The ruined city of Machu Picchu is a popular destination for tourists. But at the moment neither arrival nor departure is possible. The reason: residents block access. In the meantime, 1,000 tourists were stranded in the Inca city.
In Peru, residents are blocking access to the ruined city of Machu Picchu. Among other things, they closed the railway line to the archaeological site in the Andes.
The demonstrators are protesting against the privatization of ticket sales. Shops around the historic complex remained closed, and the operator of a train to the ruins at an altitude of 2,500 meters also stopped its connections.
Over the weekend, more than 1,000 tourists were stranded in Machu Picchu because of the protest. The Foreign Office advised holidaymakers that arrival and departure were currently not possible due to the blockade.
Machu Picchu is located at an altitude of 2,500 meters and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1981.
Protests against “privatization of Machu Picchu”
According to the Peruvian Ministry of Culture, a new online sales system should help control the flow of tourists to the famous Inca site and thereby better preserve the site, which is visited by an average of 4,500 people every day.
There is a risk that Machu Picchu will deteriorate due to the large number of visitors and will consequently be removed from the list of world heritage sites, the Ministry of Culture said. Already in September, three areas of Machu Picchu had to be closed due to the consequences of a high number of visitors.
Opponents of the project argue that the private company Joinnus would receive $3.2 million (around three million euros) annually. “We are against the systematic privatization of Machu Picchu,” the former mayor of the area around the site, Darwin Baca, told AFP.
Loss of revenue of 725,000 euros daily
On Wednesday night, the Ministry of Culture announced that it would let the contract with the private company expire and called on residents to end their blockade. The president of the local chamber of commerce said in the newspaper “El Comercio” that the region was losing around three million soles (around 725,000 euros) per day in income because of the protests.
Tourism is an important economic sector for Peru, but has not yet recovered from the Corona slump in 2020. A year ago, hundreds of tourists were stranded in Machu Picchu after the Peruvian government closed access to the ruined city due to violent unrest in the country.
Built in the 15th century
The former Inca city is about 130 kilometers from the city of Cusco. It was built in the 15th century on the orders of the ruler Pachacutec at an altitude of around 2,500 meters.
Machu Picchu is considered an architectural masterpiece and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1981. The long-forgotten city was rediscovered in 1911 by the US explorer Hiram Bingham, who is one of the role models for the adventurer film character Indiana Jones.