From Mumbai to Rio to New Orleans, the organized tours of the poor regions have grown in popularity. And so has the discussion of ethics in the "slum tourism" or "poverty tourism" is educational and charitable, or voyeuristic and exploitative.
In some cases, the tours gives visitors a glimpse of life in a region where they can not access other, usually due to logistical or safety concerns. For example, the Nairobi-based Kibera Tours offers trips to what they called the "friendliest slum in the world". It also happens to be the largest in East Africa. Esther Bloemenkamp, co-founder of the company, said the tourists had come "to see the difference between how they live themselves. During the tour, we show them proud of how people in Kibera live. We see some good examples of the community. "
But the "slum tourism" profiting off the poor? Tricia Barnett, former director of tourism interest, a charitable organization based in the United Kingdom to fight the exploitation of tourism, told BBC News that the slum tour may be unfair if the community does not participation.
"You must see that money is gone," she said. And it may be difficult for a tourist on vacation to distinguish. "When a middle man involved and local people have no control - whether you're visiting hill tribes people in a poor or slum - they get nothing out of it reason whatsoever , "Barnett said. "But tourism can be managed frustrating, and it can be a cultural exchange."
Marcelo Armstrong, who began Favela Tour in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, said the term "poverty tourism" is too limited to describe what the tour on. "Favelas are more than a poor place, where poor people live," he said. "It really is a place with many social problems, but also very representative of society and our culture."
His goal, he said, is to give visitors "an a deeper understanding of the favelas much better as well as in Brazilian society "and to" deal with some prejudice "
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