{"id":26170,"date":"2016-01-19T11:59:19","date_gmt":"2016-01-19T14:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=26170"},"modified":"2016-01-19T11:59:19","modified_gmt":"2016-01-19T14:59:19","slug":"law-proposed-to-combat-exploitative-tourism-in-the-favelas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=26170","title":{"rendered":"Law Proposed to Combat Exploitative Tourism in the Favelas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

For the original article in Portuguese by Nemora Lisboa published in Viva Favela click here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Seeing the city from high up is one of the main reasons tourists visit Rio de Janeiro. Many\u00a0favelas in Rio have the most privileged views of the natural landscape\u00a0and other beautiful spots\u2013and this significantly influenced the increase of tourist visits to these areas. To regulate\u00a0the situation, Councilman C\u00e9lio Luparelli proposed bill No. 1599\/2015 to the City Council which aims to make some favelas Areas of Special Tourist Interest (AEIT) meaning that, in practice, these locations would be subject to a specific urbanization regime and tourism<\/a> regulations.<\/p>\n

In total, 21\u00a0communities are included\u00a0in the project: Andara\u00ed<\/a>, Borel<\/a>, Cantagalo<\/a>, Complexo da Penha<\/a>, Complexo de S\u00e3o Carlos<\/a>, Complexo do Alem\u00e3o<\/a>, Formiga<\/a>, Mangueira<\/a>, Morro da Babil\u00f4nia<\/a>, Morro dos Prazeres<\/a>, Morro da Provid\u00eancia<\/a>, Pav\u00e3o-Pav\u00e3ozinho<\/a>, Pereira da Silva<\/a>, Rocinha<\/a>, Salgueiro<\/a>, Santa Marta<\/a>, Tabajaras<\/a>, Tuiuti<\/a>, Turano<\/a>, Vidigal<\/a> and Vila Kennedy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Councilman<\/a>Luparelli was motivated to develop the project after reading negative reports in newspapers about guided excursions by agencies that don\u2019t belong to the communities. The councilman states that favela residents often call these trips “safari tourism<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not community businesses<\/a> and they don\u2019t have the slightest concern for the local culture<\/a>, history<\/a>, or artists<\/a>. They come in like it\u2019s some kind of curiosity, like they\u2019re going into a zoo<\/a>,\u201d he explains. He also highlights the fact that supporting\u00a0local trade is not encouraged on these tours. \u201cThey pass through to see some kind of degradation, to see misery and disgrace, and then they leave without any form of interaction with the local culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luparelli further states that these issues had been discussed and debated previously with principle stakeholders and\u00a0representatives from the Solidarity Tourism<\/a> course at Rio’s State University (UERJ), the site Entenda Favela<\/a>, Rio+Social<\/a>, UniRio, Funda\u00e7\u00e3o Get\u00falio Vargas, Rocinha Original Tour<\/a>, Central do Complexo do Alem\u00e3o<\/a>, Sebrae, Contur<\/a> (Network of Tourist Connections in the Favela), among others.<\/p>\n

Luparelli points out that if the project is approved, the training courses provided by the City government\u00a0will be developed and founded using community tourism models: \u201cI think that it\u2019s a project that has everything it needs to succeed,\u201d he affirms.<\/p>\n

Local guides agree with the measure<\/h3>\n

Thiago Firmino<\/a>, local guide in Santa Marta<\/a>, participated throughout the process of producing the proposal. He affirms that in principle the idea of the law is great but it’s\u00a0necessary to be careful to ensure\u00a0there is always\u00a0cohesion\u00a0among government, tour guide and local guides’ interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need to strengthen the industry without the interest being in charging\u00a0for\u00a0fees and\u00a0certifications etc. They need to improve things, but they need to improve the things they don\u2019t do. Sebrae [an institution to support small and micro businesses]\u00a0does very little. You see, they talk so much about tourism, but they don\u2019t have a language course good enough in Sebrae for local guides,\u201d complains Thiago.<\/p>\n

According to Fabiana Xavier, analyst at Sebrae in Rio de Janeiro, there is support for community business managers. \u201cWe don\u2019t train for one particular role. We don\u2019t have the competence to do this. We work with an already existing business. We speak with the employees of the locale but we don\u2019t offer any language courses,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

Resident of Santa Marta and language interpreter, Dilan Gutierrez, agrees with Thiago\u2019s point of view and wonders if there wouldn\u2019t be a distortion of the central objective of strengthening community tourism. \u201cWhat shouldn\u2019t happen is abandoning tourism initiatives\u00a0inside the favela and strengthening those outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rocinha<\/a><\/p>\n

Elias Duarte, owner of tourism agency TouRio and director of CONTUR, supports the regulation project. \u201cIt\u2019s great because it promotes the local guide. This is what companies should respect and protect but they don\u2019t.\u201d The Network of Tourist Connection in Favelas (CONTUR) is made up of guides with credentials from the Ministry of Tourism. According to Duarte, communities have many formal guides and local guides\u00a0with credentials. \u201cFormal guides are authorized to accompany tourists inside and outside the community. Up until now though, local guides\u00a0can only accompany visitors inside the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilmar Lopes<\/a>, coordinator of Tabritur<\/a> offering tours in Tabajaras and Cabritos, believes the\u00a0proposal is a valid initiative. \u201cI think this proposed law is a great initiative since it will help community residents. We are becoming qualified to receive and welcome tourists and Rio de Janeiro residents in our favelas! When you take part in a tour guided by local residents, naturally the community, the tourist and our city will benefit from the quality, products only we know about and are safe for tourists. Generating income and opportunities!\u201d<\/p>\n

In contrast with Thiago, Gilmar defends Sebrae as a partner. \u201cSebrae is a great partner, although they have their limits. We need other partnerships to work with to help us promote our products abroad and to incentivize the local market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lopes\u00a0believes there isn\u2019t negative interference by government\u00a0bodies. He observes, however, that more resources are needed for local commerce to flourish. \u201cWe need more support and positive intervention from the government\u00a0to guide us and help promote\u00a0our project.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposal is awaiting consideration by the Justice and Drafting Commission. It is expected to be voted on in the first quarter of 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas For the original article in Portuguese by Nemora Lisboa published in Viva Favela click here.\u00a0 Seeing the city from high up is one of the main reasons tourists visit Rio de […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":26171,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1668,1268,1271,1670,329,1330],"tags":[1448,804,112,1261,109,32,221,1561,354,746,197,116,376,37,155,193,1591,664,12,906,66,1408,1403,156,784,194,961,795,363,612],"writer":[1909],"translator":[1344],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-26170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-participationwatch","8":"category-favelaculture","9":"category-favelaqualities","10":"category-favela-tourism","11":"category-solutions","12":"category-translation","13":"tag-favelasareassets","14":"tag-borel","15":"tag-cantagalo","16":"tag-central-rio","17":"tag-community-business","18":"tag-complexo-do-alemao","19":"tag-favela-culture","20":"tag-favela-tour","21":"tag-law","22":"tag-mangueira","23":"tag-morro-da-babilonia","24":"tag-morro-da-formiga","25":"tag-morro-do-andarai","26":"tag-north-zone","27":"tag-pavao-pavaozinho","28":"tag-penha","29":"tag-pereira-da-silva","30":"tag-prazeres","31":"tag-rocinha","32":"tag-salgueiro","33":"tag-santa-marta","34":"tag-sao-carlos","35":"tag-solution","36":"tag-south-zone","37":"tag-tabajaras","38":"tag-tourism","39":"tag-tuiuti","40":"tag-turano","41":"tag-vidigal","42":"tag-vila-kennedy","43":"writer-nemora-lisboa","44":"translator-cara-pears"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26170"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=26170"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=26170"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=26170"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=26170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}