Favela Tourism: ethnographic notes on an ongoing debate

Abstract

Favelas of Rio de Janeiro have been intensely visited by tourists since the 2000s. If at first, favela tourism was concentrated in Rocinha, the paradigmatic tourist favela, today it expands to other favelas of the city, and this expansion is followed by a broadening debate about this type of tourism. I examine three events that occurred between 2014 and 2015, and where the meanings of this type of tourism are disputed: the series of debates “Speak up Vidigal!”; the I Congress of Community Tourism in Rocinha; the Favela Tourism Working Group in the City Council of Rio de
Janeiro. These three events present themselves as an interesting setting for participant observation and discourse analysis on favela tourism by the academy, as well as by foreign entrepreneurs, local entrepreneurs, favela residents and public agencies.