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Favela tourism

Since the early 1990s, tours of Rio's favelas have grown from a niche curiosity into a contested industry. What favela tourism is, how it developed, and the questions it raises.

How it began

Organized favela tours began in Rio de Janeiro in the early 1990s, starting in Rocinha. The 1992 UN Earth Summit (Eco-92) in Rio, which brought international delegates and journalists to the city, is often cited as a catalyst: visitors wanted to see the places that the city's image both concealed and depended on. Small operators, many of them run by outsiders using jeeps and minivans, made Rocinha a regular stop by the mid-1990s.

Popular culture amplified the interest. In 1996 Michael Jackson filmed part of the video for "They Don't Care About Us" in Santa Marta, which still marks the spot with a statue and mural. The 2002 film Cidade de Deus (City of God) made favelas internationally recognizable, if in a violent register many residents resented.

The UPP-era boom

Tourism expanded sharply after 2008, when the UPP program placed permanent police units in South Zone and central favelas ahead of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. Santa Marta, the first UPP community, received a state-backed tourism program and an inclined railway; Vidigal, above Leblon, saw hostels, bars, and restaurants open, with the trail to the summit of Dois Irmãos becoming a popular hike. Property prices and rents rose, and the term "gentrification" entered debates about favelas for the first time.

As the UPP program deteriorated after 2017 and armed conflict returned to several communities, visitor numbers fell. Tourism has continued in a smaller and more locally run form, concentrated in communities with stable security conditions at any given time.

The ethics debate

Favela tourism has been criticized from its beginnings as "poverty tourism" — turning residents' lives into a spectacle for paying outsiders, with most revenue going to operators from outside the community. The sociologist Bianca Freire-Medeiros, the leading researcher on the subject, describes the favela as a "travelled" place whose image is produced by tour operators, media, and visitors as much as by residents. Common criticisms include:

• photography of residents and homes without consent;
• tours that frame the favela primarily through violence and the drug trade;
• little or no income reaching residents beyond a few shops;
• rising rents and displacement of long-term residents where tourism concentrates.

Defenders, including many resident guides, argue that tourism counters stereotypes, brings income, and gives visitors a more accurate picture than the news does. The debate has shifted the industry toward resident-run tours, community museums, and cultural visits — samba rehearsals, funk parties, food, and street art — rather than "safari"-style drives through.

Visiting responsibly

• Go with a resident guide or a community organization, so that income stays local and access is negotiated with the community.
• Check current conditions. Security varies by community and by week. Resident guides know the situation; platforms such as Fogo Cruzado report gunfire in real time in Rio and other cities.
• Ask before photographing people, and avoid photographing anything residents ask you not to.
• Spend money locally — in community-run restaurants, bars, and shops; see Food in favelas.
• Treat it as a neighborhood, not an attraction. Most people are going to work, school, or home.

Community museums and cultural sites

Several communities have built their own institutions for telling their history, among them the Museu da Maré in Complexo da Maré and the Museu de Favela in Cantagalo and Pavão-Pavãozinho. Samba schools such as Mangueira host public rehearsals in the months before Carnival; see Mangueira and Samba and favelas.