Growing tourist phenomenon investigated at Leicester
Source: Wikipedia
Research by Dr Fabian Frenzel in our School of Management will analyse the growth in tours of areas of urban poverty, often called slums, favelas or townships.
Recent figures from Rio de
Janeiro show, that favelas have become one of the main tourist attractions in
the city, on par with top sights like Christ the Redeemer Statue and the Sugar
Loaf. In South Africa as well as Brazil, slum tourism has developed into a mass
tourism phenomenon, and includes the provision of hospitality for tourists in
the slums.
Dr Frenzel’s study is to investigate whether the growing phenomenon of slum tourism is merely a cynical form of entertainment for the rich - or whether it can help to tackle global inequalities and injustices by bringing much needed trade into the area and international attention to issues of poverty.
The project is funded by the European Union through a prestigious Marie Curie post-doctoral fellowship awarded to Dr Fabian Frenzel.
