{"id":31267,"date":"2016-08-13T13:08:56","date_gmt":"2016-08-13T16:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=31267"},"modified":"2017-03-20T12:44:21","modified_gmt":"2017-03-20T15:44:21","slug":"increased-tourism-to-dois-irmaos-trail-raises-concerns-in-vidigal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=31267","title":{"rendered":"Increased Tourism to Dois Irm\u00e3os Trail Raises Concerns in Vidigal"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Dois Irm\u00e3os, the iconic “two brothers” mountains of Rio de Janeiro which can be viewed from Ipanema beach and upon which the Vidigal<\/a> favela is built, are a popular tourist attraction.\u00a0The panoramic views of the South Zone<\/a> beaches, Christ the Redeemer, and the neighboring favela Rocinha<\/a> have made the Dois Irm\u00e3os trail a frequently visited and photographed location. Before the police pacification of Vidigal<\/a> in 2012, Dois Irm\u00e3os was a local treasure frequented and cared for by community residents. The few outsiders that visited the trail were generally known guests of residents. But since the installation of the Pacifying Police Unit (UPP)<\/a>, Vidigal has experienced intense\u00a0gentrification<\/a> and increases in favela tourism<\/a>. As a result, Dois Irm\u00e3os has become one of the most frequented trails in Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n

With increasing numbers of visitors in Rio for the Olympic Games<\/a>, Dois Irm\u00e3os has had\u00a0even more\u00a0tourist traffic than usual, and the trail is suffering from the impact. There have been increases in littering, off-trail hiking that damages residents\u2019 reforestation project of 20 years, dangerous night hiking that threatens the safety of the visitors and the reputation of the community, and generally disrespectful behavior including drug use and nudity.<\/p>\n

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

An additional concern is the way in which visitors pass through\u00a0the community. Often tourists come to do the trail and leave without contributing to the community or trying to engage with it. Even when visitors come on a guided tour, many of these agencies are run by groups outside of the community, and therefore don’t benefit the residents<\/a> themselves.<\/p>\n

“The World Cup was one thing, just that the Olympics involves more countries. There are many more people coming and many of them come with tour guides [from outside Vidigal] who don’t have this responsibility to the community. [Dois Irm\u00e3os] will be one of the itineraries,” says Marcelo da Silva, President of the Vidigal Neighborhood Association<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Russo Morais, resident of Vidigal and guide with Vidigal Trails<\/a>, considers the history of Vidigal and Dois Irm\u00e3os to be inseparable and his tour is oriented around showing the community as a whole, including other spots of interest such as the Siti\u00ea Ecological Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI began this work because I think it\u2019s important. There are guides outside of the community and also people who come by themselves. The people come by themselves, do the trail and come back down. They don\u2019t do anything with the community. They don\u2019t have contact with anyone,\u201d says Russo.<\/p>\n

The influx of tourist traffic to Dois Irm\u00e3os via moto-taxis means that residents who rely on the moto-taxis to return home have to wait in line and sometimes cannot afford the increased prices. Da Silva\u00a0was quick to say he thinks\u00a0this is not the fault of tourism, but should be the role of the moto-taxi driver to serve the community first.<\/p>\n

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

Vidigal saw\u00a0huge increases in traffic during the World Cup in 2014 and Marcelo estimates an unprecedented number of tourists from all over the world will visit Dois Irmaos during the Olympics, necessitating a collaboration between residents and local officials. The Vidigal Neighborhood\u00a0Association\u00a0is looking into a possible partnership with the UPP to limit access to Dois Irm\u00e3os. Marcelo hopes that other public agencies\u00a0will step up and help with the maintenance of the trail.<\/p>\n

“This is not the neighborhood association’s responsibility. The authorities\u00a0have to be here. The tourism secretariat, the environment secretariat, they should see, make a limit, and put up signposts,\u201d says Marcelo. “The trail has become kind of scary, kind of problematic.”<\/p>\n

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

In the meantime, there are simple things visitors can do to decrease the negative impact on the trail and make a positive impact on the community. This includes visiting the trail during daylight hours (before 5pm) and reducing litter by collecting trash one sees on the trail. Visitors can support the community by using a local tour guide, making a donation to the numerous\u00a0cultural<\/a> programs in the community or by simply stopping for a bite to eat at a local snack bar\u00a0or restaurant and supporting the community’s economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want visitors to come and respect the trail, respect the space, respect our community,\u201d says Marcelo.<\/p>\n

To learn more about Vidigal’s local tour guides and to schedule a tour, contact Russo Morais with Vidigal Trails\/Mountain Dois Irm\u00e3os RJ<\/a> or Ana Lima with Trilha Dois Irm\u00e3os<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas Dois Irm\u00e3os, the iconic “two brothers” mountains of Rio de Janeiro which can be viewed from Ipanema beach and upon which the Vidigal favela is built, are a popular tourist attraction.\u00a0The […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":31271,"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":[1736,1670,452,1329],"tags":[474,1561,65,1517,618,5,199,156,489,949,194,363],"writer":[1733,2130],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-31267","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-1736","8":"category-favela-tourism","9":"category-rio20","10":"category-by-international-observers","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-favela-tour","13":"tag-gentrification","14":"tag-moto-taxi","15":"tag-neighborhood-association","16":"tag-olympics","17":"tag-reforestation","18":"tag-south-zone","19":"tag-tijuca-forest","20":"tag-tour-guides","21":"tag-tourism","22":"tag-vidigal","23":"writer-nia-mcallister","24":"writer-sarah-cronin"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31267","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\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31267"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=31267"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=31267"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=31267"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=31267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}