About Machu Picchu Visitors

Sometimes Machu Picchu gets about 3,000 daily visitors. Machu Picchu once hidden set of ruins visited mainly by archeologists and hardcore backpackers. In 1992, only 9,000 tourists visited the ruins all year. In 2002, the figure rose to 150,000. In 2005 there will probably be close to 400,000 visitors. Machu Picchu is the most visited site in South America. It reportedly generates $40 million each year for Peru’s economy. Because of the power of this one attraction, tourism is the second largest industry nationwide, after mining, and the largest industry overall in the Cusco region.

UNESCO continually threatens to put Machu Picchu on its list of World Heritage in Danger sites, a designation meant to encourage swift corrective action. For years there has also been plenty of hand-wringing among archeologists and preservationists. In 2000, the World Monuments Fund, a conservation group based in New York, added Machu Picchu to its watch list of the 100 most-endangered sites. The group later removed it after the Peruvian government scrapped plans to increase the number of visitors and implemented regulations for the Inca Trail.

This impressive and enigmatic Inca city was meant to be inaccessible. It lies on a narrow peak wedged into a narrow river valley miles from any areas suitable for large-scale farming.

Even today, the only road in the area is a winding switchback that carries tourists up on a bus from Aguas Calientes town at the base. Visitors must arrive by train at the base of the mountain ($46-plus, one way from Cusco) or do the 4-day Inca Trail hike through the mountains ($300-plus

About Regulating the Machu Picchu Inca Trails - The Inca Trail itself has been a worry for decades. Until the end of 2000, travelers could just show up and hike the 4-day trail on their own or sign up with an escorted group. The result was overcrowding and land erosion.

In January 2001 the peruvian government began to regulate the Inca trail and to require permits. Of the over 90 tour operators that had sold Inca Trail packages at the time, half were denied permission to continue operating. To meet the new requirements tour operators must use only assigned camp sites with proper toilet facilities; carry all garbage with them; use only propane for fuel; provide two guides for groups of more than seven tourists; and limit the amount porters carry to 25 kilos. In general, conditions are far better for the trekkers, the porters, and the trail itself.