While lining up, some tourists touch up their makeup to parade on the rooftop of a small house in Rio de Janeiro’s largest favela, posing for a drone that pulls away and shows the aerial view of the hillside community. With a catchy musical base, the video from Rocinha favela has gone viral on social media just as Rio records record tourist numbers.
The attraction’s success is such that some visitors wait up to two hours to film themselves, for a price of at least 150 reais (30 dollars). Recently, there was even a marriage proposal. But it has also generated some discomfort, with dozens of comments accusing visitors of romanticizing poverty and crime in a low-income community where drug traffickers operate.
“We are not romanticizing poverty. We want to change the prejudice that exists in people’s minds,” Renan Monteiro, founder of Na Favela Turismo said. The video is the result of efforts to show tourists “the positive side of the favela,” he maintains. Monteiro explains that they can only reach the rooftop to film through a tour, in which they navigate a labyrinth of alleys, visit local artists, or attend a capoeira show, while the residents go about their daily lives.
Rocinha “has this image that it’s something bad, dangerous… I found it really charming to see the atmosphere,” says Gabriel Pai, a 38-year-old Costa Rican, after posing for his drone shot. Ingrid Ohara, a Brazilian influencer with 12 million followers on Instagram and 20 million on TikTok, also didn’t want to miss the opportunity.
She crosses the rooftop in a swim cap and robe before taking it off to reveal a tiny dress, twirling as the drone pulls away. “These videos I make get a lot of views, and that’s why I wanted to do one in Rocinha, because it’s going viral worldwide,” she said. The images “show our country, our Rio de Janeiro, this is part of our culture,” she adds.
Safari-style tourism
Monteiro, who grew up in Rocinha, recalls the early days of “safari-style” tourism in the favela, when foreigners arrived in open jeeps. In 2017, a Spanish tourist was killed by a gunshot during a shootout between police and drug traffickers, and tourism came to a halt.
When it resumed years later, Monteiro sought a safe way to showcase the favela, home to more than 70,000 people. Together with community leaders, he mapped out tourist routes and created an app to track the guides’ locations. If there’s a police operation against drug traffickers, the guides communicate to cancel ongoing visits.
His company has trained 300 local guides and ten drone pilots. Pilot Pedro Lucas, 19, said he had few prospects before this job “changed” his life. “I earn a good amount of money and it would be good if more people from the favela had the same opportunity.”
The owners of 26 rooftops and terraces in Rocinha and neighboring Vidigal also charge for allowing tourist visits.
An exotic contrast
Tourism in Rio, famous above all for its beaches, Carnival, or Christ the Redeemer, has skyrocketed recently. The government tourism agency Embratur said that in January alone there were nearly 290,000 international visitors, a record figure. In February, Na Favela Turismo recorded 41,000 visitors in Rocinha and Vidigal.
Claudiane Pereira dos Santos, a 50-year-old domestic worker, celebrates the tourist “fever.” “People immediately associate (Rocinha) with crime. And it’s not like that. There are a lot of hardworking people, wonderful people.” “I recognize that some residents see this as a legitimate source of income,” says Cecilia Olliveira, executive director of the Instituto Fogo Cruzado, which monitors armed violence in low-income communities.
“The problem arises when the favela stops being a vibrant and complex neighborhood traversed by inequalities and simply becomes an exotic contrast or the backdrop for impactful content,” she laments.
