Slum tourism

A parishioner recently asked me an interesting question:

My partner and I are booked on an escorted tour to the Galapagos and Machu Picchu in September. Our first stop is Lima, Peru, and here is what the first days' itinerary includes:
"Today you can join our optional excursion to Lima's Villa El Salvador, the world's largest Shantytown. What began in 1971 as a desert location for Lima's impoverished inner city residents has today expanded into a 350,000-person squatters' community-and a Nobel Peace Prize nominee for its excellence in social work and community growth. Working in conjunction with the Peruvian government, the residents of Villa El Salvador have created a functioning society, complete with schools, clinics, water and electricity, parks, paved roads, and more. And in 1983, the town was declared an official district of Lima."

It is optional. I think that the rich going on a tour to view the poor is "slumming", and very demeaning to the poor, but perhaps you might see this as an educational experience. What is your ethical musing about this? This company does these kinds of slumming tours on most of their escorted trips to third-world countries. The whole idea makes me queasy. But maybe I am wrong?

When we went to Greece in 2000, the tour bus stopped at an oriental rug factory for a tour. In their introduction, the guide said "The girls start at the age of 8 making these rugs, and they love it". All I could hear was "CHILD LABOR" and I was
outraged. We did not take the tour but walked back to the boat. Was I being righteous or what?

Your question has sparked conversations among Christians and ethicists in recent years. From my perspective, no answer that is always applicable. Much of what you term “slumming” is exploitative behavior by people with no genuine desire to learn about the social, political, economic, and spiritual dynamics that leave people in grinding poverty and with no real interest in helping to devise solutions to the problems. Indeed, often the tours do not even offer an opportunity to meet slum residents. Conversations with residents can be difficult as visitor and resident may not speak a common language; the residents may also receive some pecuniary or other benefit from being available to talk to tourists, which may seriously skew what the residents say. All of this points, I think, to the sinfulness of most of these tours. That type of tour reduces slum residents to objects on a par with historical artifacts, interesting architecture, etc.

A guide blithely assuring tourists that children love to go to work at age 8 making rugs illustrates many of these negatives. Children age 8 should be in school or at play, not at work. If those children want to work, it points to great family hardships, the lack of schools, and the failure of the community and government to provide an adequate social safety net.

However, when tours take the time and effort to establish one-on-one relationships, explore causes, and consider solutions then I think the visits can be ethical. Such tours actually seek to engage the tourist in the problem by establishing personal relationships, hopefully generating a passion in the tourists for addressing social evils.