Gov’t to invest $356 million to develop northern tourism route

Peru’s government is planning to invest 1.0 billion soles ($356 million) over the next 3 years in the country’s northern regions on infrastructure to develop tourism, Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister Eduardo Ferreyros said.

Government tourism promotion agency PromPeru previously announced that it would start a marketing campaign in 2011 to promote tourism to the Moche Route, which includes sites in Lambayeque and La Libertad.

The intention is to develop route as the country’s second biggest tourist destination thanks to historical and archaeological attractions. Read more…

Peru celebrates UNESCO inscription of Danza de Tijeras and other Andean ritual dance

Peru is celebrating this week after UNESCO inscribed two ritual dances in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritiage of Humanity.

On Wednesday, UNESCO announced that the scissors dance, a traditional competitive dance from Quechua villages in Peru’s south-central highlands, and Huaconada, a festival dance from the central Andes, met the criteria for worldwide notice.

“We are a country of talented people and I’m very happy that our friends, the scissors dancers, have this recognition,” state news agency Andina reported musicians Bartola and Marco Romero as saying.

“We hope that in the coming years other cultural expressions from Peru receive a similar seat of honor,” said Peru’s Culture Minister Juan Ossio.

Scissors dancers hold in their right hand iron rods, which represents scissors blades. The dancer, which wears a multicolored outfit, forms a team with a violinist and a harpist that represents their village or community. Read more…

Machu Picchu recognized as South America’s Leading Green Destination

Peru’s sacred Inca citadel Machu Picchu has been named South America’s Leading Green Destination in 2010 by the UK-based World Travel Awards.

“This award shows that the tourism sector has an impact on the country’s economic, social and environmental development,” state news agency Andina reported Rocio Merino, the director of tourism at state agency PromPeru, as saying.

Argentina’s Patagonia, the Pantanal tropical wetland in Brazil, and Guyana’s Georgetown were nominated for the award, among others.

Other Peruvian sites that received awards include Lima’s Jorge Chavez International Airport for South America’s Leading Airport. It overtook nominations from the international airports in Brasilia, Buenos Aires and Santiago.

Machu Picchu was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. It is located in southern Peru’s Cuzco department, surrounded by a tropical forest where it is perched on a mountain some 2,430m above sea-level on the eastern slopes of the Andes.

It is the South American country’s top tourist destination, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors every year from around the world.

Tourism chamber calls for audits of tourist planes after Nazca crash

Peru’s national tourism chamber Canatur has proposed technical audits for airplanes that provide tourist services over the famed Nazca lines after a plan crashed earlier this week, state news agency Andina reported.

Six people on board the plane were killed. They included four British tourists in addition to the pilot and co-pilot.

Canatur called for the intervention of authorities from the Transportation and Communications Ministry to conduct the audits.

“It is extremely important that this planes have rigorous technical supervision,” Canatur said. “This failure results in insecurity and losses, which harms the image of tourism in the south and in Peru in general.”

In February this year, another plane crashed after a flyover of the Nazca lines. Seven people were killed in that incident.

The Nazca lines are one of Peru’s most popular attractions. Tourist planes routinely fly over the ancient geoglyphs, which are miles long and depict living creatures like monkeys, llamas, hummingbirds and spiders. UNESCO says the lines were created between 500 B.C. and A.D. 500, and are among the world’s greatest archaeological enigmas.

Peru Congress votes for construction of alternative road to Machu Picchu

Peru’s Congress voted unanimously Thursday in support of building a new access road to Machu Picchu.

In a 75-0 vote, lawmakers declared that paving the narrow dirt roads connecting the towns of Ollantaytambo, Santa María and Santa Teresa, located northwest of Machu Picchu, is  “a public necessity and a priority of national interest.”

In January, train service to Machu Picchu was cut off after the Vilcanota River overran its banks, wiping out the rail line and stranding thousands of tourists  for days until they were airlifted out by helicopter. The Inca Citadel, Peru’s biggest tourist attraction, was closed for two months.

Machu Picchu “is an economic resource and a symbol for the nation, and for that reason it is the duty of the state and the Congress to hand down the laws that allow us to guarantee its conservation and adequate accessibility,” said José Carrasco, chairman of the Congressional Budget Committee.

Since the disaster in January, pressure has been mounting from Peru’s tourism sector to develop other routes in and out of Machu Picchu, not only to provide emergency exits from the zone, but also to break the near-monopoly held by PeruRail and the town of Aguas Calientes, located in the gorge below the ruins.

According to reports provided by the National Chamber of Tourism, each day Machu Picchu was closed caused losses in excess of one million dollars.

Congressman Jorge Foinquinos, chairman of the Foreign Trade Commission, said proposed legislation to build the alternative road access is needed “to provide for every contingency that may occur in the area and not depend exclusively on a rail line.”

The move by Congress puts it on a collision course with Peru’s National Institute of Culture (INC), which has made it clear that it — as the gatekeeper to Machu Picchu — is opposed to creating a new access route that could let the tourism floodgates fly wide open.

Peru’s government has worked hard to appease UNESCO’s demands to lessen the impact of visitors to Machu Picchu. The Andean nation narrowly escaped being added to the list of endangered World Heritage sites following the record surge of visitors in 2008, when the number of tourists far outpaced carrying capacity for the site on several days.

The UNESCO-sponsored Management Plan for Machu Picchu called for no more than 917 visitors per day – and no more than 385 visitors at any one time – while the INC has recommended a maximum carrying capacity of 2,000 visitors. Peru’s central government advocated in 2002 for 3,400, and the parties settled in 2008 on a daily limit of 2,500 visitors.

The deal was struck after the Peruvian government proposed a $132.5 million emergency plan to preserve the ruins and limit the flow of tourists, as well as take measure to prevent forest fires and landslides.

Carlos Canales, president of Peru’s National Chamber of Tourism (Canatur), has called into question the technical basis that the INC used for setting that limit at 2,500 visitors per day and advocates doubling the figure.

The INC’s study “was not prepared by specialists,” Canales contended in Monday’s edition of Peru’s main business daily Gestión. “Nor have international methodologies been used to measure the environmental impact and the burden caused by the number of visitors.”

“You can distribute the number of tourist routes into the sanctuary and you could easily double the amount estimated by the INC and reach up to 5,000 visitors a day,” Canales said in a statement on Canatur’s Web site.

Tourism levels to Cuzco almost fully recovered

Tourism levels to Cuzco are nearly  back to normal after being affected earlier this year by heavy rains that prevented access to Machu Picchu, regional president Hugo Gonzales said.

“We had some difficulty from the end of January with the rainfalls but now the situation is almost normal,” state news agency Andina reported Gonzales as saying. “Tourism in Cuzco has almost completely recovered.”

Access to Machu Picchu was closed in late January after heavy rains caused flooding and mudslides that damaged the railway into Aguas Calientes, the town located below the citadel. The site was reopened on April 1, with repairs to the railway completed by the end of June.

Peru’s Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister, Martin Pérez, said this week the government is planning to design new access routes into Machu Picchu in order to increase tourism without harming the sacred Inca citadel. Read more…

Peru looks to design new access routes to reach Machu Picchu

Peru’s Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister, Martin Pérez, said this week the government is planning to design new access routes into Machu Picchu in order to increase tourism without harming the sacred Inca citadel.

“It is important to design two or three new routes for entering and leaving Machu Picchu,” state news agency Andina reported Pérez as saying. “The intention is to have sustainable tourism management in [Machu Picchu].”

“The entrance and exit from the citadel do not necessarily need to be from the same place in order to better care for the emblematic monument.” Read more…

UNESCO recommends Peru control tourism to Machu Picchu

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has recommended that Peru’s government take measures to control the number of tourists that visit the country’s sacred Inca citadel, Machu Picchu, RPP radio station reported.

During its 34th session currently being held in Brasilia, the committee considered including Machu Picchu on the List of World Heritage in Danger, but in the end decided to only send a recommendation to Peru’s government.

Read more…

Machu Picchu attracts more than 13,400 tourists via Inca trail since reopening

More than 13,400 tourists have visited Peru’s sacred Inca citadel, and top tourist attraction, Machu Picchu via the Inca Trail since the site reopened on April 1, state news agency Andina reported.

Visitors are able to access the 45km trail from the Piscacucho community, located at Km 82 on the railway from Cuzco to Machu Picchu.  The trail is usually covered in four days. Read more…

Peru to seek executive council position on World Tourism Organization

Peru’s Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister Martín Pérez said the country will seek a position on the executive council of the UN’s 154-member member state World Tourism Organization during next year’s elections, state news agency Andina reported.

“We want the country to have a larger role in the UNWTO and we are going to negotiate with other nations so Peru will become a member of the executive council in the 2011 elections,” Pérez said. Read more…

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