Living in Peru : your everyday companion

US$ 129.00 is the equivalent for nearly 85% of a basic salary in Peru, an amount that duplicates the market basket of goods per capita. It is also what an average tourist spends daily while visiting Peru. Hence, tourism in Peru has an enormous capacity for being a currency generator. Even though tourism currently only contributes with 1.7% of Peru’s GDP, it has a great potential of growth, as evident in recent investments announced for the years to come.

According to the study “Profile of the Foreign Tourist 2005”, the American tourist in Peru stays on average for 13 nights, and three fourth all visitors travel to up to three different cities and spends more than the average of the rest of tourists (US$ 1,241 vs. US$ 1,029). Among the cities mostly preferred by Americans are Cusco, Puno, Arequipa and Nazca. Of course, Lima is an unavoidable stop, because of its international airport.

The previous study from 2004 showed that 45% of Americans has the intention to visit at least one South American country within the next five years. However, the rest of them prefer visiting other destinations, since they consider that this region is quite expensive and has security problems.

In light of that, it should be taken into account that the strategy of Peru to attract tourists should not be oriented for the masses, but for a selective group instead. In this sense, the study refers that Peru, in comparison with Brazil, Mexico and Costa Rica, is well-known for being a country possessing an interesting culture and history, for being an exotic destination and also for its unexplored terrain. Among its weaknesses, the study states that Peru does not have a good infrastructure for tourists and that it is a rather insecure destination.

Nevertheless, in regards to other countries Peru has the advantage of having an easy aerial connection with the United States and that it keeps adding more value to support tourism through the improvement of its gastronomy. This is one explanation why the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism of Peru expects nearly 2 million tourists for 2007 and 3.7 million for 2013.

Is Peru able to satisfy such a demand by then? Only joint efforts in achieving a remarkable improvement in tourist competitiveness will pave the way.