University of Wisconsin graduate student Erika Robb, supervised by Dr. Neil Whitehead, will undertake research on the social and cultural impacts of alternative, experiential tourism in poorer countries. Worldwide, tourism from wealthier nations to poorer ones increasingly has come to include an emphasis on personal contacts, as tour operators promote slums and other interactions with the poor on tourist itineraries. Robb's goal is an ethnography of this new tourist world, incorporating and analyzing the perspectives of tourists, those whom they seek out, and those who mediate their experiences.
Robb will carry out her research in selected slums and neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She will use a combination of ethnographic methods, including participant observation, and interviews with local residents, foreign tourists, and tour guides. She also will employ textual analysis techniques to analyze the representation of Brazil in print and on-line discussions and travel literature.
Almost a billion people a year travel as tourists. Increasingly, they directly engage third world peoples and cultures. Research is needed to understand the mutual effects of these trends, beyond the immediate economic impacts. This research will contribute to building a social science of global tourism, as well as to the education of a graduate student.
