In the heart of the Place d’Armes in Cuzco, surrounded by the majestic Andes mountain range, small clusters of tourists immortalize their stay, in front of the statue of the “Inca”. A scattered crowd, unlike the one that once beat the cobblestones of the historic center of the former capital of the Inca Empire, a city classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and gateway to Machu Picchu. The famous shrine alone attracted an average of 1.5 million visitors each year. In the world before the pandemic.
In the meantime, the health crisis has ravaged the sector: six months of strict border closures (from April to September 2020), then the restrictions, saw the number of tourists vanish. When Peru recorded 4.5 million foreign travelers in 2019, there were less than 900,000 in 2020. The latest figures for June 2021, show how timid the recovery is: it is equivalent to 8% of entries two years ago.
Substantial loss of earnings
If other countries have chosen to preserve the tourist economy at all costs, as in Mexico, here, extreme caution prevailed in the face of a dramatic health situation and the collapse of hospitals. Peru is one of the countries in the world that has suffered the most from the pandemic with record death rates in relation to its population (almost 200,000 dead). Latin American, North American and European tourists, who provided the bulk of the vacationing troops, are still largely absent. A quick glance at Place d’Armes confirms it: the majority of them are nationals.
Dotel and his companion, in their early forties, a couple of doctors from the Dominican Republic, 3,500 kilometers further north of the continent, are among the rare foreigners in mid-September. : “We love to travel! We wanted to see the 7e world’s wonder [le Machu Picchu] and taste the delicious Peruvian gastronomy, rejoices Dotel, in front of the imposing colonial cathedral. We are vaccinated so we are not worried. ”
The conditions of entry into the territory are constantly changing, which does not encourage travelers to anticipate reservations
But the recovery is slow. Cuzco’s tourist activity is around 30% of what it was in 2019. A significant shortfall for this sector which represents around 15% of the region’s GDP. At the national level, it generated 4.7 billion dollars of foreign exchange in 2019 (approximately 4.2 billion euros). In the first quarter of 2021, it struggles to reach 141 million. Also, the conditions of entry into the territory are constantly changing, which does not encourage travelers to anticipate reservations. If quarantine is no longer mandatory, as is the presentation of a complete vaccination cycle, a negative PCR test of less than 72 hours is required.
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