Can Slum Tourism Reverse the Plight of Johannesburg’s Marginalised Communities?
Dezember 2014
The view from the 56th floor of Nicolas Bauer’s Ponte Tower apartments is breathtaking. On a good day, one can spot the Voortrekker Monument on the outskirts of Pretoria from here, Bauer claims. Ponte Tower is a landmark building in the city of Johannesburg and a somewhat unusual starting point of a tour through an area that many consider a slum.
This post was published by Africa at LSE, the Africa network at the London School of Economics.
Should Dharavi be ashamed of itself?
January 2014
Tourism in Dharavi is booming. An estimated 18.000 people paid for a tour of Dharavi in 2013, numbers have been growing with double digits, every year since tourism here started in 2006. Most tourists come for three-hour tours in small groups, and 90% are foreigners. Dharavi’s tourism industry now consists of several operators and the biggest ones are placed as the top four activities (out of over 100) on the Mumbai page of Trip Advisor, the global social media site for travel and tourism ratings.
This post was pubished by URBZ Mumbai.
Slumming it: how tourism is putting the world’s poorest places on the map
June 2016
Slum tourism is broadly rejected as morally dubious and voyeuristic. But we should take a second look. Back in Victorian times, wealthier citizens could sometimes be found wandering among London’s poorer, informal neighbourhoods, distributing charity to the needy. “Slumming” – as it was called – was later dismissed as a morally dubious and voyeuristic pastime. Today, it’s making a comeback; wealthy Westerners are once more making forays into slums – and this time, they’re venturing right across the developing world.
Airbnb brings Olympic tourists to Rio’s poorest areas – but will locals benefit?
July 2016
New York, Berlin and Paris have all suffered some ill effects from online rental platforms – without proper regulations, Rio could follow. Hundreds of thousands of tourists are flocking to Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Olympic Games. In order to meet the shortage of hotel accommodation, the city has made the online rental platform Airbnb an official partner for the games. The company now lists 25,000 units in Rio – a massive rise from only 900 in 2012.With Brazil’s economy in the doldrums, some have praised the platform as a way for Cariocas (residents of Rio) to make extra money during the games. Nowhere would this be more welcome than in Rio’s favelas – neighbourhoods that are home to some of the city’s poorest inhabitants.
This post was published by The Conversation