Machu Picchu reopens as rail repairs continue
Peru's government have reopened Machu Picchu and may invest in new roads, tunnels and a helicopter route to ease pressure on the damaged railway to the archaeological site, Transportation Minister Enrique Cornejo said.
Tourists entered the Inca citadel for the first time in nine weeks after flash flooding destroyed parts of the railway between Cuzco and Machu Picchu, the minister said in an interview with Lima-based Radioprogramas. U.S. actress Susan Sarandon was among the 1,000 visitors expected to explore the 15th century ruins today, according to state news agency Andina.
The January closure of Machu Picchu and the railway, the only means of transport to the ruins, caused foreign visitor arrivals to plummet and wiped out 17,000 jobs in the local tourism industry. Hotel occupancy in the Cuzco region fell to as low as 30 percent of capacity last month and may not return to normal levels until August, said Alvaro Benavides, head of tourism at the Lima Chamber of Commerce.
"Almost 100,000 Peruvians visited Cuzco to take advantage of discount rates during February and March," Benavides said in a phone interview from Lima. "That was a huge help to local hotels, shops and restaurants."
About 858,000 tourists a year visit Machu Picchu, according to the Tourism Observatory of Peru. The site is the mainstay of the country's tourist industry, which accounts for close to 4 percent of Peru's gross domestic product, the Tourism Observatory said on its Web site.
Heavy rainfall in southern Peru during January triggered landslides and tripled water levels in rivers such as the Vilcanota, which runs past Machu Picchu, flooding roads and destroying bridges. Parts of the railway were washed away by the floodwaters, cutting off the town next to the Inca ruins and forcing the government to evacuate 4,000 stranded tourists.
Visitors will have to travel by bus and train in order to reach the site until the end of June, when repair work on the 122-kilometer (76-mile) railway to Machu Picchu should be complete, Cornejo said. The government plans to rebuild a road between Cuzco and Hidroelectrica, a town 12 kilometers from Machu Picchu, and could authorize helicopters to fly tourists to the ruins to stimulate tourism while rail access is restricted, Cornejo said.
"Rebuilding the road to Hidroelectrica would provide another route for tourists," Cornejo said. "There isn't a direct road to Machu Picchu because that would put the site at risk."