Peru’s Bid for 15 percent Growth this Year, 25 percent in 2006 Looks Plausible

Peru hopes to put big tourist numbers on the board this year and some experts are putting figures in the neighborhood of 12 to 15 percent, Ramiro Salas, the country’s Tourism vice minister, said in Berlin.

Peru is the guest of honor to this year’s Berlin ITB, a perfect backdrop for the South American nation to lay bare the very best of its culture, natural beauties, biodiversity, cuisine and modernity. The Peruvian Pavilion will feature an exact replica of the Lord of Sipan’s Grave and will be home to fifty local travel companies and nearly a dozen regional administrations keen to advertising their own tourist destinations.

In 2003, the Andean country welcomed 900,000 trippers from around the world, broken down in 37 percent from South America, 28 percent from the States, 27.5 percent from Europe and 7.5 percent from Asia and other regions under the sun. Those figures accounted for an 8 percent increase from 2002, the Peruvian vice minister indicated.

”In the first two months of 2004, the increase of tourist inflows to Peru has hovered around 17 percent. We expect to close the year with an average 12 to 15 percent growth compared to the numbers posted in 2003,” he averred.

”Given the fact that a weakened dollar is not faring that well against a much heftier euro, coupled with a sound advertisement blitz –quite similar to the one we hurled in the United States last year- we hope to come in for a mighty amount of trippers from Europe,” Mr. Salas commented.

As far as Asia is concerned, Peru is biding its time to launch out a third promotional campaign beamed down at the Old World in an effort to showcase its travel allures. And the timing can’t be any better now that Peru will also be the guest of honor to this year’s Tourism Fair in China’s Shanghai. “This is the kind of drive we hope to use in achieving an amazing 25 percent growth in 2006,” Mr. Salas concluded.