After a stop in Burundi, a country that U.T.S. founder Klaus Billep describes as “not too stable” but “safe enough for two nights’ stay,” his tour continues on to Rwanda and Kigali’s four-star Hotel Des Mille Collines, which he notes was “the hotel they actually used in the movie Hotel Rwanda—the last safe place in the country.” Other stops on the itinerary include Somalia (the unstable backdrop for Blackhawk Down), Ethiopia (whose human-rights-challenged army is still fighting separatist insurgents), Eritrea (where a border conflict with Ethiopia has cost 100,000 lives), and Uganda.

Uganda, which was ruled in the 1970s by Idi Amin—nicknamed Africa’s Hitler—is now attracting tourism under the slogan Africa’s Friendliest Country.

Not all countries embrace their troubled past. Colombia, under a broad re-branding effort called Colombia Is Passion, has increased its tourism by 65 percent (nearly 1 million visitors) since 2002 by promoting its rich trove of pre-Columbian ruins, along with a 76 percent drop in kidnappings. Albania, using the slogan Albania, Europe’s Last Secret, is pushing itself as an inexpensive gateway to Mediterranean beaches and “snow-peaked mountains.” Little mention is made of its totalitarian past or the lawlessness and bloody feuds that followed when the country abandoned Communism in 1992.

Some countries are attracting interest without even being attractive or welcoming. A growing number of travelers want to visit North Korea, says Nick Bonner, whose China-based company, Koryo Tours, took more than 800 Westerners—including about 250 Americans, whose access to visas is limited by the North Korean government—there last year.

Those tours have grown by about 20 percent a year, Bonner says. His company recently introduced V.I.P. packages for more upscale clients, offering private meetings with Korean War veterans and performances by the country’s most accomplished musicians.

According to Lonely Planet’s Hall, “. . . recent conflict can have the unwarranted effect of improving a destination’s profile.” In El Salvador, former combatants in its brutal civil war offer tours of battlegrounds and rebel hideouts. And the notoriety conferred upon Bosnia and Herzegovina by the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s continues to drive much of the country’s tourism, despite the push to downplay the past.

Nature tours and skiing often play second fiddle to such sights as “sniper alley,” the stretch of road that ran from the center of Sarajevo to its U.N.-controlled airport, and the Sarajevo Tunnel Museum, which allows visitors to walk through part of the smugglers’ route into the formerly besieged city. Gina La Croix, an American-born lawyer who has lived in Bosnia since 2000, calls it one of the “must-sees.” She’s been there three times, always as part of a visit to family or friends.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has increased its number of commercial visitors from about 268,000 in 1997 to slightly less than 500,000 in 2006. The W.T.O. estimates the projected annual growth rate of tourism in the country at 10.5 percent, among the highest in the world.

“Places like Sarajevo and Mostar were unknown before becoming notorious in the conflict,” Hall says. “Today they attract travelers of all types—cultural visitors, adventure tourists . . . people go there looking for something different.”

Such interest is generally good for the people of these countries, providing hard currency and jobs. But in some cases, tourism remains tied to corrupt or authoritarian regimes. “We don’t favor sanctions on the tourism industry as a general rule, unless it can be clearly linked to the pocket of a dictatorship,” says Carroll Bogert, associate director of Human Rights Watch. “But you should educate yourself. Don’t go blindly.”

It’s doubtful, though, that everyone follows that advice. As bullets fly in the Sri Lankan government’s war against Tamil Tiger separatists, less than 60 miles away, “there are tourists on the beaches and in the capital,” notes Ron Haviv, a photojournalist covering the conflict. “The tourists are supporting the war funding, since the government is broke,” he says, adding that they either don’t know or don’t seem to care.