Imagine the scene: tourists riding in a jeep through Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro’s largest favela. With their cameras at the ready, they listen to stories of gang violence and gawp at people’s homes, believing they are learning about the “real” Rio beyond the glamorous beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema.

Far away from the South American warmth, tourists arrive in Finnish Lapland eager to meet a man in a red suit with a big white beard, maybe taking part in a “shaman ceremony” staged as an authentic piece of Sámi culture.

On the surface, these might seem like examples of tourism with good intentions to engage with local culture. But a closer look reveals the same old historical struggle: who gets to decide what a place is, who profits from it, and the consequences that follow.

In our research, we have spent years investigating the favela and Christmas tourism markets. Using news articles, archival material, tourism brochures, government documents, videos and photographs, we traced the controversies that have arisen in the process of marketing Rocinha and Lapland as tourist destinations. We found that controversies over tourism are, at their core, disputes over space.

Both Rocinha and Lapland are rife with disputes over space. Tours in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas – the sprawling urban communities often described as “shantytowns” – have been marketed for decades, especially those in Zona Sul (South Zone).

At their inception, many tours were operated by businesses outside........

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