Why the ghost tour industry faces a scary future

When David Dominé moved to Louisville, Kentucky, for law school in the 1990s, he was captivated by the historic district of Old Louisville, lined with stately Victorian mansions. After he bought a reputedly haunted home in the neighborhood—and had “some strange things happen†there—he began researching the ghost stories told in the area. That led Dominé to write books about the communityâ€s legendary hauntings.

Soon, reader interest convinced him to offer tours, leading to a business he calls Louisville Historic Tours. Dominéâ€s company now has about nine tour guides, mostly people interested in local history. Many live in the neighborhoods where they give tours. “We started off with ghost tours—those seem to be the most popular—but we also do history and architecture tours, (and) we do food tours,†he says.

Across the country, people passionate about history and curious about the supernatural have followed a similar path. In an age of ghost-hunting TV shows, YouTube channels, and podcasts, they combine historic storytelling with spooky local legends—and frequently operate at night after other attractions close down. “They surprised me for being these rich and kind of complicated little storytelling projects, even though they were clearly sensationalist sometimes,†says Heidi Aronson Kolk, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis who has written about ghost tours.

But the game has changed, thanks to the ascendance of multicity ghost tour chains. As with other industries, from ride hailing to news media, the internet has contributed to their rise. These outfits take advantage of economies of scale in centralizing operations like reservations, human resources, and even tour route planning, while leveraging search engine optimization and online advertising expertise to be the first ghost tour option tourists see.

The rise of online marketing has, however, brought with it numerous disputes between local ghost tour operators and a handful of national chains over intellectual property, with tour companies accusing one another of copying tour titles and business names in an effort to game search listings. Big tour companies have also faced allegations of plagiarizing tour content from local operators in a rush to expand. Some have also faced allegations of violating labor laws around subjects like independent contractor classification and overtime pay as they recruit a national workforce of tour guides and other staff. 

Long-standing tour operators say chain operators can appear to be just another internet-based hustle with little consideration for what was once a cozy industry presided over by local history buffs. “Competition isnâ€t a bad thing, but youâ€ve got to kind of be respectful,†Dominé says. “You canâ€t just go in and copy what someoneâ€s doing, use their information, and things like that.â€Â 

“You canâ€t own historyâ€Â 

Dominé has firsthand experience with these sorts of disputes. In 2022, he sued a ghost tour chain called Ghost City Tours, which bills itself as “the worldâ€s largest and best ghost tour company,†serving more than 600,000 customers per year and advertising tours in at least 26 U.S. cities. Dominé alleged copyright infringement and unfair competition, saying Ghost City incorporated stories from his books—including fictionalized elements—into its tours and worked his name into marketing materials, falsely implying his endorsement. Citing a nondisclosure agreement, Dominé declined to comment on the case, which settled in 2023. Ghost City Tours declined to make someone available for an interview for this article, citing concerns about revealing proprietary information. 

Another chain, called US Ghost Adventures (USGA), offers tours in more than 150 cities, from Akron, Ohio, to Yorktown, Virginia, and claims to have more than 1,000 “local experts and trained guides†on staff. The company was founded by serial entrepreneur and Marine Corps veteran Lance Zaal, who has said the business grew out of efforts to build a mobile tour guide app. Zaal, who did not respond to questions asked via email, also operates a broader tourism website called Tourismo.  

In recent years, Zaal has also purchased reputedly haunted historic properties. They include the Lizzie Borden House in Massachusetts, site of the notorious 1892 axe murders of Bordenâ€s parents and now a bed-and-breakfast, and New Orleansâ€s LaLaurie Mansion, a French Quarter site associated with the torture of enslaved people in the 1830s. (Zaal currently lives at the mansion.) Zaal also operates an online ghost hunting equipment store called Ghost Daddy—which boasts that it tests its merchandise at the Borden house—and even founded a Ukraine-focused aid organization called Ghosts of Liberty. 

Zaalâ€s businesses have been on both sides of ghost industry intellectual property disputes. In 2023, US Ghost Adventures sued Miss Lizzieâ€s Coffee, a newly opened coffee shop next door to the Lizzie Borden House, for allegedly infringing trademarks on the Lizzie Borden name and a hatchet logo.

USGA says consumers and even local officials had been confused into believing the businesses are related. “I said, ‘This is ridiculous,†because I always knew Lizzie Borden as a historical figure,†says Miss Lizzieâ€s owner Joe Pereira. “And you canâ€t own history.†So far, USGA has failed to convince a federal judge to issue a preliminary injunction in the matter, and the case remains before the court. 

Mimicry  

USGA has itself been repeatedly accused by other ghost tour companies of mimicking their business and tour names. The company was sued in 2024 by the owner of Queen City Tours in Charlotte, North Carolina, for allegedly infringing its trademarks in operating tours under the name Queen City Ghosts. USGA has filed its own legal challenge to the Queen City Tours trademark, and the cases remain pending. Queen City Tours did not respond to an inquiry from Fast Company.  

Terror Tours, the company behind a line of haunted pub crawls known as Nightly Spirits, also sued USGA in 2024 for allegedly infringing its “Booze and Boos†trademark. In its lawsuit, the company said USGA operated “Boos and Booze†tours, which confused consumers, including some who mistakenly brought complaints to Terror Tours. The case was settled in 2024. Founder Jared Broach declined to comment on the matter, citing a nondisclosure agreement.

In Baltimore, USGA has advertised under the name Baltimore Ghosts, which is similar to the name of a local ghost tour company founded in 2001. Melissa Rowell, one of the founders of Baltimore Ghost Tours, says her business has received messages from customers seeking USGA, including an angry voicemail she shared with Fast Company. And, she says, Google at one time erroneously merged the business listings for the two tour operations. The two companies have exchanged cease-and-desist letters, which Rowell shared with Fast Company.

Lawyers for Rowellâ€s company have claimed USGA is infringing on Baltimore Ghost Toursâ€s trademark as part of a plan “to ride on the coattails of an established business†in various cities through similar naming. USGA attorneys have questioned the validity of the “geographically descriptive†Baltimore Ghost Tours trademark and alleged misconduct and defamation involving allegations around the Google issue. 

Jeanine Plumer, owner of Austin Ghost Tours, says sheâ€s spoken to multiple tour companies whoâ€ve reported similar tactics by USGA. Mike Carter, owner of Tours & Crawls in Annapolis, Maryland, says heâ€s also received texts and voicemails from confused customers who will often turn out to have actually booked with USGA. “I get calls almost daily from somebody whoâ€s confused or wants to verify which company it is,†he says. 

USGA entered that market around 2023, using a variety of names including “Ghosts of Annapolis,†which Carter had previously used, he says. After he complained through an attorney, he says USGA began using the name “Annapolis Ghost Tours,†which Carter also previously used.  

“Taking on the Goliathâ€Â Â 

In 2024, Carter registered the domain usaghostadventures.com, one letter off from the USGA site, listing local alternatives in cities where USGA operated, along with the message: “Donâ€t be tricked by the large national chains who pretend to offer the local tour experience youâ€re seeking,†according to Zaalâ€s legal filings.  

Zaal filed a legal complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization, which handles domain name trademark disputes. The organization awarded Zaal ownership of the domain after finding Carter “went beyond offering criticism and advocacy†in linking to USGA competitors, including his own business. “I abided by that decision,†Carter says. “I understood where it came from.â€Â 

But in June, Zaal and USGA sued Carter and his company in federal court. They alleged Carter continued to infringe USGA trademarks with a new “Local Ghost Adventures†site and defamed USGA and Zaal through disparaging blog and social media posts, as well as comments to an Annapolis tourism organization. Zaalâ€s lawsuit also cites comments by other ghost tour operators around the country criticizing the company, arguing Carter and his company “actively engage with fellow competitor ghost tour operators and potential customers to encourage harmful and misleading attacks,†in part via a private Facebook group for local ghost tour operators. 

Carter acknowledges that he is active on such a group, but says members are more likely to share SEO and marketing tips or recommendations for graphic designers, along with other advice for operating a ghost tour in the internet age, than they are to discuss particular competitors. “Itâ€s more about sharing information than it is taking on the Goliath,†he says. 

“Death trapâ€Â Â 

Like some other businesses that have rapidly expanded thanks to the internet, USGA has also faced accusations of violating employment laws. In 2023, two Pennsylvania women sued USGA and Zaal, saying they had been employed by the company as content creators documenting ghost tours but were improperly denied overtime pay, even when working more than 80 hours per week. “Plaintiffs protested the lack of overtime wages to Mr. Zaal personally who erroneously stated that Plaintiffs were ‘1099†(independent contractors) and refused to discuss the matter further,†they alleged.  

The women also alleged that Zaal and USGA provided them with an RV and pickup truck to use for ghost tours but said the truck wasnâ€t large enough to tow the RV, with customers allegedly referring to the arrangement as a “death trap.†When they complained, they said Zaal and USGA traded in the RV for a smaller model at a loss, and began to illegally deduct the cost difference from their paychecks. Zaal and USGA denied the allegations, and the case was settled for an undisclosed amount earlier this year.  

In another case that remains pending, a Kentucky woman named Emily Menshouse alleges she worked for USGA-affiliated Zaal Ventures in administrative roles and was misclassified as an independent contractor, illegally underpaid for overtime and breaks, and fired when she complained. Menshouse, who previously appeared in a TV show called Paranormal Journeys and has a supernatural-themed video podcast, says she had hoped the position would be her “dream job.†Zaal Ventures has denied the allegations but made a payment to Menshouse after the lawsuit was brought, though Menshouse says the amount was inadequate to resolve the matter. 

Ghost City Tours also faced an employment lawsuit filed in 2024 by San Antonio tour guide JoAnn Valenzuela, who alleged she was fired after complaining to the federal Department of Labor that she wasnâ€t paid her $50-per-hour wage for more than 20 hours of mandatory training. The company said in a legal filing that Valenzuela was fired for not showing up for shifts, not because of the complaint, and that while she had attended the companyâ€s “public tour guide training classes which are offered to members of the public,†she had signed an offer letter that said she wouldnâ€t be paid until she finished her first solo tour. The case was settled in 2024.

Committed to the supernatural

For their part, leaders of ghost tour chains have generally said they have the same commitment to supernatural storytelling as their independent rivals. Mike Huberty, founder of American Ghost Walks, which has expanded from a single operation in Madison, Wisconsin, to more than 25 cities across the country, says he still gathers stories personally before launching tours in new locales. He claims to talk to everyone from museum workers to busboys about legends that might fit into a tour, and often simply asks whether a particular place might be haunted. “Iâ€ve repeated that question probably to 5,000 people in my life,†he says. “Thatâ€s how you start collecting the stories.â€

In an email to Fast Company after the publication of this article, Ghost City Tours founder Tim Nealon emphasized that his company employs local tour guides, pays taxes in places the company operates, and runs advertising that he says benefits the industry as a whole.

“If it werenâ€t for our devotion to advertising,†says Nealon, “many travelers wouldnâ€t know ghost tours exist. Our marketing boosts awareness for every operator in town.â€

Zaal and USGA have emphasized their devotion to preserving their historic properties and bringing “meticulously researched†stories to life. And in a blog post, Nealon wrote about becoming interested in ghosts after believing he had recorded the voice of one in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and his companyâ€s commitment to telling real, well-researched stories. 

But to some local competitors, certain chain operations can feel like just another online get-rich-quick scheme, disrupting long-standing mom-and-pop businesses in pursuit of a buck.  

The story has been updated to include comment from Tim Nealon.