On Friday, Carlos Canales, president of the National Chamber of Tourism (Canatur), said Peru could attract up to five million tourists in 2016.

He said the goal was to promote tourism around the year, and not just seasonally, by attracting visitors from around South America.

Brazilian, Argentine and Chilean tourists usually travel from January to March, which are usually low tourism seasons for Peru, he said.

"We can easily increase the flow of tourists by promoting the country’s tourist areas regionally,” he said to Andina news agency.

He said that this would enable tourism to improve in the first quarter, and they would then aim for the European and American tourists, who travel in June, July and August.

"In this way, we could even exceed the government’s goal of reaching 3.6 million tourists in 2016," he said.

Canales said that if work were carried out properly -and a specialized Ministry of Tourism was created – tourism would become the country’s second largest source of income; second only to the mining industry.

 

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