Protests in Peru Challenge Tourism for not supporting Local Culture

Recently, social rest and a booming economy are each attracting travelers to the Andean terrain and ancient ruins, sparking a standoff with local residents who say they won’t benefit from the boom.

In the past, Peru had not been known as a hot spot for luxury-seeking travelers. Inflation and violence both contributed to its “stand-offish” flare. Yet recently, social rest and a booming economy are each attracting travelers to the Andean terrain and ancient ruins, sparking a standoff with local residents who say they won’t benefit from the boom.
The Peruvian government supports a boost in tourism as a job-generator; although Peru’s economy expanded 9 percent in 2007 for the ninth year in a row, poverty persists, affecting some 44 percent of the 27 million population. But most protesters do not work in the travel industry. “Most of the Cuzco area lives off of agriculture,” said Gonzalo Valderrama, 30, a local anthropologist. “Just because there is more tourism investment, it does not necessarily benefit those who live in the surrounding state.”

Tourist entries at Lima’s Jorge Chavez International Airport increased from 998,000 in 2002 to more than 1.8 million last year. Some 160,000 of them spent at least $1,000 a day, said Tibisay Monsalve, general manager of the Hotel Association of Peru. Visits to Machu Picchu, Peru’s top tourist destination, have more than doubled in the last decade to 800,000 people.

Peru’s picturesque highlands were the once the locale of a grizzly war between the military and leftist guerrillas that killed almost 70,000 people between 1980 and 2000. Yet, strong economic growth is forecasted to continue in Peru this year; and as many as 200,000 high-end tourists are expected, according to industry officials. Starwood Hotels has made official plans to build three luxury hotels by 2011, including a 192-room hotel in Cuzco. Hilton also has a similar development plan.

Alongside the ancient ruins of Cuzco’s Sacred Valley, tourists can “soothe their sore muscles after a hike with hot rock massages or twilight yoga sessions”. Cuzco residents say that international developers will find ways to build wherever they please, given the bureaucratic loopholes and vague phrasing in the laws.

Earlier this year, demonstrators protested two new tourism laws that would ease restrictions on construction — mostly hotels — near archaeological sites and historic zones. As a result, the congress modified the laws in February to allow regional and local governments more power in determining private development around cultural treasures, including Machu Picchu.

“The only thing these (protests) do is endanger Cuzco,” Economy Minister Luis Carranza said during the demonstrations. “It cuts down the income flow because tourists aren’t coming in.”