The Peruvian government will raise the daily visitor cap in Machu Picchu from January 1 to 4 500.
Skift.com says the government will increase the cap to 5 600 on specific days.
Machu Picchu’s current visitor cap stands at 4 060, said Maritza Chacacanta, Intrepid Travel’s Peru Operations Manager, with the initial cap introduced to preserve the ancient historic site.
The preservation of the Unesco World Heritage Site and its conservation are top priorities for Peru, which is struggling to recover post-pandemic. The country is expecting less than half of 2019’s visitors by the end of this year, heavily impacting its tourism-dependent economy.
In a bid to increase tourism, the cap expansion is expected to attract more film production to contribute to the country’s tourism marketing, following Machu Picchu’s appearance in Transformers 7: Rise of the Beasts, which was released earlier this year.