Peru advanced five spots in the 2011 World Economic Forum’s ranking of competitiveness in the travel and tourism industry, moving from 74th place in 2009 to 69th this year among a total of 129 countries, mainly thanks to improvements in its business climate and tourism infrastructure.

Compared within Latin America, Peru is in ninth place, below Mexico, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Panama, Chile, Uruguay and Argentina.

Tourism generated $3.8 billion in Peru in 2010, and this number is projected to grow about 5.7 percent per year between 2011 and 2010. A total of 2.2 million foreign tourists visited Peru in 2010, and the country represents 0.2 percent of overall world tourism.

Even though the ranking represents an improvement, president of the national chamber of tourism Carlos Canales said that there is still much to be done. He lamented that in the past five years, not much has been done to address certain major problems with tourism in Peru.

“Except for tourist services and air transport connectivity, nothing else has been worked on. We have very high levels of criminal incidents and highway accidents,” Canales said.

He also stated that he had called upon the main presidential candidates to develop their proposals for the tourism sector.

Fuente: Livinginperu.com