Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Mining & Energy | June 28, 2011 [ 15:22 ]

Puno loses more than $117 million in tourism earnings during protests

LivinginPeru.com

After 45 days of demonstrations by the Aymara protesting mining, Puno resumed normalcy with the challenge of recovering what was lost. In an initial estimate, the department lost as least $117 million in expected tourism, infrastructure and customs revenue.

This figure does not consider the impact of productive activities in the south, levels that are under review between the trade guilds of the town.

The main loss so far is in the tourism sector. Puno's chamber of tourism estimates its loss at about $100 million, with an average occupancy rate in the hospitality industry at 10 percent.

It should be noted that June and July are considered peak months in the southern Peruvian town. This time of year there are two major festivals – the Corpus Christi and Inti Raymi – which attract European tourists who travel the Arequipa-Cusco-Puno circuit.

According to the Association of Travel Agencies and Tourism in Arequipa the violence ocurring in the highland city led to the cancellation of at least 900 packages in the Arequipa-Puno circuit, generating a loss of total loss of $2.3 million.

Prime minister Rosario Fernández announced the launch of a group of representatives consisting of executives, officials and business persons from Puno to recover the image of Puno.

Fernández met yesterday with representatives from Puno businesses, who obtained commitment from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism to promote press trips to help recover the image of the destination.

Spokesmen for the national tax agency reported that the infrastructure of the region was severely affected and reported losses of $10.7 million.

The Desaguadero customs agency was completely destroyed.

"They looted and burned the facilities," they said. The Puno office was also affected. "Rebuilding both will take about seven months," the agency says.

The Taxpayer Service Center (CSC) of Puno, with offices in the Municipality of Puno, was also partially destroyed.

"The information filed with the tax agency is digital. However, some of the files (35 percent) were in physical form, which were burned during the protests," they reported. It is noted that operations resumed yesterday at the CSC in Puno.

 | | | |

  Latest news

• Lima : After 6 years, LivinginPeru.com will close on July 27th
• Travel & Tourism : UGM will evaluate plan to solve limited access to Machu Picchu
• Travel & Tourism : 130 pct increase in tourists visiting Machu Picchu, Peru
• Mining & Energy : 600,000 new natural gas connections for households in Lima
• International Relations : United States greets Peru on 190th independence anniversary

5 Comments

# Dennis says :
June 28, 2011 [ 17:28 ]

For people and a town who have nothing that is a lot of money to lose. In addition now they have to rebuild the town. Not to mention the people who lost their life and what that means to their families. How much will the government have to pay Bear Creek for voiding the contract? How much tax dollars will the government lose? How much more companies will invest in future projects? How many jobs will be lost? I guess when you are not educated those things do not cross your mind. Do the protesters think it was worth it, probably? Will they do it again? I am 100% certain they will in the near future when another project comes up that they do not like.

# Peru-N-English Blog says :
June 28, 2011 [ 17:36 ]

Magazine Caretas reported this week that “wildcat miners” are interested in Bear Creek's concession and are working alongside protesters. Locals think the land has valuable gold deposits in addition to silver. “Wildcat” gold mining in the southern Puno region has been impacting the Ramis river basin for years. Not outside modern mines and mining technologies. And the formation of a committee to address the high levels of pollution in the basin is nothing new. As far back as 2003, the government announced a plan to clean up Titicaca and the polluted rivers, costing millions of dollars. This is a case of Peruanos contaminating Peruanos. Not legitimate heavily regulated outside mines contaminating Peruanos

Bear Creek Mining has received strong local community support for the Santa Ana project as demonstrated by the formal public hearing successfully completed in the local community at Santa Ana in February, 2011 in which the community officially ratified its strong support for the Santa Ana mine development. It is important to recognize that the protests in southern Puno are occurring distant from the Santa Ana project and involve participants far removed from the communities in which Bear Creek Mining works.

According to the mine ministry, Puno receives 700 million soles ($250 million) annually from the government, of which about 40% is from mining royalties. The canceling of the Santa Ana mine could cost Puno some 25 million soles ($9 million) in royalties..

This is a tragedy and an attempt by criminal terrorists to rob the hard earned legal rights away from legitimate Bear Creek Mining. Who has already spent $100 million in environmental studies in the Santa Ana Area.

# Dennis says :
June 28, 2011 [ 20:31 ]

And now PromPeru is starting a advertising campaign to attract tourist back to Puno. Is that a joke or what? I wouldn't go there if they paid me. They could put up another road block if they do not like something else and I could be trapped there.

# jcw says :
June 30, 2011 [ 2:06 ]

I think they should put a wall separating Puno from the rest of the country, that'd solve  a lot of issues.

# Clarice Pineda says :
June 30, 2011 [ 9:47 ]

Evo Morales, if you want PUNO you can have it!!!

Add your comment

Name

Email

Notify me via e-mail of new comments to this entry

Code :

Comment

• Comments are the property of their respective authors, and LivinginPeru.com is not responsible for the content of these comments
• Only comments in English will be published
• Por ahora solo se permiten comentarios en ingles.
• Any offensive, injurious, profane or disrespectful comments will not be published
• You must include a real email address (this WILL be verified) for your comments to be published
• Repeat comments, or comments of a similar nature written by the same person will not be published
• All comments are sent to a moderator before publication
• Referring to the topic indicated in the article will increase your chances of publication
• Repeat offenses of the above guidelines will result in the removal of your ability to comment