Ana Maria VIEIRA FERNANDES, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil
In a global competition world, one of the goals of the public governance’s agenda of major contemporary cities is to build a positive image to attract tourists and investors overseas. Policies aimed at achieving these goals consider the city as an entrepreneurial space and reproduce global models of spatial planning at local scales.
Latin America is not an exception and, since the 1990s, Rio de Janeiro has become an emblematic example of this process, being the stage of policies guided by strategies of touristic visibility which promoted an urban regeneration in the city through megaevents (World Cup 2014; Olympic Games 2016), and by the international promotion of its image through the inclusion of the Cultural Landscape (2012) and the Valongo Wharf (2017) in the UNESCO World Heritage List. However, using these strategies to leverage tourism outcomes is not unproblematic. It can create tensions and conflicts between different urban cohorts for whom those activities may not be yielding obvious benefits.
Thus, this study reports the findings of a detailed and critical analysis of how the strategies of touristic visibility of Rio reinforced old and fostered new social inequalities in the city, and presents empirical evidence of these processes: real estate speculation; expulsion of the population due to urban renovation; the invisibility of slums; socio-spatial segregation; spectacularization of public spaces for tourism; narrative reduction of its cultural heritage and city fragmentation, leading clear processes of gentrification.
The research was developed from a literature review followed by qualitative field research. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with policymakers, public tourism agencies, and associations of local residents affected by the interventions were conducted. Findings show that the strategic policies prioritized actions focused on the city marketing and the attraction of tourists and investors to the detriment of the needs of the local residents.
Mots clés : tourism|strategic policies|urban regeneration|social inequalities|Rio de Janeiro
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