Tourism in the Favela of Vidigal: Community based or market based?

This paper had as main objective to analyze critically, by the bias of the community tourism, the intensification of the fluxes and touristic supply that occurred in the favela of Vidigal, located in the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro city, after the occupation of the Unidade de PolíciaPacificadora (UPP) in the year of 2012. From this moment, Vidigal – neighbor favela of Ipanema, Leblon and Copacabana worldwide known as touristic neighborhoods – was a stage of the growth not only of the demand, but also the touristic supplies. Thus, the principal questioning of this research was “would the touristic activity in Vidigal be supported by the principles of Community Tourism?”. To achieve these results, this work was constructed with theoretical references, interviews and field observations, being this paper part of a dissertation. The conclusion obtained in the end of the research points that the tourism in Vidigal is ruled by a Market Logic and even exploratory, differently of its sibling favela “Rocinha”, that is pointed by Freire-Medeiros as Community Tourism Favela model.