A total of 1,325 Quechua-speaking communities settled along the Sacred Valley of the Incas, in the Cusco region, have benefited from a CAF’s, Development Bank of Latin America, campaign aimed at persuading travelers to venture Peru's inland.
Eleonora Silva Pardo, CAF's Director Representative in Peru, noted that small farm communities in the town of Pisac, located in the Urubamba Valley, has received training to offer high quality rural tourism services in line with market requirements within the framework of the so-called RUTAS programme.
“Through this initiative farmers have learned to adapt their homes with the suitable health conditions to offer your homes as a guesthouse for visitors who want to experience community tourism,” she said in statements to Andina news agency.
The senior CAF official added, “The program address matters of health, food and then over the whole issue of how to treat tourists, offering security and safety, to teach them their culture and their environment”.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister, Magali Silva, hailed the ongoing initiative as means for visitors from within the country and abroad to rediscover the importance of Peru’s cultural roots and respect the nation’s ancient heritage and its rural communities.
Moreover, the high-level Humala administration official stated the RUTAS program allows families that have traditionally worked in agriculture to receive supplementary income thanks to rural tourism.
“This allows them to improve their living conditions and come out of the poverty in which they live,” Silva noted.
Published: 9/16/2014