Foreign Tourists Chipped In $46 Million to Peru’s Coffers in January

The arrival of foreign tourists to the Jorge Chavez International Airport grew an unprecedented 23.7 percent in January this year, compared to that same month of 2004, Peruvian Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister Alfredo Ferrero said.

Mr. Ferrero informed the arrival of 63,366 foreigners in January clearly outnumbered the 51,235 visitors from other countries that entered the nation in early 2004, up a whopping 40 percent if stacked up against January 2000, the year that marked the beginning of a solid recovery for Peru’s travel industry.

Those tourists forked over $46 million in the country’s resorts, hotels and service facilities, with an average spending of $718 apiece.

Minister Ferrero added the tourist activity upsurge stems in part from a hands-on advertisement and promotional campaign Peru has been carrying out lately, targeting its top-priority markets through the Fund for Tourism Promotion and Development. In 2004, the Jorge Chavez International Airport clicked over 766,000 foreign arrivals.