Peru declared this Saturday a state of emergency until December 31 for the tourism sector and issued measures to mitigate the crisis in tourism as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Declare the tourism sector at the national level in an emergency until December 31, 2022, due to the effects generated by the Covid-19“, indicates a decree published in the official gazette.
According to the decree, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (Mincetur) will approve “the Tourism Sector Emergency Plan within 15 days.”
That plan will include “financial rescue measures, economic support, tourism facilitation, investment promotion in tourism and tourism promotion,” the decree states.
Peru from receiving 4.4 million foreign tourists in 2019, has gone on to receive 900,000 in 2020. In 2021 only 400,000 arrived, according to the Ministry of Foreign trade.
The Peruvian economy fell 11.12% in 2020 and was in recession until June 2021, but the blow was much greater in tourism (-50.45%).
Peru in December 2021 began to suffer the third wave of the pandemicbut infections have decreased considerably in the last 10 weeks.
With 33 million inhabitants, Peru officially accumulates more than 3.5 million cases of coronavirus and more than 212,000 deaths.