Facing a new reality

Slum tourism, or “poorism,” as some call it, is catching on. From the famous favelas of Rio de Janeiro to the townships of Johannesburg to the garbage dumps of Mexico, tourists are forsaking, at least for a while, beaches and museums for crowded, dirty slums, but this kind of new tourism isn´t for everyone. Several Critics charge that ogling the poorest of the poor isn’t tourism at all, it´s like doing a voyeurism with the lives of others. The tours are exploitative, critics says, and have no place on an ethical traveler’s itinerary.
“Would you want people stopping outside of your front door every day, or maybe twice a day, snapping a few pictures of you and making some observations about your lifestyle?” asked David Fennell, a professor of tourism and environment at Brock University in Ontario. Slum tourism, he says, is just another example of tourism’s finding a new niche to exploit. The real purpose, he believes, is to make people feel better about their station in life. “It affirms in my mind how lucky I am — or how unlucky they are compared to me ,” he said.
On the other hand, it is well known that by ignoring poverty , it just won’t go away by magic. Their supporters says that thanks to tourism people can understand better what poverty really means. They firmly believes that by turning a blind eye and pretending that poverty and hunger doesn´t exist is like a denial of humanity itself.
The crucial question that remains unanswered is not whether this kind of tourism should exist or not but how they can be conducted . The most reasonable solution would be to limit the excursions to small groups and interact respectfully with the local residents. It is very sad to see large groups of tourists travelling in fancies buses, snapping photos from the windows an acting as if they were in some kind of safari. Travel agencies should never forget that in this case once they develop the film, there will be little children starving to death instead of lions, zebras and monkeys.

By Laura R. Paruolo