First there was eco-tourism.  Now, there’s “slum tourism,” a growing industry where tourists are taken way off the beaten path, into some of the most impoverished neighborhoods and districts in the world.

A New York Times article today talks about the increasing number of tours to slums, and offers both the criticisms and defense of such excursions:  “Critics charge that ogling the poorest of the poor isn’t tourism at all. It’s voyeurism. The tours are exploitative, these critics say, and have no place on an ethical traveler’s itinerary…”  On the other hand, “[i]gnoring poverty won’t make it go away.”

I can understand the appeal of so-called slum tourism (I really don’t like this phrase, but I’m not sure what else to call it—any ideas?)  Tourism is often extremely exploitative, and dependent on an underclass native population to survive.  Jamaica Kincaid’s wonderful book, A Small Place, expounds on the actual feelings of resentment, even hatred, that locals often feel to tourists, who come to “get away from it all” while blinding themselves to the life that the local population leads.  Furthermore, I know I have often visited places and come away feeling like I didn’t get past a pretty basic, surface experience.  In short, is it even fair to visit, say, Mumbai or Rio de Janiero, and not be faced with the crushing poverty the overwhelming majority of the cities’ residents endure on a daily basis?

It started off embarrassingly enough: my Italian professor had us write questions to ask. Next thing I know, we’re being lead down the streets of Rome, asking random Italians if they would answer our questions, and could they speak slowly for us students. It’s one thing to ask strangers questions in English; it’s another to do so in a language I’ve only been learning for a semester. My group decided to ask an unsuspecting young man his opinion on the US government. For the next few minutes, he went into a small rant about Bush (we had to ask him to repeat multiple times and to go slower). After he finished, we asked him what he thought about the current election campaign in the US. Without any hesitation, he replied: Obama.

I thought that was interesting that he had already had a candidate picked out, or that he knew so much about our upcoming election. Currently, Italy is going through its own elections, now that the prime minister has dissolved parliament. My professor, a full fledged Roman, explained it to me: because of the current system in Italy, the prime minister can dissolve parliament is he loses the majority or support. Thus, new elections are done, and parliament switches party hands, which happens almost every two years.

First we heard about corruption in financial aid offices where university administrators compromised the interests of students by taking bribes from lenders. Now we learn about similar shenanigans in study abroad offices. An article in yesterday’s NY Times, which quickly shot to the top of the “most e-mailed articles” list, highlighted a number of potential conflicts of interest in the relationships between university officials and third-party study abroad providers, including “free and subsidized travel overseas for officials, back-office services to defray operating expenses, stipends to market the programs to students, unpaid membership on advisory councils and boards, and even cash bonuses and commissions on student-paid fees.”

The next time you consider studying abroad, make sure that you check where your fees are going, especially if you attend a private institution.

Ever wondered why the number of study abroad programs approved by your school is so small? Certain travel organizations give schools exclusive perks per student for their participation in the program. Rather than allow students to deal directly with the foreign institutions (which are sometimes more affordable than domestic tuition) schools instead direct them through third party agencies in an effort to turn a profit.