Travel influencer responds after being slammed for Indian 'slums tour'

A travel influencer has faced backlash after posting her "slums tour" in Mumbai, India, on TikTok.

Tara, known as @tarkatims, has a combined following over of 30k across TikTok and Instagram. Her content centres around her travels, which include trips to Mexico City, Nepal, India, and Egypt.

At the end of last year, Tara's content centred around her trip to India, from the street food to the iconic Taj Mahal, her content seemed fairly usual in the travel space.

That was until she posted one video where she says her favourite part of India was visiting the slums.

“Your favorite thing was a tour of the slums? Interesting. It sounds like it would be exploitative but I’m looking forward to your follow-up video", one comment read.

And so, to address concerns, Tara made a follow-up video.

She explains that she saw a listing for a "Dharavi Slum Tour" on Airbnb for $8, and that the tour is given by a man who used to live in the slums himself.

"His motivation behind starting these tours was to help break the stigma that comes with growing up in the slums," she goes on to explain. "People can be denied jobs from growing up here and so much more."

Whilst explaining what the tour was like and the reasoning behind it, she shows videos she took whilst be shown around.

"The profits from this tour are also then reinvested back into the community," she states, before ending the video.

Unsurprisingly, people still weren't happy.

"'Slum tour' girl bye people live here - poverty is not tourism it's not for you to be entertained," one comment read.

Another user left a comment saying, "Why are people's hardships and struggles a destination stop? This is not okay."

Whilst many others said she should have donated directly to a charity and not used poverty as entertainment or a spectacle.

Sign upto our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel