More foreign tourists arrive, but pre-pandemic levels have not yet been reached

Before the arrival of the pandemic, an average of 663,365 foreign tourists arrived in Peru between January and February; However, last year, due to protests and social upheaval against the Government of Dina Boluarte, many of these visitors redirected their flights or postponed their visit to our country, generating a downturn in inbound tourism.

In the first two months of this year, this situation has been reversed and 509,128 tourists arrived, 69.7% more compared to the same period in 2023, according to information from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (Mincetur).

However, the Foreign Trade Society of Peru (Comex Perú) warns that tourist arrivals registered so far this year are still 30% lower than in 2019, exactly before the arrival of Covid-19 in the country. country.

According to country of residence, Chilean tourists are the ones who have visited us the most in the first two months of the year, with 167,000 arrivals.

Tourism is a sector that has not yet managed to fully recover after four years. Thus, for example, the services offered by travel agencies and tour operators registered an annualized fall (12 months) of 7.19% as of January of this year, according to data from the INEI.

Tourism in figures

At the end of 2023, inbound tourism generated foreign exchange earnings of US$3,306 million, 22.7% more than in 2022, but 24.6% less than in 2019, reveals the Comex Peru report. The average foreign exchange income between 2015 and 2019 was US$4,431 million. We are still far from those levels.

An element that the business community also highlights are the departments that obtained the greatest influx in their main tourist attractions during 2023.

Thus, San Martín stands out, which received the arrival of 593,498 visitors. The most visited place was the San Mateo thermal baths. 2.6 million visitors arrived in Lima and the most visited place was the Magic Water Circuit, in the Parque de la Reserva.

Ica also stands out, where 974,696 arrived and mostly visited the Ballestas Islands. 3.4 million visitors arrived in Cusco, mainly to see Machu Picchu, while 362,503 visitors arrived in Arequipa to go, especially, to the Colca Valley.

Data

• February. In February alone, 257,804 international tourists entered the country, 64.3% more than in the same month of 2023; but 26.7% less than in February 2019.
• Regional. After Chile, the largest number of tourists who came to our country were from the US (72,200), Ecuador (37,400), Bolivia (33,900), Colombia (23,900) and Brazil (23,700).