Slum tourism is a controversial pastime on the rise globally. This volume provides a collection of studies that shed light on the phenomenon from historical, geographical, sociological, political and anthropological perspectives. Based on unique and in depth research from across the globe, the collection forms an indispensable resource for Scholars and Students of tourism and the geographies of inequality. Connecting slum tourism to debates over the ethics and aesthetics of travel, volunteering, second homes and cross border mobilities, the case studies provide ample ground for an understanding of slum tourism as transversal terrain in which the questions of global equity came to the fore. This book was published as a special issue of Tourism Geographies.
Slum tourism is a globalizing trend and a controversial form of tourism. Impoverished urban areas have always enticed the popular imagination, considered to be places of ‘otherness’, ‘moral decay’, ‘deviant liberty’ or ‘authenticity’. ‘Slumming’ has a long tradition in the Global North, for example in Victorian London when the upper classes toured the East End. What is new, however, is its development dynamics and its rapidly spreading popularity across the globe. Township tourism and favela tourism have currently reached mass tourism characteristics in South Africa and in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In other countries of the Global South, slum tourism now also occurs and providers see huge growth potential. While the morally controversial practice of slum tourism has raised much attention and opinionated debates in the media for several years, academic research has only recently started addressing it as a global phenomenon. This edition provides the first systematic overview of the field and the diverse issues connected to slum tourism. This multidisciplinary collection is unique both in its conceptual and empirical breadth. Its chapters indicate that ‘global slumming’ is not merely a controversial and challenging topic in itself, but also offers an apt lens through which to discuss core concepts in critical tourism studies in a global perspective, in particular: ‘poverty’, ‘power’ and ‘ethics’. Building on research by prolific researchers from ten different countries, the book provides a comprehensive and unique insight in the current empirical, practical and theoretical knowledge on the subject. It takes a thorough and critical review of issues associated with slum tourism, asking why slums are visited, whether they should be visited, how they are represented, who is benefiting from it and in what way. It offers new insights to tourism's role in poverty alleviation and urban regeneration, power relations in contact zones and tourism's cultural and political implications. Drawing on research from four continents and seven different countries, and from multidisciplinary perspectives, this ground-breaking volume will be valuable reading for students, researchers and academics interested in this contemporary form of tourism.
Slum tourism is a controversial pastime on the rise globally. This volume provides a collection of studies that shed light on the phenomenon from historical, geographical, sociological, political and anthropological perspectives. Based on unique and in depth research from across the globe, the collection forms an indispensable resource for Scholars and Students of tourism and the geographies of inequality. Connecting slum tourism to debates over the ethics and aesthetics of travel, volunteering, second homes and cross border mobilities, the case studies provide ample ground for an understanding of slum tourism as transversal terrain in which the questions of global equity came to the fore. This book was published as a special issue of Tourism Geographies.
This comprehensive volume comprises some of the best scholarship on sustainable tourism in recent years, demonstrating the rich body of past research that provides a fertile and critical ground for studies on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by tourism geographers and other social scientists in the future. Since the turn of the 1990s many international development and policy-making organisations have perceived the tourism industry, with its local and regional connections, as a high-potential tool for putting sustainable development into practice. The capacity of tourism to work for sustainable development was highlighted in relation to the United Nations’ SDGs, which were adopted in 2015. The SDGs define the agenda for global development to 2030 by addressing pertinent challenges such as poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, and peace and justice. Tourism geographers and allied disciplines have held strong and long-term interest in sustainability issues, and their chapters in this collection contribute significantly to this emerging and highly policy-relevant research field. This book was originally published as an online special issue of the journal Tourism Geographies.
Tourism has long been considered a source of social inequality, and as the industry continues to expand rapidly there is an increasing need for a better understanding of its consequences. Providing a synthesis of tourism as a source of injustice, Tourism and Inequality addresses a wide range of interrelated forms of inequality, investigating its association with class, nation, ethnicity, race, gender, disability and age. Chapters examine routes towards social justice and initiatives that aim to advance poverty alleviation, fair trade, ethics and human rights. The analysis of a wide variety of case studies from around the world allows an exploration into the ways that tourism can be used positively to alleviate the impacts of social injustice. Providing a unique multidisciplinary perspective, the authors aim to lead the way towards a more socially responsible future for tourism practice. This book provides a useful resource for students of tourism and tourism management, as well as industry professionals and policy makers.
This text draws on case studies from across the world to offer a concise review of established tourism geographies and shows how patterns in the production and consumption of tourist places are fashioning new tourism geographies in the late 1990s.
The Routledge Handbook of Tourism Geographies, 2nd Edition, offers a comprehensive re-evaluation of the recent developments; conceptual, theoretical and empirical debates; and critical issues in this field of study. Reflecting on and building from its original aim of rethinking geographical approaches to tourism, the volume explores contemporary tourism contexts and concepts, as marked by the present era of polycrises, setting out renewed and reoriented perspectives on tourism geographies into the mid-2020s. Across its diverse range of contributions, the Handbook navigates the complexities of tourism as a shifting construct, situating tourism geographies within the socio-spatial, economic and environmental implications of tourism, leisure and mobilities in the new contexts of global change, ecological transition and digital transformation. The volume aims to provide a nuanced and detailed analysis of established and emerging discourses and debates within tourism geographies, underscoring the field’s inherent criticality and ideal positioning for understanding and catalysing complex global and local scenarios in contemporary tourism, leisure and mobilities. Written by leading scholars in the tourism geographies field, this text is an invaluable resource for students, researchers and scholars working in the areas of tourism, geography and related disciplines, encouraging dialogue across areas of study.
This book provides a holistic, explicit and detailed introduction to the relationship of poverty and tourism development within the context of developing countries. The book is divided into three distinct sections, progressing from an evaluation of the key concepts, the causal factors of poverty and how tourism is being implemented in policy and practice to reduce poverty, to the relationship of tourism and poverty in the future. The theoretical framework inherent to the text is inter-disciplinary, incorporating tourism, geography, politics, economics, environmental studies, development studies, sociology and history literature to provide the reader with a range of perspectives from which to explore the key issues of the tourism and poverty relationship. It integrates examples and original case studies from varying geographical developing regions including Latin American, Asia and Africa to show practical insights into tourism’s role in poverty alleviation. To encourage reflection on the main themes addressed and critical thinking, ‘Think points’, discussion questions and links to further reading are included in each chapter.
In this work, Amrita Narlikar argues that, contrary to common assumption, modern-day politics displays a surprising paradox: poverty - and the powerlessness with which it is associated - has emerged as a political tool and a formidable weapon in international negotiation. The success of poverty narratives, however, means that their use has not been limited to the neediest. Focusing on behaviours and outcomes in a particularly polarising area of bargaining - international trade - and illustrating wider applications of the argument, Narlikar shows how these narratives have been effectively used. Yet, she also sheds light on how indiscriminate overuse and misuse increasingly run the risk of adverse consequences for the system at large, and devastating repercussions for the weakest members of society. Narlikar advances a theory of agency and empowerment by focusing on the life-cycles of narratives, and concludes by offering policy-relevant insights on how to construct winning and sustainable narratives.
