Tourists visiting the ancient Inca ruins of Machu Picchu in the Urubamba valley, in Cusco, Peru. — Carolina Paucar/AFP
When anti-government protests erupted and turned violent in Lima and Cusco in January, Peru’s tourism industry had just begun recovering from nearly two years of pandemic shutdowns, after suffering one of the highest death tolls in the world. News of tourists stranded at Machu Picchu spread – they were either helicoptered out or had to walk for seven hours along the train tracks down to Aguas Calientes, the small city in the valley below.
A wave of trip cancellations to the country followed.
