Brazil's slums now a tourist attraction

Tourists used to try to avoid Rio's notorious slums. Now officials are inviting them to come and visit instead.

The Santa Marta shantytown has become the first community in a programme meant to promote tourism in the poor neighbourhoods that are home to some unique music and art work.

The programme, "Rio Top Tour: Rio de Janeiro in a Different Perspective," also rewards communities like Santa Marta that have been cleared of the violent drug gangs that have long made Rio's crowded hillsides famously dangerous.

Slum residents will be trained to work as tourist guides, and street signs in English will be posted throughout the shantytown of some 5000 people.

The area will have about 30 attractions such as the place where Michael Jackson filmed a video, a samba school and works of local artists, as well as a vista point with a breathtaking view of the city.

"Rio won't be known only for the Christ the Redeemer statue, the Sugar Loaf Mountain or the Copacabana and Ipanema beaches," Brazil's Tourism Minister Luiz Barreto said.

The programme, created by federal and state authorities, includes a marketing campaign and information booths posted in more traditional tourist spots.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visited Santa Marta to officially launch the initiative, and said he intends to spread it to other poor communities in Rio and across Brazil.

(Published by NZ Herald - August 31, 2010)