Peru agrees to expand flights, enable cruises and evaluates opening of borders

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Peruvian Government agreed on Tuesday (16) to expand the capacity and number of flights in the country’s airports, to enable cruise ships and also evaluated the approval of a protocol that will allow, once universal vaccination is achieved, to reopen international borders in order to reactivate tourism.

As reported through Twitter by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism, the heads of both ministries, Hernando Cevallos and Roberto Sanchez, respectively, held a meeting on Tuesday in which they agreed on new measures to encourage tourism “in a responsible manner” and reactivate the country’s economy.

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Among the new measures are the expansion of the capacity and number of flights in the regional airports and the Jorge Chávez International Airport in Lima, as well as the authorization of cruise tourism.

In addition, the meeting evaluated and analyzed the approval of a sanitary protocol that will give the green light to the circulation through the border crossings of the northern region of Tumbes and the southern region of Tacna, which have been closed since March 2020 when the covid-19 pandemic began in Peru.

“All measures will be taken under a strict biosecurity protocol. Let’s reactivate tourism in a responsible way!” the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism said on the networks.

The will of the Peruvian government to reopen the borders with the neighboring countries of Ecuador and Chile, which will be given after universal vaccination, had already been announced by the Peruvian president, Pedro Castillo, last August during the ceremony for the 92nd anniversary of the reincorporation of Tacna to the Andean country.

On that occasion, the president assured that circulation would be reestablished in the northern and southern borders once the vaccination against Covid-19 is completed, a process that to date has managed to immunize 59% of the country’s target population, which amounts to 28.24 million citizens, with the full guideline.

Castillo recalled that many Peruvians in Tumbes and Tacna make a living from trade at the border crossings, although he considered that it is important to be aware that “everything has to happen in its own time.”

In fact, the economy of 90% of the population of these two regions depends on the arrival of consumers from neighboring countries, according to the business associations of both cities, which have been questioning for weeks the lack of “political decision” to reopen the borders.