Slum tourism is a type of tourism that involves visiting impoverished areas.[1] It is sometimes called poverty tourism or poorism or slumming or seeing how the other half lives.[1][2] The concept began in poor sections of London and by 1884 had started in Manhattan.[3]
History
The Oxford English Dictionary found the first use of the word "slumming" in 1884. In London, people visited neighborhoods such as Whitechapel or Shoreditch to see how the poor lived. In 1884 the concept moved to New York City to the Bowery and the Five Points area of the Lower East Side were visited to see "how the other half lives." [4]
In the 1980s in South Africa "township tours" were organised to educate local governments on how the black population lived. It then attracted international tourists that wanted to support and learn more about apartheid.[5][1] Since South Africa's multiracial elections in 1994, "township tourism" became a multimillion dollar business.[6]
Prior to the release of Slumdog Millionaire in 2008, Mumbai was a slum tourist destination for slumming.[1][7]
The concept of slum tourism has recently started to gain more attention from media and academia alike. In December 2010 the first international conference on slum tourism was held in Bristol [8], while a social network of people working in or with slum tourism has been set up as well.[9]
Locations
Slum tourism is mainly performed in urban areas of developing countries, most often named after the type of areas that are visited:
- Township tourism: in post-apartheid South Africa and Namibia. South African settlements are still visibly divided into wealthy, historically white suburbs and poor, historically black townships, because of the effects of apartheid and racial segregation.[1] In South Africa, before 1994 it was rare for tourists to visit townships other than Soweto. Increasingly the established South African tourism industry saw the townships as a resource for attracting tourism revenue. Smaller operations, including many emerging black tourism operators, saw township tourism as a means of empowerment and of bolstering the self-esteem of people in these historically marginalised communities. Although township tours vary in form, they often differ from other tourism experiences in being interactive, socially minded, and potentially empowering for the communities involved [10]
- Favela tourism: in Brazil [1]
Criticism
Critics say slum tourism, like poorism, is likened to a kind of voyeurism, exploiting people less fortunate, snapping pictures and leaving nothing in return. Some tours do use portions of the profits to help out however.
They have also courted controversy because of disputes about their safety, and fears that they misrepresent local culture.
Safety
- In November 2010, Anni Dewani, a Swedish national was shot and killed after she and her UK husband were hijacked while en-route to Mzoli's in Gugulethu.[11]
References
- ^ a b c d e f "Next Stop, Squalor". Smithsonian Magazine. March 1, 2007. Retrieved 2010-12-08.
Poverty tourism—sometimes known as "poorism" — did not originate in Mumbai (formerly Bombay). For years, tour operators have been escorting foreign visitors through Rio de Janeiro's infamous favelas, with their drug gangs and ocean views, and the vast townships outside Cape Town and Johannesburg, where tourists are invited to mix with South Africans at one of the illicit beer halls known as shebeens.
((cite news)): Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Slumdog Tourism". New York Times. August 9, 2010. Retrieved 2010-12-08.
Slum tourism has a long history — during the late 1800s, lines of wealthy New Yorkers snaked along the Bowery and through the Lower East Side to see 'how the other half lives.'
((cite news)): Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Slumming In This Town. A Fashionable London Mania Reaches New-York. Slumming Parties To Be The Rage This Winter. Good Districts To Visit. Mrs. Langtry As A Slummer". New York Times. September 14, 1884. Retrieved 2010-12-08.
'Slumming', the latest fashionable idiosyncrasy in London -- i.e., the visiting of the slums of the great city by parties of ladies and gentlemen for sightseeing -- is mildly practiced here by our foreign visitors by a tour of the Bowery, winding up with a visit to an opium joint or Harry Hill's. ...
((cite news)): Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Marc Saint-Upéry (October 21, 2010). "Left at the Crossroads: Ogling the poor". RIA Novosti. Retrieved 2010-12-08.
The word 'slumming' was first registered by the Oxford Dictionary in 1884, coinciding with a rising Victorian preoccupation that mixed philanthropy, social paranoia and voyeuristic titillation. Respectable middle-class Londoners would visit seedy neighborhoods such as Whitechapel or Shoreditch, while wealthy New Yorkers roamed the Bowery and the Lower East Side to see "how the other half lives." At the turn of the century, though, the practice had already begun to decline
((cite news)): Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Dondolo, L., 2002. The construction of public history and tourism destinations in Cape Town's townships: A study of routes, sites and heritage. Cape Town: University of the Western Cape
- ^ "Township Tourism booming in South Africa". MSNBC. January 12, 2007. Retrieved 2010-12-09.
Township tourism, which has increased hugely in popularity since South Africa's multiracial elections of 1994, is now a multimillion dollar business.
((cite news)): Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Slum tours: a day trip too far? A new travel experience gives visitors a glimpse into the harsh lives of Delhi's street children. But is it a worthy initiative or just an example of voyeuristic 'poorism', asks Amelia Gentleman". The Guardian. May 7, 2006. Retrieved 2010-12-09.
For anyone weary of Mughal tombs and Lutyens architecture, a new tourist attraction is on offer for visitors to the Indian capital: a tour of the living conditions endured by the 2,000 or so street children who live in and around Delhi's main railway stations. For two hours, tour guides, themselves former street children, show visitors what life is like for the city's most deprived inhabitants.
((cite news)): Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Destination Slum"
- ^ "Slumtourism.net - Network for people working in or with slum tourism"
- ^ What do you see on a South African Township Tour?, September 7, 2009
- ^ "Murdered tourist looking for 'real Africa'". News24. 2010-11-16. Retrieved 17 November 2010.
