For a couple of years, almost day in and day out, Japan has been in the news for its avalanche of tourists and the problems that this massification is leaving in the country. It doesn’t just happen there. In Italy, South Korea, Nepal, Hawaii either Netherlands They are not alien to the effects of the tourismjust as Spain is not, where they have already organized several demonstrations by the pressure that vacation rentals are having on the real estate market.
Not everyone encounters that problem.
In Peru it is actually worrying quite the opposite: the tourists who do not arrive.
“Warning signs”. We mentioned it before. Accustomed to news about countries saturated by tourism or even look for ways to repel visitors, it is surprising to read cases like that of Peru. Over there Apoturthe Association of Incoming and Domestic Tourism Operators, has just launched a message that breaks in a certain way with the speech optimistic that the Government maintains.
The association recently published a study with several “warning signs”. Specifically, two. The first is that, despite the gradual recovery of visitors, Peruvian tourism still not going back to their pre-pandemic levels. The second, that foreign travelers seem less and less interested in spending their vacations in the Andean country, which is benefiting other destinations.
“Loss of competitiveness”. The study de Apotur does not leave much room for interpretation. After analyzing the searches of millions of people from several countries, including Spain, its authors warn that the interest that Peru arouses as a vacation destination experienced a year-on-year decline of 14% in 2025. The result, insists the employers’ association of Peruvian tour operators, is “a loss of competitiveness” that favors other nations in the region.
“The study detects a shift in demand towards regional destinations that today compete directly with Peru. When travelers discard the country, 26.1% opt for Colombia, 25.4% for Costa Rica, 20% for Ecuador and 19.8% for Mexico, markets that are capitalizing on cultural and natural tourism that was previously directed to Peruvian territory,” stand out from Apotur. In case there were any doubts, its president, Claudia Medina, insist in that it is not that international tourism is declining, but rather that it is looking towards other horizons.
But… Why? Peru has an enviable landscape, cultural and heritage wealth and has one of the main tourist attractions in America, the ancient Inca citadel of Machu Picchuconsidered one of “the seven wonders of the modern world” along with other treasures such as Chichén Itzá, the Taj Mahal or the Great Wall of China. So…why is it “falling interest” of foreign tourists, as Apotur itself warns? What is the distancing due to? The key would be more in travel management than in what the country offers.
“Sector studies show that there is a high interest in visiting the country. However, more than 70% of potential travelers change their decision (postpone or cancel) due to uncertainty about their trip. Factors such as blockades, lack of predictability, informality and operational limitations at the entrances to Machu Picchu directly affect confidence in the destination,” regrets the head of Apotur in statements collected by the newspaper Management.
Seeking security. The key would be precisely that, the perception of “security”a value that does not refer so much to the crime rate as to the reliability that the country offers at the tourist level. When traveling, people want everything to go as planned, without surprises. And that is where Peru loses strength.
“Among the reasons that most worry travelers are informality in tourist services (31.2%), citizen insecurity (30.9%) and social instability (29.1%), as well as infrastructure problems and logistical disorder in some destinations,” remember from the association. “The study warns that these elements do not affect the attractiveness of the country, but rather the perception of risk.”
The example of Machu Picchu. The message from the tour operators comes after Peru’s great heritage treasure, Machu Picchu, has been involved in controversy over its management. Last year New7Wornders warned Lima that the citadel risked losing its place on the list of the “New Seven Wonders of the World” if it did not solve the problems that threatened it. Which is it? The organization specifically pointed out its saturation, the lack of sustainable management and “irregular practices” related to inputs.
The Peruvian General Comptroller’s Office itself has shown its concern about the “tourist overload” that both the citadel and the Inca Road Network suffer. The Government of Peru already has made a move and made an effort to strengthen security and entry control, but what it has not managed to avoid is that the controversy spread beyond its borders. And it hasn’t been the only one. The country wants to create an airport in the region that could shoot 200% tourism.
One figure: 3.4 million. That does not mean that Peru’s tourism industry is doing poorly. Recently the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism confirmed that in 2025 the country will receive 3.4 million of international tourists and its objective is that this year this mark will be far exceeded, reaching four million.
When announcing the data, the central Executive also showed its intention to diversify the offer, also betting on religious, nature, adventure and meeting tourism, distributing the flow of visitors throughout the country. The problem for Apotur is that, even if the set objective is reached and four million tourists are reached in 2026, the figure would be “insufficient”.
Competition earrings. “We are growing, but we are still not competing at the level that Peru can,” claims Medina before remembering that in 2019, before COVID turned the sector upside down worldwide, Peru registered around 4.4 million international tourists.
It is not just that the country has not yet reconnected with the demand that the coronavirus once destroyed. The group also insists that Peru is losing ground in favor of neighboring countries that “have already exceeded their pre-pandemic levels.” In the background: the cost that this has for the country’s economy, which Apotur estimates at hundreds and hundreds of millions dollars annually.
Images | Steven Pecoraro (Unsplash) and Darya Luganskaya (Unsplash)
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