Living in Peru : your everyday companion

More luxury tourists to visit Peru

(LIP-ir) -- El Comercio newspaper defined luxury tourists as those that spend approximately $500 a day, staying at the best hotels and eating at the best restaurants.

Luxury tourists go to museums outside of normal working hours and demand to be attended by museum directors themselves.

They are provided personalized service; do not get in lines while on their trips and travel in private planes.

It is estimated that there are 80 million luxury tourists in the world, which make up 10 percent of the world's tourists.

200,000 luxury tourists came to Peru in 2007, said Carlos Alberto Arrarte, the president of Lima Tours, assuring that 20 percent more would come in 2008.

"Peru has enough attractions and services to attract tourists from this sector. With a growing number of quality tourists, we don't really need to increase the quantity of tourists to reach tourism and employment goals", said Arrarte during a conference organized by the Peru Hotels Society.

According to the president of Lima Tours, the best option is to make Peru a luxury tourist location instead of a massive touristic site such as Mexico and Spain.

He added that this did not mean that other tourists could not visit Peru, "France and New York are very expensive places and millions of people go their yearly".

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# carl says :
12 March, 2008 [ 18:42 ]

France is a country while NY is a city.

# Michael says :
12 March, 2008 [ 23:21 ]

And your point is....?

New York, by the way, is a state.  New York City is a city.

# Michael says :
12 March, 2008 [ 23:22 ]

Or The City of New York for that matter.

# carl says :
13 March, 2008 [ 05:59 ]

my point is that you can not compare a country with a city. Paris is expensive like NYC both cities

# Rene says :
13 March, 2008 [ 08:17 ]

Actually, New York, New York is referring to Manhattan, one of the five boroughs of New York City. And I suppose that is what the president of Lima Tours is referring to, because the luxury tourists visiting New York are absolutely not going to Harlem or The Bronx or to the rest of the state for that matter. And I do not think this person is aware of a state called New York, as the comparison of France with NY, instead of Paris, shows his ignorance. The same ignorance that makes him say that Peru only needs luxury tourists. Yes, of course, to fill his pockets at Lima Tours, but not to help the many local entrepeneurs in the Peruvian tourism industry. There is certainly room for luxury tourism in Peru, but Peru should not give up on the many budget tourists that visit the country in the same way they flock France and the USA.

# m. says :
13 March, 2008 [ 11:49 ]

The hole idea is that the country earn more money with the less impact possible. Most of our attractions are depletable resources, therefore making Peru a luxury tourist location will assure more money for the country (luxury tourists spend more money) with less impact and better conservation of our resources.

# carl says :
13 March, 2008 [ 12:16 ]

I can t believe it. All depends on supply and demand.

# Michael says :
13 March, 2008 [ 12:24 ]

Aiming for luxury tourists has another benefit - they are less affected by economic variances than budget tourists.  They also worry less about the variances in the economy; they may reduce the number or time of their vacations, but they will still take them.

Budget tourists, even when only worried about the economy, will reign in their spending and put off vacations - sometimes for long periods of time.  They are also more susceptible to economic variances.

# carl says :
13 March, 2008 [ 12:53 ]

The problem is that we are not prepared to give good service to VIP people, remember the strike in Cuzco.

# m. says :
13 March, 2008 [ 17:22 ]

it is true that we have still lots of work to do in all areas involving services to tourists and strikes are not helping, but it doesn´t mean we are not prepared for receiving high level tourist. we are already receiving them, the point is we should, as a country, focus on this target market and put all our efforts on improving services and our image. the demand exists. 

# mops says :
13 March, 2008 [ 23:08 ]

Hey, Rene - Harlem IS in Manhattan. It's just an area uptown.

# Rene #2 :-) says :
14 March, 2008 [ 01:28 ]

France is not so expensive... come to Switzerland (Zurich) and check the pricelevels according to France...

I hope peru will made it better and only focus on luxury tourists. It would be a shame and all the poor people should have a benefit from the tourists visiting Peru.
 
I wish it for all peruvian !

Peace :-)

# Rene says :
14 March, 2008 [ 05:19 ]

mops, you're right about Harlem, I wrote that down a little to quick. Fact remains, luxury tourists are in general not going to Harlem.

# Tourist says :
21 March, 2008 [ 00:07 ]

It is amazing at how some people can be ignorant. I must admit that there is freedom of speech. Somehow the author of the article give Peruvians a bad light. It sounds as if they did not care much about others. It is too bad that he does not want to share the wonderful culture with all tourist.If he is in the tourist business he should get his facts together.