Peru's Machu Picchu Solution: Tour Operators Developing New Trekking Region
Photo Credit: Peru Sacred Valley Pottery Co-op Welcome Female Traveler Interacting Flowers. Source: G Adventures Peru Sacred Valley Pottery Co-op Welcome Female Traveler Interacting Flowers. Source: G Adventures / Peru Sacred Valley Pottery Co-op Welcome Female Traveler Interacting Flowers. Source: G Adventures
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With over 25,000 miles of Inca Main Road to explore, alternative routes to the world-famous Machu Picchu Inca citadel trek are being scouted. And it's long overdue.
Tour operators selling the world-famous Machu Picchu in Peru are designing a better future for adventure trekking.
The destination has yoyoed between being open and closed due to overtourism and, most recently political unrest saw the attraction closed in February, costing the country an estimated $450 million in tourism revenue. Tours to the Inca citadel fully reopened at the beginning of March.
There is no denying the appeal of Peru's 15th-century Inca Trail for adventure trekking, with an estimated one million visitors annually. Yet with Qhapaq Nañ as it is known by locals, or the Inca Main Road, extending 25,000 miles, it remains largely unexplored. It raises the question as to why?
With such a vast network of trails to explore, tourists' lack of interaction with local communities and other parts of this ancient highway highlight the need for Peru's focus on adventure trekking to be more responsible.
Intrepid Travel, headquartered in Australia and with offices in Lima, resumed operations in March, and now the so-called B-Corp company is set to launch an alternative Great Inca Road trek in June as it pushes forward with its drive to uncover a new trekking region.
"The future of Peru tourism is truly in these trails, and without sustainable development, they will be lost forever," said Gary Cohen, Intrepid's general manager of Latin America, who took part in the scouting and development on the new 12-day Trek the Great Inca Road route.
Tourists Slow to Return"Now that Machu P
