholar cited in the article
Kane Parsons – filmmaker who created viral Backrooms videos
Sources: ScienceDaily
