UJ #6 - Cusco

INTERVIEW
Luxurious rooms
where you can enjoy an
excellent meal.
THE DESTINATION
What is your strategy to sell a hotel like Cusco
when you are going after a client base that is so
I have worked in three difference destinations: Rio de
Janiero, Saint Kitts and the Caiman Islands. The last
two are pleasure destinations where you sell the destination
and then the hotel. The focus has to be to
this here, one needs to work with PromPeru, which
is doing a very good job selling Cusco. Maybe what
is missing is a concerted effort by all of us to work
together to improve the destination and the product.
What do you think should be improved in the destination?
One thing that should be done is improving the infrastructure
by working on projects to better contain the
Urubamba River. We regularly have landslides in the
Cusco area which means that highways are closed and
passengers are stranded…We need to work together
because it is not just a government issue. One can use
the investment-for-taxes rules to underwrite costs for
example. There are many options and lots of things to
do to improve the area.
Additionally, I think that Machu Picchu needs to be evaluated
with a wider lens and that a master plan for the
site should be developed with the help of private industry
and others in order to create something sustainable
jobs and family income and do it in a planned manner.
I know there are lots of ideas, but we need to work
together to make them happen and generate others.