A travel influencer is facing backlash after posting a “slum tour” in Mumbai, India, on TikTok.
Tara, known as @tarkatims, has over 30,000 followers on TikTok and Instagram combined. Her content centers around her travels, including trips to Mexico City, Nepal, India, and Egypt.
Late last year, Tara's content centered around traveling to India, from street food to the iconic Taj Mahal, but her content was pretty standard in the travel space.
That was until she posted a video saying that her favorite thing about India is visiting the slums.
Another commented, “Was the slum tour your favorite part? Interesting. Seems exploitative, but I'm looking forward to the follow-up video.”
So, to address the concerns, Tara created a follow-up video.
She explained that she had seen a listing on Airbnb for an $8 “Dharavi Slums Tour” and that the tour was being hosted by a man who had once lived in the slums.
“His motivation for starting these tours was to help break down the stigma that comes with growing up in the slums,” she goes on to explain. “People can be denied a job because they grew up here, and so much more.”
As she explains what the tour is like and the reasoning behind it, she shows us a video she took while guiding us.
“The profits from this tour will also be reinvested back into the community,” she says, ending the video.
Naturally, people were still not happy.
“Goodbye 'slum tour' girl, people live here – poverty is not tourism, it's not something you entertain,” one comment read.
Another user commented, “Why are people's hardships and conflicts the end point? This is unacceptable.''
Meanwhile, many others said people should have donated directly to charity instead of using poverty as entertainment or a spectacle.
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