Peru’s tourism industry protests in the streets and demands sector reactivation

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In protest against the measures they consider unfair for its reactivation -which include deferrals, reduced capacity and schedules, as well as inconsistent decisions regarding the organization of events-, Peruvian tourism associations took to the streets. The National Chamber of Tourism (CANATUR) called for a large national motorcade to highlight the industry’s critical situation.

“We are not going to recover soon and we have already lost almost 2 million workers, in addition to 100,000 formal companies,” said Carlos Canales, president of Peru’s National Chamber of Tourism (CANATUR), during the protest organized on Friday, March 12th, to publicly denounce the situation of the sector.

The presidents of the business associations of at least 6 tourism sectors actively participated in the protest.

They demanded urgent changes for the reactivation of tourism, as reported by CANATUR: longer operating hours in the case of restaurants, lifting of the curfew, no restrictions on Sundays and the extension of payments for Peru’s reactivation program.

“The government does not recognize the nature of our industry,” expressed Canales, and pointed out some examples of the lack of consistency in restrictions.

“Hotels could make use of their halls for corporate events, but they have not been given the go-ahead, although the state itself holds meetings.”

“We lose thousands of workers on a daily basis,” stated the head of CANATUR, “thousands of companies have closed and when they are allowed to operate, capacity is cut and specific activities are restricted. The situation is truly critical and it is urgent that specific actions be taken.”

He also assured that, due to the “anti-technical” quarantine measures dictated by the Executive, in February only 10,000 tourists landed at Lima’s Jorge Chavez airport.

On the same Friday, while tourism unions were demonstrating in the streets of Lima and other cities, the government announced changes in travel requirements, and international travelers will no longer be subject to mandatory quarantine in Peru.

The relaxation of requirements, included among the business community’s demands, was welcomed by the sector. However, they pointed out that this does not solve the emergency situation faced by the tourism value chain.

“The announcement made by the head of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism is welcomed but the problem is bigger than that. This is something that we have been asking her for since the first week of February, so these rules are late. They don’t realize that every day that goes by is another loss of jobs and business closures. The State is not talking with the private sector, despite our efforts to support the work of the Ministry of Tourism,” said Canales.

Representatives of tourism associations stated that saving tourism companies does not mean rescuing a few entrepreneurs “but rather millions of Peruvians who depend on this activity,” CANATUR authorities said.