Cons Of Slum Tourism, Crass Voyeurism Or Virtuous Travel

The movie discusses the long term impacts of tourism on cultures, economies, and on the environment. It uses dramatic examples from several beach parties such as Thailand’s Koh Pha Ngan Island. With large amounts of litter lining the shore, the film suggests that the financial benefits of tourism will not work without a proper development plan. The story starts and ends in Bolivia focusing on the impact of the autobiographical book “Lost in the Jungle”. In 1981, Ghinsberg gets lost in the Bolivian jungles. He miraculously survives despite near death experiences. His tale of survival has lured many other adventure travelers to Bolivia, creating pressure to the country’s tourism industry. From the jungles of Bolivia, to the deserts of Timbuktu, Mali, we see breathtaking views of how tourism has affected society. The film follows the well-worn gringo trail travel route in Latin America and beyond, revealing a complex web of relationships between that cultures which collide yet require one another. Finally, the movie reveals certain sustainable alternatives to tourism.

Daily, hundreds of thousands of people are traveling, whether it’s by plane, car, bus, boat, or foot, people are traveling to new locations and being immersed in different cultures. Many fail to realize how ignorant of a tourist they are. Kincaid explains that tourists are morally “ugly” and use other, less fortunate people, for their own amusement. She tries to enlighten those who are privileged to be more considerate when they are visiting new places. Published author Jamaica Kincaid wrote “The Ugly Tourist,” originally written in her book, A Small Place, where she tries to convince readers that tourists are, “a piece of rubbish” (207). Kincaid’s attempt to convey to the audience that tourists are ignorant and morally “ugly” is partially successful, due to her satisfactory emotional appeal, yet inability to produce a less angry tone, along with minimal logical appeal.

Next I will talk about the social situations that affect the travel to long haul destinations. The poverty in a lot of long haul destination countries reaches the extreme levels where beggars are around every corner. Tourists have to be really careful with showing what they have and showing their wealth as the beggars end up making them feel

     Tourism also has its costs/down-sides. One of the social costs to the community because of tourism is that it may attract visitors whose lifestyles and ideas may conflict with the community’s (which commonly happens throughout the world, a good example of this can be seen in the settling of North America, and the effect it had on the Native Americans). Tourism could also lead to the overloading of porters which would lead to health problems. A loss of traditional values and culture is a possible outcome as well, through imitation of visitor behavior or

The government has been devoting much time and money to the developing tourist resorts because they are a main source of the growing economy. On the other hand, “[m]any local inhabitants sense a loss of local hegemony and fear that tourism is disrupting the social fabric of community life” (Freitag). As a result of her extreme poverty before she came to America, Yadiris feels that one of her hardest parts of adjusting in America was the city life because she was born and raised in a small town, where her floors were cement and her roof was a piece of scrap metal. She went on to tell me how they were only permitted an hour of electricity a day causing food to spoil faster and allowed for no hot water. While the government is putting money into the many extravagant tourist resorts, the Dominican Republic’s inhabitants are living in shams with few schools or health clinics left after tropical

Jamaica Kincaid addresses the reader as a tourist in her book A Small Place. Throughout the book her sarcasm and resentment towards the postcolonial state of the country cannot be missed. She exposes the “ugliness” of tourism, she writes, “The thing you have always suspected about yourself the minute you become a tourist is true: A tourist is an ugly human being” (14). Kincaid points to the fact that the tourists (European and American) and the tourism industry are morally ugly. The first section of her book displays how tourism uses the natives and the country as sources of pleasure for the tourists as they make their way to their hotel, they watch in awe at the condition of the country. Kincaid writes, “They [Antiguans] are too poor to escape the reality of their lives; and they are too poor to live properly in the place where they live, which is the very place you, the tourist, want to go—they envy your ability to turn their own banality and boredom into a source of pleasure for yourself” (19). The tourists do not see, and perhaps do not want to see the reality of this picturesque island they are vacationing on. Kincaid writes, “[Y]ou needn’t let that slightly funny feeling you have from time to time about exploitation, oppression, domination develop into full-fledged unease, discomfort; you could ruin your holiday” (10). This mirrors the mindset of not only tourists, but of the past and current exploiters who do not see the suffering and damage they cause, but

The author Jamaica Kincaid talks about her hatred for tourist and how they take breaks from their world to come relax in another. These tourists only expect to see the beauty in the places they visit but they do not take in account all the hard work that locals do in their everyday life. As a result, locals have begun to feel hatred towards the tourists. They envy the fact that tourists are lucky enough to visit these types of places yet the locals will not have the chance to explore these other worlds and be tourists.

The Republic of Costa Rica is a picturesque country located in Central America, forming a land bridge between Nicaragua and Panama. Tourists flock to this country each year, attracted by its lush tropical forests and its colourful fauna. However, Costa Rica’s average tourist may be surprised to learn that poverty is a persistent problem for this apparently rich and diverse country. Many Costa Ricans (familiarly known as Ticos) suffer from poor health and complain about bad infrastructure. Although the tourism industry provides substantial revenue for Costa Rica, the industry also has a dark side, including the promotion of prostitution and drug abuse, among other things. When these three factors poor health, bad infrastructure, and tourism

One of the main concerns nowadays in Brazil is what is called “sexual tourism”, which most of the times involves children and teenagers. Due to the well known poor economic situation of Brazil, some foreigners take advantage of that simply for the “cheap sex”. That usually happens in poor areas of the city, called “favelas” (slums). According to researchers, the city of Recife and its slums produce an estimate of 250,000 child prostitutes in the streets. Parents, hotels, and taxi drivers act many times as a form of connection between customers and these young girls, working as “pimps” and promoting the kids as a simple “merchandise” (Source).

The tourist’s experience is “dominated by the spectacle of the Other” which results in changes in behaviour that most likely would not fit with social norms in their home countries. Palmer and Lester use the example of photography in the film, noting that tourists become like stalkers when attempting to capture evidence of the primitive. Photography is a focus in the film, as it serves as an “embodied performative act.” The tourists are not interested in creating meaningful relationships with locals. The social interactions seem ingenuous and largely commercial. A woman stages a photo with local children, exclaiming “aren’t they cute?” She doesn’t create any meaningful connection with them, however the photo was composed in a way that will appear that she has to family and friends back home. In most aspects of cultural tourism, there is an aspect of staged performance to fit the needs of the audience. There is a dependence on the local people to perform a role eg. Selling objects, doing dances in native costume or performing a role from another era of history. In Cannibal Tours, the objects being sold are not authentic however tourists still purchase them, adding to the commodification of the interactions between tourist and local. Locals are confused why tourists come to buy inauthentic items instead of engaging with local history and culture in meaningful ways.

Because humans have a strong response towards imagery allowing them to picture themselves there, Rosenberg uses visual rhetoric to communicate with them. He posts many pictures of the favelas and apartment complexes that are available to the tourists. There are multiple apartment spaces that will meet the needs of each traveler. For an example, an apartment in the slums gives travelers the opportunity to experience authentic lifestyles of the people there, but it also cures the craving of paradise. The apartment has a beautiful view of the beach and the horizon filled with mountains/hills. On top of that, Elliot provides the recommendation of going on a five hour favela tour with Zezinho. He paired this option with an image of a beautiful landscape of mountains and a person diving in midair.

Slum tourism is becoming an emerging trend now, especially in developing countries. In fact, it has become one of the fastest growing market in the tourism industry. One of the reasons for that is due to the expansion of slum in developing countries. Frenzel et al., (2015) argue that as the number of locations has increased in the past 20 years, so has the number of tourists participating in slum tourism. They then presented a graph on the rise of slum tourism and the estimated numbers of tourists per year. It all begins in the 90s, where South Africa and Brazil had first developed slum tourism. It then moves to North America, where Mexico was involved in around 1995. During the early 20s, the expansion of countries arrived in Asia. The number of slum tourist destinations has continued increased and has later transformed into a type of tourism. This indeed could generate income especially with developing countries that are heavily rely on tourism. As Frenzel (2013) states that slum tourism could contribute to development by creating a variety sources of income and non-material benefits. These benefits are not actually benefiting the community but acts as a form of exploitation instead. As a result, this paper argues how slum tourism is being portrayed as a form of exploitation through poverty, the ethics in participating in slum tourism and how it does not lead to economic development.

By analysing his attitude it is clear that he thinks the slum tours are a good to know more about the negative sides of a state. In this fact the negative sides of India like the overpopulation or the street children.

However, some studies indicate that tourists might have cultural, social, economic and environmental impacts on the local residents. In fact, these recent studies have awakened

Planning and development are both extremely important factors within the tourism industry and can have both positive and negative effects on the environment, local communities and tourist destinations. “Destination planning aims to limit the negative impacts of cultural tourism upon the history and lifestyles of the local community. An understanding of sustainable tourist development allows for the development of culture without loss of its authentic identity” (Maidment. T. 2012). This statement discusses the importance of planning to avoid having any negative impacts on environments and communities. Because the effects of tourism are so severe to destinations, many natural and cultural resources have been destroyed, therefore tourism planning is vital to preserve and maintain these places for future generations.