Ruins, Hotels, and Hippies: Tourism and Conflict in 1970s Cusco

When Peru’s Minister of Tourism arrived in Cusco on October, 18 1974, he found a warm welcome printed in the local newspaper.  “Cusco Progresses through Tourism,” proclaimed El Comercio in an endorsement of the efforts by Peru’s left-leaning military government to transform the region into a global destination.  However, the optimism expressed in El Comercio hid deep conflicts developing over the state’s efforts to create tourism in Cusco.  This presentation will examine the flawed efforts of tourism development in Cusco during the 1970s.

 Peru’s military regime headed by Juan Velasco worked vigorously to re-orient the traditional economic base of Cusco towards tourism.  Advised by UNESCO and financed by the Inter-American Development bank, Peru created the Plan COPESCO in 1969 to implement state-led tourism investment in Cusco.  Soon, the Velasco government discovered the risks of introducing top-down and rapid tourism modernization into a previously-underdeveloped region of the Andes.  Political leaders and communities clashed over the proposed paths and hiring practices for COPESCO’s road-building efforts.  Proposals for a ten-floor hotel adjacent to Machu Picchu pitted Lima-based environmentalists against Cusco’s labor groups.  The arrival of a “hippie invasion” of backpackers raised local concerns about crime, drugs, and unforeseen negative influences of the developed world.  Most distressing to the state, tourism development did not benefit campesino communities, but instead reinforced the power of urban and rural elite groups.

When Cusco’s nascent tourism economy collapsed in the early 1980s, most observers blamed the pressures of economic crisis and rising internal violence.  However, this presentation highlights the deeper structural flaws that undercut Cusco’s first tourism “boom.”  Examining the failure of the Plan COPESCO not only reveals an important chapter of Cusco’s contemporary history.  It also highlights the historical risks confronting Latin American states looking to tourism as a source of regional development.