The site is being slowly eroded by tourists' feet. While in less than 80, tourists paid machu picchu a visit, the number increased to , visitors in and to , tourists in Huge flocks of tourists descend upon the ruins each winter and this popularity now threatens its very existence. A few fun facts to start with. The ruins are high in the mountains, 2, feet above the urubamba river. Colca valley, paracas national reserve, titicaca national reserve, santa catalina monastery, and. The site is known to exceed the maximum limit recommended by unesco of 2, visitors per day.
According to the latest promperu press release visitor numbers continue to grow: One of the most recognised icons of inca civilisation, machu picchu is an estate built in the 15th century in west peru.
There are more than terraces to keep the structures and mountainside in place. Tourists also visit the spanish colonial architecture in many cities in peru. Until recently, as many as 5, visitors a day visited machu picchu during high season, but the number of visitors permitted on a daily basis has now been capped at 2,—making reservations in advance of your visit pivotal. About , more than a million less than no tourists are allowed there.
After the Peru government announced the change to half day tickets, headlines about the "New Rules" started popping up, but nothing was ever said about the increase in ticket numbers. Honestly the majority of visitors based on feedback from our team of guides have their fill of ruins within hours at most.
A small minority of visitors want a full day inside the ruins, and they can still buy 2 entries in the same day. In September , the Peru government set up three 1-way circuits inside the ruins, which has been changed to 2 circuits in January , then built a dedicated exit gate. Visitors could choose the route that they wanted and after exiting they could re-enter the ruins on a different route.
Additional rangers have been placed inside the park and small gates are used to manage the flow of traffic. These changes probably had the most profound affect on protecting the physical ruins. Gone were the days of wandering willy-nilly, back and forth, up and down anywhere you wanted. Moving in 1 direction was a huge improvement in reducing the bottle-necks on some of the steep, narrow steps and paths which were never designed for hordes to move in 2 directions simultaneously.
The change to half day entry tickets is publicized as a means to redistribute the flow of foot traffic, because a limited number of people can enter in the morning wave from 6AMN, and limited visitors arrive for the afternoon wave from 12NPM. And like other overused travel locations in the world, the visitors that are denigrating the sites they visit, just by being there , are essential to the economy of the country.
Rearranging the flow of visitors was a brilliant strategy to increase the number of tickets sold. And the Peru government website shows there was an increase in the number of tickets available after July 1, The number of tickets available went from per day to per wave. That's in the morning and another in the afternoon. The total visitors per day could be a whopping That's a net increase of people per day from the previous per day limit. So much for curtailing crowds and preserving the ruins!
Was Machu Picchu at risk of being put on the dreaded "endangered" list if something wasn't done to curb or control the flow of tourism? At first glance, it looks like the plan to invoke half day tickets would better distribute the masses throughout the day. Like Senators passing a bill in Congress, the Peruvian authorities seemed to have tacked on a "rider" that included an unprecedented increase in the number of tickets they could sell in one day. I doubt an increase of that size would have been possible without the distraction caused by the new rule to half day tickets.
Did they do it for money? You betcha. I can't think of any other reason to increase the number of available tickets by that much. Here's a link to the latest Machu Picchu News stories. I went to the official Machu Picchu government website and reviewed the statistics on the number of tickets sold. No data is available prior to Here's what I found:.
It doesn't appear to me that the new rules had any adverse affect on the escalation of visitors going to Machu Picchu in Bastante recommends booking tickets one or two months in advance.
He also suggests booking tickets before booking flights and hotels, adding that Machu Picchu "is not a last-minute destination anymore. Authorities launched a new ticketing website in It lets travelers see how many empty slots are available for each hour. Most dates in the next two months are already full, but tickets were more readily available after that. Authorities have also restricted the number of trekkers on the Inca Trail. The four-day hike from Cusco to the entrance of Machu Picchu is a popular way to get to the site, though most visitors travel via rail on a 3.
The Inca Trail can now only accommodate half of its previous limit, or about hikers per day, said Fernando Rodriguez, operations manager for Intrepid Travel in Peru. The Inca Trail faces similar Covid restrictions as Machu Picchu — group sizes of eight plus a guide, mandatory mask-wearing when social distancing is not possible — even while hiking and at campsites, Rodriguez said.
In , four circuits, or fixed routes, were put in place at the Citadel for better crowd control and site management. Before that, those routes were merely recommended, and people could backtrack and explore more than one. Now, none of that is allowed. The circuits disperse the crowds and keep people moving, explained Bastante. The predetermined paths mean that tourists can't explore the entire site in one visit either. Bastante recommends touring an upper circuit on the first day, staying overnight in the nearby town of Aguas Calientes and returning the next day to visit one of the lower routes.
Despite the new rules limiting the number of tourists, site authorities are planning to increase capacity to Machu Picchu in the future. A new visitor center, which is scheduled to begin construction this year, might allow some 6, daily visitors to tour Machu Picchu, said Bastante. The visitor center will be the starting point for new routes, and it will house a new museum and botanical gardens, all of which will let the site more than double its current capacity, according to Bastante.
The center will have information on how visitors are "supposed to behave in a sacred space," he said.
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