Despite the fact that the Peruvian economy registered a growth of 13.31% during 2021, as a result of a greater dynamism of the activities in a year marked by the advance of vaccination and relaxation of sanitary measures, the tourism receptive did not progress.
According to Migrations, 444,331 international tourists entered our country, 50.4% less than what was seen in 2020; and close to 90% compared to 2019 (see infographic).
How to revive the sector?
A key factor to reactivate receptive tourism is to fine-tune promotion policies abroad, given that those previously applied have only transcended for the local market, summarizes the president of the National Chamber of Tourism (Canatur), Carlos Canales.
In this sense, he reminded La República that, after work with the Foreign Ministry, a hundred diplomatic missions abroad have begun this month to report on the progress of vaccination and respect for biosanitary measures.
“95% of the service sector, linked to tourism, is already vaccinated; as well as 80% of the adult population in the country. With the campaign ‘Peru takes care of you’ we want to announce that Peru is a safe country”, narrowed down
It is worth noting that our country currently has 593 tourist attractions with the Safe Travels seal granted by the World Travel and Tourism Council, which guarantees strict care for the traveler in times of COVID-19.
The president of Canatur affirms that 95% of the service sector, linked to tourism, is already vaccinated. Photo: Andean
Likewise, the president of the Peruvian Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies (Apavit), Ricardo Acosta, stressed that after the curfew is lifted, a greater contribution to the economy can be registered from activities such as restaurants and accommodation, which are the champions of the reactivation in recent months and grew 43.33% in 2021, after contracting -50.45% during 2020.
Projections to 2022
The head of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (Mincetur), Roberto Sánchez, estimates that up to 1.5 million travelers would enter Peru after the land borders with Ecuador, Brazil and Bolivia are reopened: 750,000 on the roads and the other half from the Jorge Chavez airport.
For its part, from the Peruvian Association of Receptive and Internal Tourism Operators (Apotur), they project that for the second half of 2022 tourism will be mainly covered by travelers from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Chile, Ecuador and Brazil, to the point that it would house 1,780,000 tourists.
While by 2023 they forecast that the entry of international travelers would reach 80% of those seen in 2019, and by 2024 –after exposing the country’s tourism capacity by hosting APEC– the pre-pandemic level would just be exceeded.
Factors behind the receptive tourism debacle
Ricardo Acosta, from Apavit, considers that the critical scenario of receptive tourism was given by the strict protocols proposed with the second wave –from quarantines to restrictions on movements on certain days– and the delay in suspending the curfew; in addition to the constant political crisis.
On the other hand, analyst Melisa Murialdo adds that not everything is due to the lack of promotion and rigidity of health decisions, but also because despite the impact of vaccines on travel demand there is ignorance of the new bureaucratic measures to enter to the countries. However, she predicts that “prosperous years in tourism” will gradually come.
Source: Larepublica
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