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Daisy Carter
Professor Waters
English 101
8 November 2022
The Demeaning Tours of Our World Today
Touring is a very popular thing to do in today's day and age but when it comes to touring
other people's communities has anyone looked into what these people go through and how it
makes them feel? The two main tours that will be discussed in this essay are slum tourism and
voluntourism which often are in communities where poverty is high. Slum tourism and
voluntourism started in the 1900s and have been popular ever since. People who go on these
tours range from people who want to learn and help these people in poverty but unfortunately,
the majority just are curious about how people live in poverty, and it is almost like they see these
people living in unfortunate situations makes them thankful that that is not their living situation
or lifestyle. There is a huge difference between slum tourism and voluntourism, slum tourism is
essentially just going around impoverished areas and just observing and taking photos of the
community and people. Voluntourism is when people go volunteer in impoverished areas that are
in need. Both slum tourism and voluntourism have pros and cons but together they both need to
be looked at and changed in a way where there were only pros and there would be guaranteed
help for the people in need.
Without knowing anything about slum tourism, seeing the name can give you a clear
definition of what it revolves around which is a tour around slums. Touring the slums is now
something that occurs all over the world and people pay for these trips to look at what non-
financially stable people go through daily. Forbes article states, “There are records of middle-
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and upper-class Londoners heading over to the East End to gawk at the poor in the 19th century”
(Shepard). Once people heard what the Londoners were doing they began to follow, and slowly it
got bigger than when people started making a living from it. Now that it has gotten as big as it
has nobody steps back and looks at how truly sad it is what these people are doing because the
number of people coming to these towns just to do the slum tours has blinded them.
Websites tend to make it seem like a positive thing and that it will be very beneficial in
learning about how they live and that they are “respectful”. But taking photos of people when
they are at rock bottom does not portray the respectfulness that they so-called have for these
people. Being at a point in life where you are the most vulnerable because you have little to
nothing and then people who are way more fortunate come around and take photos. On the
website Viator, when booking a tour, you see many photos to show people previous experiences
but although you may see some of the people within the community smiling in the photos in
others people are working tirelessly to provide any source of income and the website only goes
to show many people go for a “photo shoot”. A man who has experienced slum tourism for most
of his life, Zezinho Da Rocinha, states, “What I do NOT like about the tours…tours that use
jeeps or trucks are the worst because they present us like a zoo”. Often many must smile for
these photos and be friendly to these tourists in hopes that they will donate money to help their
living conditions.
Although it may seem like there are absolutely no pros to slum tourism there actually is
that when people go on these trips, they tend to donate to the community which will go towards
anyone struggling. But unfortunately, what these tourists do not understand is that often the tour
guides and the people facilitating the tour often take a big amount of the donation for themselves
leaving the people of the community only a fraction of the money that was donated. The website
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Womenontheroad.com states, “Money rarely trickles down. Instead, operators fill their pockets
but the vaunted ‘benefits to the community don’t materialize. Slum tourism profits from poverty,
which is why it is often called “poverty tourism”.
Voluntourism at first glance is not nearly as bad as slum tourism and initially, there does
not seem like there would be any problems with voluntourism but just like everything in life,
there are always cons. Volunteer touring began as a way to help in other countries where people
were not as fortunate and were not blessed with education or homes. The idea behind this was to
go to other countries and help with whatever they were struggling with. Volunteer tourism was
known as VSO when it first began back in 1958, “Some of the earliest examples of voluntourism
organizations include Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), set up in the UK in 1958 in response to
a request for volunteers to teach English in Borneo” (World Nomads).
Voluntourism websites often use words like “impact”, “change”, and “help” they describe
how you can get involved when going on vacation. The website Impact travel alliance states,
“We seek out epic and immersive experiences in our effort to discover an intimate side of a
destination and to connect with the world around us. We explore our world mindfully and with
an insatiable curiosity to learn more”. But booking a quick trip is not how volunteer tours should
go, it should never be a quick trip because more than likely you will do more damage than good
when it is quickly done.
One way that there are cons when doing volunteer tours is when it is done quickly and
carelessly. That is why in the paragraph above, doing a short trip is when volunteer tours should
not be done at all, and they should not be offered because of the lack of care and the lack of
learning. When it is rushed people's lives tend to be left worse than how they began. Doing a
long-extended trip will allow time for learning about the community, training for the tasks at
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hand, and executing the different tasks with time and effort. World Nomads states another reason
why short-term help can be detrimental, “Avoid short-term volunteering projects – organizations
can become dependent on the money they bring, which can lead to the manufacture of projects
that address the wrong needs”. Another con is that it is often seen that when people go help for
education purposes it leads to colonization. In a video on Filmsforaction.org, Schooling the
World, the video explains how colonization has taken over and it all started with people from
more fortunate countries trying to help the less fortunate by giving them education, but it is not
the correct education and knowledge that they need to understand to create a successful life
considering the environment around them. and what has occurred there over time. But there are
many pros to this type of tourism such as helping the community when properly can do wonders
for the community and yourself too. Also, it can bring light to what is happening whether it is a
place in need of help due to poverty or a natural disaster, this helps with more donations because
when people see what is happening, they want to help in any way they can even if it is not
physically.
Slum tourism and voluntourism have a lot to offer the world and people from all over the
world. But unfortunately, they are not taken the right way sometimes, so it is very important for
these tours to be done properly, it can be done but it takes people who care for the people in
need, and it takes honesty, hard work, and respect. To be willing to learn all about people's lives
and to let these people decide if they want to have their lives out there for others to see rather
than having photos taken without consent. The tours can do good for the communities, but it will
take a lot of work and if people are not willing to put in the effort, then the tours should no
longer be a thing until people start doing them for the right reasons and this goes for the people
hosting the tours as well.
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2016/07/16/slum-tourism-how-it-began-the-
impact-it-has-and-why-its-become-so-popular/?sh=b1b9d01297d8.
“Dharavi Slum Tour.” Viator, https://www.viator.com/tours/Mumbai/Dharavi-slum-
Tour/d953-74888P1?m=28353&supag=118063152179&supsc=dsa-
694098303964&supai=498810881197&supdv=c&supnt=g&suplp=9030087&supli=&supti
=dsa-694098303964&tsem=true&supci=dsa-
694098303964&supap1=&supap2=&gclid=CjwKCAjwzY2bBhB6EiwAPpUpZncgY3uXi
p0TWtI8mm2vWzt0aBxG7MbxQNf90a2L1BPzUE7RwvpflxoCPOoQAvD_BwE.
“The Pros and Cons of Slum Tourism.” Women On The Road, 30 May 2022,
https://www.women-on-the-road.com/slum-tourism.html.
Duthie, Kate. “The Evolution and Future of Voluntourism.” World Nomads, World
Nomads, 9 Aug. 2018, https://www.worldnomads.com/responsible-travel/make-a-
difference/participation/the-evolution-and-future-of-voluntourism.
“Home.” Impact Travel Alliance, 19 Nov. 2021, https://www.impacttravelalliance.org/?
gclid=CjwKCAjwzY2bBhB6EiwAPpUpZtMeZrODEZijvwK-
o5DuIzXPQ1sNyO6gY2vF946v9QaqWeNY90gkQhoCelEQAvD_BwE.
Sowards, Will, et al. “Will Sowards.” Passport Health, 17 Jan. 2018,
https://www.passporthealthusa.com/2018/01/the-pros-and-cons-of-voluntourism/.
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