Machu Picchu to relax COVID-19 visitor limit

Peru’s famous tourist site, the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu is set to increase its daily visitor limit to more than 1,000, reported AFP, quoting the Culture Ministry.

Following an almost eight-month lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, Machu Picchu reopened on November 1. Due to safety reasons, only 675 tourists were allowed to access the site per day, just 30% of the number of visitors pre-pandemic.

According to the ministry, the capacity will increase by 40% to 1,116 daily visitors from Wednesday. It added that the decision was taken to increase daily capacity after the rate of COVID-19 infections in Peru began to decline.

Also read: Tourists return to misty Machu Picchu after months of isolation

Before the pandemic, the site saw between 2,000 and 3,000 people per day entering the citadel, and as many as 5,000 during high season.

On the last day of visits before shutting down in March, 2,500 people visited Machu Picchu.

As per the ministry’s guidelines, each and every visitor must comply with health and safety measures for the coronavirus, including wearing a mask.

Also read: Peru reopens Machu Picchu, for one Japanese tourist

Machu Picchu, which means old mountain in Quechua, is the most enduring legacy of the Inca empire that ruled a large swathe of western South America for 100 years before the Spanish conquest in the 16th century.

The ruins of the Inca settlement, abandoned and overgrown by vegetation, were rediscovered in 1911 by the American explorer Hiram Bingham. Machu Picchu was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1983.