Slum tourism as an alternative form of travel: methodological issues and successful practices

Abstract

The article is devoted to the issues of slum tourism – one of the most controversial and complex phenomena in tourism practice. The demand for slum tourism is driven by tourists’ interest in unusual, vivid, unforgettable emotions and impressions, including negative ones. However, the emergence of slum tourism was less about entertainment and more about understanding the problems of dominant regimes, poverty and hunger. Slum tourism involves visiting poor areas with chaotic buildings, where there is a shortage of drinking water and basic living conditions. At the same time, variety of type and forms of slums, ways of organizing travel, tourist motivation gives rise to many practices but complicates the theorization of slum tourism as a phenomenon. The article provides a review of scientific publications, identifies the views of Russian and foreign scientists on the concept of slum tourism, and presents successful cases. The authors study the existing slum tours and analyze the satisfaction and motivation of tourists who visited them. Based on the study of scientific views, successful practices and motivation of travelers, the article attempts to classify slum tourism activities. The article draws several methodological conclusions about the phenomenon of slum tourism, and also considers the possibility of its implementation in Russia.