Sixth International Conference on Tourism & Leisure Studies

Abstract

This work discusses an often overlooked aspect of tourism in the city of Rio de Janeiro: the touristic tours made in slums, since the beginning of the 1990’s. We explore several aspects of these touristic activities, using the community of Rocinha as a case study. It is the favela most visited by tourists, most of them foreigners. The community has a population of around 100.000 inhabitants and is located in the south zone of the city, close to the world famous neighbourhood of Ipanema, outlying on a hill that provides spectacular views of beaches and tropical forests. While, on one hand, the public spaces of the community are under changing influence of drug cartels. On the other hand, the dense housing occupation, the diversity of land uses, the colourful houses and the hundreds of narrow alleys, create a touristic scenery flavoured by the illusion of an authentic urban experience. In our work, we evaluate the impacts of touristic activities on local business and real estate market. Another question considered is the interaction between the tourists and the community dwellers. Finally, we identify the perspectives and challenges of tourism in the slums of Rio as one more tool to contribute to the integration of informal settlements into the official city. With this work we hope to contribute to, not only to the understanding of tourism in the slums of Rio, but also to provide information that can be useful to develop public policies and private actions.