Are 'slum tours' just another way to exploit the poor?

After school, I spent three years traveling the world, but it was all about the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Acropolis in Greece. When I got home, I did the same thing in South Africa. I took on Table Mountain and the Berg, Nelson Mandela's capture site and the Cradle of Humankind in Gauteng. I made it my duty to venture out and see the biggest and most well-known tourist attractions.

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Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. Our Country had been through incredible change and I'd never been on a township or shebeen tour. I'd never even taken the time to see how the poor lived, not only in our country, but right around the world.

What's referred to as 'Slum Tourism' is now becoming hugely popular, not only in South Africa, but in other places like India, Brazil, and Kenya, too.

For me, I'd seen pictures of shanty towns and shebeens, but there was a burning curiosity to see it for myself. What did it really look like inside those houses made of plywood, corrugated metal, sheets of plastic, and cardboard?
 
It wasn't just about seeing how 'they' lived, but hearing their life stories too. What does it feel like to sleep in a house where your roof is held down by the weight of a tyre? When it rains - what if the mud walls collapse?

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Unless I did a tour of some sort, the chance of me being able to really experience this different way of life was slim, right? I mean, we'd been told to avoid many of these off-limit, no-go areas.

Open-bus shebeen tours, Shisa Nyamas, and township tours - I got to see it all and the tours were incredible, but afterwards, it really got me thinking.

Do we do the 'slum tours' to merely tick them off our bucket list before heading off to play beer pong on a stunning beach on some island or are we doing these tours for the actual experience and to greater understand the plight of many?

First thoughts make it seem as though these 'slum tours' are beneficial because the communities are making some money from the tour companies, but on the other hand, are these communities reduced to what is called 'poverty porn'?

Are we merely reducing our poorer communities to a circus show?