Peru Set to Increase Tourist Cap For Machu Picchu
05.12.2023 - 06:29
/ skift.com
/ Latin America
/ Dawit Habtemariam
Peru is expected to raise the daily visitor cap for Machu Picchu, the country’s most popular tourist attraction, according to a government statement provided to Intrepid Travel and seen by Skift.
Starting January 1, the statement says Machu Picchu will raise its daily visitor capacity to 4,500, The statement says that on “very specific dates,” the government will raise the cap even higher, to 5,600. Peru’s tourism board could not be reached for comment.
Currently, Machu Picchu’s visitor cap is 4,060, said Maritza Chacacanta, Intrepid Travel’s Peru Operations Manager. The government had introduced the cap to preserve the ancient Incan citadel, she said.
Machu Picchu is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the statement, the government said the ancient Incan citadel’s continued preservation and conservation is a “priority.”
The site closed at one point in January 2023 due to large political protests. A month earlier, protesters shut down operations, stranding tourists at the site.
The protests caused the tourism sector’s revenue to drop by around 30%, Juan Carlos Matthews, Peru’s minister of foreign trade and tourism, told Skift in September.
Here is some context for the decision: