Landscape and tourism in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas

Abstract

Rio de Janeiro relies on tourism as one of its main economic activities, based on the attractions of its natural and human-made settings. The social inequality found in the city's favelas affects this scenario. The sports mega-events Rio has recently hosted, such as the 2014 World Football Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, brought new possibilities for tourism in the favelas. Tourists are attracted by the natural surroundings, with panoramic views and tracks into the urban forests. This work aims to explore some of these favelas and their natural surroundings. Communities such as Cantagalo-Pavão-Pavãozinho, Babilônia-Chapéu Mangueira and Vidigal have forest areas that were recovered and opened to the public as parks, and that have received the contribution of community-based organisations. These examples show how activities, such as tourism, relate to the environment.

Keywords:

• Rio de Janeiro
• favelas (slums)
• community participation
• slum tourism
• environmental conflicts

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Local name for slums

2 Local name for tenements.

3 The first UPP was located at the Santa Marta favela, inaugurated in 2008 by the State Government, which was responsible for public security.

4 Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was the president of Brazil between 2003 and 2011.

5 The PAC [Growth Acceleration Programme] was a project of the Brazilian Central Government that from 2008/2009 onwards took place in the favelas, injecting funds in urbanisation work they needed.

6 Local agents indicate that paid visitation is a source of income, in addition to the sale of handicrafts, gastronomy and accommodation related services that create jobs, apart from the income generated for the owners of the hostels.

7 The Rio Top Tour project was aimed at stimulating local tourism in favelas and was implemented in the Santa Marta slum and that should have spread to other areas from there but lost its momentum and did not continue (Rodrigues, 2014).

8 The PAC Social injected resources in the development of activities related to the implementation of activities connected to community-based initiatives, as was the case in Cantagalo with community-based tourism.

9 The survey mapped the number of hostels in Vidigal between 2010 and 2018. In 2010 there were 3, reaching 35 in 2016, and falling to 27 in 2018.

10 This is reflected in the number of hostels. The survey mapped 1 hostel in 2010, 17 in 2016 and 8 in 2018.

11 In addition to visitation, as in the two other slums studied, the mapping carried out revealed a large number of hostels, 6 in 2010, 19 in 2016 and 15 in 2018

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the CNPq Edital Universal 2018 [Grant 435825/2018-6].

Notes on contributors

Sergio Moraes Rego Fagerlande

Sergio Moraes Rego Fagerlande has a PhD in Urbanism, and is Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, as well as Fellow Professor at the École d’Urbanisme in Paris. Sergio has a particular research interest in favelas tourism.