Slum Tourism: State of the Art

Abstract

years, so has the number of tourists taking part in slum tourism. Recent estimates by the authors point to an annual number of over 1 million slum tourists. Most of these tourists will go on 2-3-hour-long guided tours in slums and 80% will do so in just two destinations: the townships of South Africa and the favelas of Brazil (Fig. 1). Within these destinations South Africa has township tours across nearly all the country's largest cities and towns, while favela tourism in Brazil is mainly concentrated in Rio de Janeiro. Slum tourism is thus a mass tourism phenomenon occurring only in few destinations and a niche

A Critical Review of High and Very High-Resolution Remote Sensing Approaches for Detecting and Mapping Slums: Trends, Challenges and Emerging Opportunities

“…One source of slum images which can be found on social media services such as Flickr is slum tourism. Since the mid-1990s slums has attracted travelers, mainly from other countries, who have visited slums through guided tours in some of the poorest and most disadvantaged parts of large cities around the world [197]. It is estimated that close to 40,000 tourists visit slums in Rio de Janeiro annually, whereas in Cape Town, South Africa, the number of tourists is as much as seven times this amount [198].…”

“…Figure 9 shows an example of this growing industry, where a tourist company offers guided tours through the Dharavi slum in India. It is important to note that this trend has a positive impact on slums through increased awareness of conditions in slums and the positive economic activity on the local economy [197]. With respect to this paper, we introduce slums tourism as a source of data since such companies provide the location of slums, while at the same time, tourists also contribute by posting content of visits to slums to online social media platforms, which can then be currated.…”

“You know that's a rip-off”: policies and practices surrounding micro-enterprises and poverty alleviation in South African township tourism

“…Township tourism is often referred to by commentators as a component of slum tourism, an increasingly popular activity in which tourists visit economically impoverished areas in the Global South (Frenzel et al, 2015). Around Cape Town, township tourism is relatively well established.…”

“…In Langa, most visitors come on a half day township tour whereas Imizamo Yethu is located near an official stop on the Cape Town Red Open Top Bus route and can easily be reached by tourists. Both offer the opportunity to understand more of the dynamics of small business behaviour in this under-researched setting (Frenzel et al, 2015).…”

Short-term volunteer health trips: aligning host community preferences and organizer practices

“…One consistent aspect of these trips, however, is the way that media outlets, including social media, are full of stories lauding the dedication of volunteers and their valuable impact in poor communities. Yet short-term international volunteer programs have increasingly been the target of criticism, with references to ‘drive-by humanitarianism’ [ 6 ], ‘slum tourism’ [ 7 ], and a new form of colonialism [ 7 , 8 ]. These criticisms focus on the hierarchical relationship between volunteers and host communities and on the self-serving character of much volunteering.…”