Peru Welcoming Tourists Back

Peru has endured some the worst of the COVID pandemic, but cases are now dropping, vaccines roll outs are increasing, and Peru is welcoming tourists back with open arms.

Nick Macciocca, Viva Expeditions’ hotel and operations manager has been on hand at our hotel, Casa República in Lima and is pleased to report an increase in occupancy month on month with August happily at 50% occupancy throughout the week, growing to 70% on weekends, which is a trend that is happening nationwide.  All current hotel staff are now back on full hours and the hotel has had to raise its staff numbers to meet the growing demand.

This quite different to that of the early days of the pandemic where during Viva's COVID repatriation flight out of Peru the hotel was used to help tourists find their way home and for those returning Peruvians a place to quarantine.

Last minute bookings are the current trend, with occupants in the hotel being a mix of business and leisure travellers, 80% from the US/Canada, 10% Europe and 10% local Peruvians during the week, with weekends swelling due to the rooftop bar, showing a mix of 50/50 locals and foreigners.

Click the links below to skip through the article:

1. Covid Safety Protocols and Rules
2. Reviving Tourism
3. Peru Tours with Viva

Covid Safety Protocols

The Peruvian borders opened in March 2021 to international visitors, without the need to quarantine on arrival.  Despite opening to international visitors COVID cases and deaths have considerably declined, with the uptake of vaccines increasing quickly. With 90 million doses of various vaccines secured by Peru to cover its population of 33 million, they hope the vaccine roll out will be complete by November 2021. There are still several restrictions which are in place to further protect locals and visitors.  Masks are compulsory in public areas (supermarkets, shopping malls, shops, pharmacies, airports, and on domestic flights).  Bars and restaurants are still restricted in capacity to 50%, and in bars everyone must be seated with table service only. There is a curfew in place from midnight to 4am.  Beaches are open once again to the public.  Note that Peru’s travel restrictions do differ slightly between regions.

Visitors from India, Brazil and South Africa, require 14 days in a 3rd ‘safe’ country prior to entering.  For all other nations, Peru is open, providing a negative PCR test is presented 72 hours prior to departure from the country of origin, or an antigen test is taken on arrival at the tourist’s expense and the results are negative.

Summary of preparing to travel to Peru and covid safety:

Before Travel:

• Complete the electronic health sworn statement.

• You must undergo a PCR test (72 hours) or antigen test (24 hours) before traveling.

• Children under 12 years old are only required to present a medical certificate of good health.

• Non-resident foreigners coming from or having a stopover (last 14 calendar days) from Brazil, India and South Africa will not be allowed to enter the country. Exceptions determined by the Government apply.

 During Travel:

• Enjoy your visit wearing the mask during your tours.

• In some establishments (shopping malls, galleries, conglomerates, department stores, commodity stores, supermarkets, markets, stores and pharmacies) it is mandatory to wear two masks (one can be cloth face mask) and furthermore, the Government recommends wearing a face shield.

• Follow biosecurity and disinfection protocols properly. In case of symptoms, the control personnel will ask for your data and will refer you to health employees.

• Natural protected areas and museums have their own biosecurity protocols for entry.

• Respect the curfew (in Lima, Monday through Sunday from midnight to 4:00 a.m. the following day).

Reviving Tourism

Peru now has a strong focus to revive its tourism industry and get those looking to travel to Peru back with confidence with its safety health protocols. Many of its major tourist attractions are now open, including popular Machu Picchu. Note, there are restrictions on the number of people who can visit these tourist attractions.

Local hotels and tour operators, including Casa República, are offering reduced pricing to increase visitor numbers and bookings, with less than half the cost of the pre-pandemic price.  So far this has been very successful, with international visitor numbers continuously growing.

All the great dining options in Lima have also endured and made it through the pandemic. Lima is known to be one of the best culinary/foodie destinations in Latin America. Home to famous world top 50 restaurants, Central and Maido. This is the perfect time to secure a table at what use to be very difficult to get a booking.

Peru tourism is making a comeback and essentially leading many in the world in terms of reopening borders and the economy. Whilst the risk of a third wave is prevalent everywhere in the world, vaccines, it seems, are now protecting most citizens from the worst of outcomes and 2022 poses to be a very busy year for tourism in Peru. With locals excited to welcome more international visitors back.

Peru Tours with Viva

We here at Viva Expeditions have been working on our current Peru tours and overall product range with a focus on avoiding over tourism and giving those travelling to Peru more local and unique experiences, which help engage the local communities and discover ancient Incan cultures and practices.  We also want to offer more culinary and gastronomic focused tours as well, so those foodie travellers out there can get a real good taste of the amazing cuisine Peru has to offer.

Now this is very exciting that our international clients are enjoying a return to travel and some more freedom. We here at Viva Expeditions really look forward to helping New Zealand start re-engaging with the world. This begins will vaccinations which we have seen massively ramping up and expect to have everyone fully vaccinated by the end of the year, according to government advice. 

With the vaccination roll out we hope to see an international travel road map in place to show how New Zealand is going to re-engage with the world once more. We are excited to connect travellers across the world and show them how incredible Latin America is once again! We feel 2022 is the year for New Zealanders to start exploring our favourite continent.

Learn more about our Peru tours here.