Tour Operators Develop New Peru Trekking Region

25.08.2023 - 13:54 / skift.com / Lake Titicaca / Latin America / Machu Picchu / Selene Brophy

Tour operators selling the world-famous Machu Picchu in Peru are designing a better future for adventure trekking.

The destination has yoyoed between being open and closed due to overtourism and, most recently political unrest saw the attraction closed in February, costing the country an estimated $450 million in tourism revenue. Tours to the Inca citadel fully reopened at the beginning of March.

There is no denying the appeal of Peru’s 15th-century Inca Trail for adventure trekking, with an estimated one million visitors annually. Yet with Qhapaq Nañ as it is known by locals, or the Inca Main Road, extending 25,000 miles, it remains largely unexplored. It raises the question as to why?

With such a vast network of trails to explore, tourists’ lack of interaction with local communities and other parts of this ancient highway highlight the need for Peru’s focus on adventure trekking to be more responsible.

Intrepid Travel, headquartered in Australia and with offices in Lima, resumed operations in March, and now the so-called B-Corp company is set to launch an alternative Great Inca Road trek in June as it pushes forward with its drive to uncover a new trekking region.  

“The future of Peru tourism is truly in these trails, and without sustainable development, they will be lost forever,” said Gary Cohen, Intrepid’s general manager of Latin America, who took part in the scouting and development on the new 12-day Trek the Great Inca Road route.

“Now that Machu Picchu has reopened, we’ve been on a process that I like to call quick baby steps — the industry is recovering but we’d like to get back to running in long strides,” Fernando Rodriguez, Intrepid Travel general manager, Peru told Skift.

The small group adventure company had nearly 5,000 passengers traveling to Machu Picchu with in 2022. Intrepid has carried 111 passengers, slightly under its 2022 levels, since the March reopening.

“Before the riots in 2022 we were expecting to be at 2019 levels for this year, which was at 9,500 passengers per year,” Rodriguez said.

Sarah Miginiac, general manager for Latin America at G Adventures, said that since relaunching in March, tourism has been slow to return, despite it being a priority to open as soon as it was safe to do so in support of the many local communities relying on the tourism recovery post-pandemic. 

A small group adventure tour operator, headquartered in Canada, G Adventures has 20 different itineraries in Peru, its “most popular destination before the pandemic.” 

Puno and Lake Titicaca, where the protests were very strong and lasted the longest, are now starting to reopen and Juliaca Airport (the closest to Lake Titicaca) is expected to reopen imminently.  

She added that Peru remains