7 (Thomson Reuters Organization) – For many years, Juan Asin from Peru made a modest income working as a tourist guide. It’s a course that enjoys the ancient roads and valleys of the Inca Empire that spread around Cusco, the tourist center of Peru, and the world-famous ruins of Machu Picchu.
But Peru, located in the Andes Mountains, is facing its worst social unrest in 20 years. Thousands of tour guides working in the highlands, including Ashin, have been quarantined at home for two months as visitor numbers drop. I struggle to make a living.
“Tourism has stopped. No tourists, no jobs, no income,” Asin told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from his hometown. Roads have been blocked by protesters and the closure of Machu Picchu in January has hit the local economy hard.
Dozens have been killed in clashes between protesters and security forces. The anti-government protests in the city began on December 7, 2018, when then leftist President Pedro Castillo was arrested and detained on suspicion of treason.
The political turmoil has deepened due to long-standing frustration with social inequalities and discrimination felt by many of Peru’s 34 million people. This is particularly true in the poorer villages of the Andes and Amazon regions.
“We expected the protests to end in just a few weeks,” Asing said. Ashin and about 9,000 Cusco guides, as well as hotel and restaurant workers, artisans and small travel agencies, depend on tourism.
Like Ashin, most tour guides are self-employed, earning between $30 and $60 a day in cash.
“We have no insurance, we are independent workers without any stability. Guides, cooks, drivers, porters, everyone has lost their jobs,” said Asin. Now aged 58, he has worked as a guide for over 20 years.
Protesters have blocked roads in some places, leaving Cusco and other areas running out of gasoline, cooking fuel and food. Already high prices are rising even higher.
Inflation in Peru will approach 8.5% in 2022, the highest annual rate in a quarter of a century. Economic analysts say many of the regions affected by the protests have been hit hardest by rising prices.
＜ Mass dismissal ＞
Cusco’s colonial-era streets and squares, once bustling with more than 4,000 tourists a day, are now deserted, with thousands of street vendors and market vendors providing income.
Restaurants and hotels in Cusco also laid off a large number of workers. Ricardo Velázquez, president of the Cusco branch of the Peruvian Tourism Business Association, said 40,000 jobs had been lost in the city.
“Foreign tourists are staying away and tours in February and March have been cancelled, so it will hurt in the long run,” Velázquez said.
The tourism sector, one of the key pillars of job creation in the country, has lost around $400 million since anti-government protests began in early December, according to estimates from the Peruvian Tourism Association.
According to the Hotel and Restaurant Industry Association, Peru was expected to see around 3.5 million tourists this year, a sharp increase from last year, as the global tourism industry revives after the coronavirus crisis subsided.
According to government figures, 1.4 million tourists visited Peru last year.
Joel Anchaya, manager of a small travel agency from Cusco, BioPeru Travel, said the company has laid off four of its five staff members. The five self-employed guides employed by the company have not been working since the beginning of December.
“The south of the country is sinking. Customers are canceling trips and asking for refunds. Even freelance guides can’t work. Tourism is dead,” said Anchaya. A former tourist guide himself, he has worked in the industry for 10 years.
His friends and family have managed to live off their savings, and those who have run out of savings are borrowing money from acquaintances and banks.
“We are stuck in debt,” said Anchaya.
Carlos Polar is also the business owner of Cusco Peru, a small travel agency in Cusco. He said that the tourism industry had been reeling from the destruction caused by the pandemic, but that the protests had brought new destruction.
“We were recovering from another devastating two-year covid-19 crisis, and now here we are. Everything collapses. This city lives on tourism. ” said Polar. Normally, he would have hired three drivers and four guides a day, but now he only has staff to deal with cancellations and refunds.
In August last year, we started repaying the loans of the government-linked low-interest loan program “Reactiva Peru (Reactiva Peru (Reactivation of Peru))” for companies suffering from the disaster of the corona, but “we are in a critical situation this month, so we cannot repay. We can’t, we’re scared.”
The protesters’ main demand is for the National Assembly to hold an early general election. But last week lawmakers rejected a proposal to bring the general election forward to December this year, and the political turmoil is likely to drag on.
Ashin, who stays at home, said: “I agree with the social demands the protesters are making, but they want to work.”
(Reporting by Anastasia Moloney, translation by Ea Klelen)
