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About Machu Picchu 2010 Reopening Dates
Peru is hoping to reopen Machu Picchu to tourists by April 1 after landslides and flooding cut off access to the Incan citadel perched in the Andes. Officials are trying to restore a damaged rail line to Peru's biggest tourist attraction after the tracks were washed out in late January.
Tourism minister Martin Perez says the rail repairs are advancing and that officials hope to be ready for tourists by the start of April. Other than a days-long hike, the train is the only route to Machu Picchu and some 4,000 tourists were stranded for up five days in villages near the ruins when floods hit. An estimated 600,000 foreigners visit Machu Picchu each year.
Peru’s government plans to reopen the Machu Picchu citadel to tourists on April 1 as floodwaters recede from the 15th-century Inca ruins, the Andean country’s Trade and Tourism Minister Martin Perez said today.
Orient Express Hotels Ltd.’s Peru Rail unit is repairing the local railway line, which was damaged by floods and landslides last month, Perez told reporters in Lima.
“The citadel is intact and we expect to receive visitors starting April 1,” Perez said. “The railway concessionaire is making good progress.”
Heavy rains in Peru’s southern Andes in January triggered flash flooding and landslides, blocking the railway and roads and forcing the government to evacuate 4,000 tourists by helicopter from the citadel. The railway closure may cost Peru 550 million soles ($192 million) in lost tourism revenue, according to the Trade Ministry.
About 858,000 tourists a year visit Machu Picchu, according to the Tourism Observatory.
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