On the roofs of Rio’s largest favela, influencers and tourists flock to capture spectacular images. A viral success which rekindles tensions around tourism that is as lucrative as it is controversial.
The staging never changes an inch. On the roof terrace of a house in Rocinha, the largest favela in Rio, a door pierced in a decrepit wall opens. To the sound of “Baiana”, by the Brazilian group Barbatuques, a person comes forward. A drone approaches, films his face. Then he gradually moves away, while the individual takes a seat in an iron chair, to show the urban panorama of the Brazilian metropolis.
In recent weeks, social networks are teeming with these scenes. Queues to make them can reach two hours. For influencers, both French and foreign, the decor is powerful, far from traditional, smooth postcard images. The favela connects to the Brazilian imagination: football, samba, carnival, capoeira, etc. But some Internet users are less charmed. They question the fact that a difficult social reality can become an aesthetic background.
“The gentrification of favelas was not in my 2026 bingo”, “It’s beautiful to exploit people’s misery”, “But behind it, do you realize that people live there? HAS”… Jérémy Gisclon, content creator known in France as Jeremstar, saw many of these questioning comments swarm under his video. “I couldn’t escape the controversy”he admits. Unlike influencers who go to favelas “like in a human zoo”lui explique y ªtre allé “because I know people who live there. They showed me life there. It wasn’t tourism at all.”.
The emergence of tourism in favelas, favelas toursdates back to the early 1990s. “They are supported by associative actors, from the favelas, who take representatives of international NGOs to these neighborhoods to show them the living conditions.”explains Thomas Apchain, author of the thesis “Favela Tours: the production of tourist otherness in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro”. “But that’s not what gives tourism as we know it today,” he continues.
“There was significant demand”
Very quickly, concierge agencies were created, the first of which was called Favela Tour. They are the ones who organize guided tours, taking tourists to meet the inhabitants, the emblematic places of the favelas and their most beautiful panoramas. Today, the largest is called Na Favela Turismo. On the French side, Selim Bouyer-Daliba, who had been coming to Brazil on vacation for ten years, spotted a good deal. Three years ago, he founded La Conexão, a concierge service in Rio de Janeiro for the French-speaking public, which organizes visits in Rocinha, the largest favela in South America.
“There was a significant demand for favela tours”he explains. The process is simple: the concierge puts tourists in touch with an association in Rocinha, which sends guides to collect clients from their accommodation. Unlike other concierge services, it only works with people from the favela. “I think the best people to tell this story are the people who live there. You have to live there to be able to tell how it works, it’s not up to foreign guides to improvise as favela guides and tell a story.” believes Selim Bouyer-Daliba
An all-inclusive visit to the favelas (drone video, drivers, tourist points, guides) costs La Conexão 450 reals (around 75 euros). Selim Bouyer-Daliba remains vague as to the share paid to him. At most he declares that a “big party” returns in fine to an association in Rocinha: “It keeps the economy of the favela going, it helps them move forward with projects, it helps them put themselves in the spotlight. HAS”
Some tourists make noise, come to party, especially come to take pictures. There are inevitably behaviors that are disturbing.
Océlia Grandval, studying and living in Rocinha
This is one of the major issues of favela tourism: who does the money generated go to? “C’est quand me très opaque”recognizes Thomas Apchain, who studied the issue during the 2010s, while the phenomenon took off with the organization of numerous major events (World Youth Days in 2013, Olympic Games in 2016, Football World Cup in 2014). “It was then mainly private companieshe adds. All redistributed a portion to an association of their choice, supposed to benefit the residents. But these partnerships had something of clientelism. This allows you to defend yourself against critical residents. HAS”
Today, he explains again, “the activity is more and more local, carried out by local guides, which was not necessarily the case at the beginning”. Océlia Grandval, student in anthropology and sociology at the Institute of Development Studies at La Sorbonne, has lived in Rocinha since November.
She confirms: “The locals have taken more ownership of this tourism. This does not mean that there are no longer external actors – they are probably still in the majority – but this local appropriation has had important consequences. For three years there has been a tourism company [Na Favela Turismo, NDLR] which partly regulates the organization. There are specific locations where guides can go with their groups. Each guide must register, wear a badge, indicate the number of people they are accompanying and pay a tax. Part of this money goes to this company, which is supposed to contribute to community development. HAS” But, she admits, « oWhere exactly that money goes in the end, I have no idea.”
The view of the inhabitants is « hétérogène »according to Thomas Apchain: “Some are for it, some are against it, and most are indifferent. HAS” Océlia Grandval continues: “The reactions are varied. There are people who see professional opportunities there, to earn money, to make a living from it, but also to share their daily lives, to convey a message, a political opinion. The simple fact of recounting one’s daily life, whether one is a guide or a trader, gives discursive power: what do we tell, what do we choose to show, what do we put on stage or not? Conversely, there are also residents who experience this as being placed under observation. Especially since here, it’s mainly foreign tourism: there are almost no Brazilians who come to visit the favelas. Certain places are thus “popular†by tourists. It’s not like going to Christ the Redeemer, which is a place largely dedicated to tourism. Here people live their normal lives. Some tourists make noise, come to party, especially come to take pictures. There are inevitably behaviors that are disturbing. HAS”
Bénéfique or malsain?
This type of tourism does not in fact avoid a profound pitfall: how can we avoid a tension between the visibility given to favelas and the transformation of poverty into an exotic setting? “Like any tourism that penetrates a non-tourist territory, there is a form of violence”explains tourism sociologist Jean Viard. The desire to see poverty takes on an ambiguous character. But at the same time, it is a desire to realize how the most miserable among us live. It’s not just obscene. This is the whole paradox of tourism: it is both violence and openness. HAS”
For Thomas Apchain, this phenomenon evokes a profound relationship with otherness. The tourist visits the favelas for what makes them different from everyday life: “This plays on the marginality of the place on several levels, which ensures a fairly strong feeling of otherness. And this is what means that there is a game of maintenance, of this marginality, which is necessary for the tourist consumption of this otherness. HAS”
However, Jeremestar does not believe that “We, the influencers, really romanticize the favela – we show reality. The inhabitants live in sometimes terrible conditions, but that’s no reason to make them invisible. The goal is also to show that, contrary to clichés, we are not in danger in a favela – quite the contrary. Even if there are individuals with machine guns and drug displays, tourists are absolutely not safe, even less so than on Copacabana. There are people who welcome us to eat, parties on rooftops, big parties in the streets where everyone dances. There is art on the walls, tags, paintings, a whole musical and dance culture. And the fact that there are influencers who go there breaks down prejudices. HAS”
To ban tourism in these places would be to condemn them even more – isolate them, make them invisible.
Jean Viard, sociologist of tourism
“There is a real desire to change clichés and tourism also brings great economic opportunities, of course, but also political and socialrecalls Océlia Grandval. It allows us to shed more light on the favelas, with more positive points of view than those often found in the Brazilian media or in the collective imagination, which is constructed through the media or cinema – “City of God”, for example, or other action films that use the favela as a setting. Having spoken with several residents, I know that many, younger people, could be a little ashamed to say that they lived in Rocinha. Today, this is less the case.
“To ban tourism in these places would be to condemn them even more – to isolate them, to make them invisiblebelieves Jean Viard. And to be invisible in our communications society is to condemn one to death. Afterwards, how we control, how we try to limit predation on young women and on local societies – it’s a real subject. But tourism is a marker of desirability of territories, and when a territory is desirous, it accelerates its development non-tourist economic.
Because behind the slick images and spectacular panoramas, a question persists: can we really add value without exploiting? In the age of social networks, where each place potentially becomes a setting, the favelas crystallize more than ever this tension between visibility and staging. There remains a fragile balance to find – between showing and letting live – so that these territories are not only looked at, but also heard.
