WHY PERU WANTS YOU TO AVOID MACHU PICCHU [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

THE DAILY DOSE
JUL 14 2019

Amid growing concerns about overcrowding, the Peruvian tourism industry is now luring visitors to other stunning trails and historic venues.

In May 2019, Albert Ciardi, an attorney from Philadelphia, traveled to Peru and, like millions of other visitors, trekked the famous Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, which he describes as “a sanctuary of unparalleled beauty.” But Ciardi also trekked the Inca Trail’s lesser-known cousin, the Great Inca Trail, which traverses another section of the 25,000-mile Inca road network that is the largest UNESCO World Heritage Site. This second trek allowed him “to get lost in the size of the empire,” and took him to the Chavín de Huántar, arguably the country’s most important pre-Incan ruins. But he was one of only 10 non-Peruvians there, which he says was “a shame.”

It’s an experience Peru’s government and private tourism are increasingly trying to change, by offering new trails and sites both to protect their prime attraction and to bring tourist revenue to other parts of the nation. As international tourists increasingly flock to Peru — up by almost 40 percent in the past five years — Machu Picchu has come under increasing pressure. Despite having to take both a two-hour flight and a three-hour train ride to reach the site from Lima, Machu Picchu saw 1.57 million visitors in 2018.



Tourists visit Inca fortress of Machu Picchu in April.

SOURCE PABLO PORCIUNCULA BRUNE/AFP/GETTY

Restrictions on the entrance to the Inca Trail and to Machu Picchu are one part of the strategy to control the tourism there. The daily limits — only 200 tourists and 300 guides or porters can trek on the Inca Trail — are spawning an array of other multiday hikes. Joining the better-known Lares and Salkantay treks in that growing roster is the newer Inca Quarry Trail, started by travel firm Intrepid Travel. Last year, some 2,000 people hiked the Quarry Trail with Intrepid (a threefold increase since 2013), says the firm’s Latin America general manager, Gary Cohen.

Farther afield, Nick Stanziano, co-founder and “chief explorer” of SA Expeditions, another firm, has pioneered the Great Inca Trail after hiking more than 2,000 miles (and counting) of old Inca roads himself. The trail — Ciardi is one of its early patrons — was launched commercially last year. To date, SA Expeditions has invested “well into six figures” in a project that Stanziano believes can ultimately bring in profits while also conserving the road and “promoting dignified development of Andean communities.”

More:
https://www.ozy.com/fast-forward/why-peru-wants-you-to-avoid-machu-picchu/95268