Peru Travel Mart is the most important yearly travel-trade only event for the promotion of tourism in Peru. A strictly business event for wholesalers, travel agents and international buyers, the event will include meetings with local operators and an extensive familiarization of the important sites of this Andean nation.

The Peru Travel Mart is more of a showcase than a traditional market. This road-show will make appearances in the capial of Lima, Cusco, Valle Sagrado and of course, Machu Picchu. The towering pre-Columbian site of Machu Picchu is located at 2,400 meters above sea level on a mountain-ridge above the Urubamba Valley, eighty kilometers northwest of Cuzco.

The aim of this event is to welcome some two hundred foreign tour operators that do not currently sell Peru as a tourist destination. Representatives of specialized press, including ontheglobe.com, will be introduced to the the country in hopes of sharing the tourism and cultural values that the nation posesses.

The demographics of visitors to Peru include US and Chilean tourists who are the leaders, representing 40 percent of the total number of arrivals during 2005, Euromonitor reports. Visitors from Spain have increased dramatically and this is now the leading European country. The number of visitors from Brazil, Canada and Australia experienced dramatic growth between 2000 and 2005, of 123 percent, 75 percent and 82 percent respectively, reflecting a diversification in the nationality of tourists coming to Peru.

This event will have an evening start, including a city tour of ancient and modern Lima. The next day there will be a workshop and business meetings where foreign participants will have the opportunity to meet with national operators. The third day the guests will visit the Valle Sagrado of the Incas (Sacred Valley of the Incas), an hour from Cusco, Pisac, Maras, Chinchero and Ollantaytambo to finally arrive to the enigmatic city of Machu Picchu, the most important and beautiful legacy of ancient peruvians that is considered as one of the most wonderful architectural sites in the world. During the stay in Cusco, the Peru Travel Mart's guests will visit Inca structures like Koricancha and Inca Roca Palace, and andean baroque style colonial buildings like the Cathedral and the Company Church; as well as the San Blas neighbourhood, the giant walls of Sacsayhuamán Fortress and the archeological sites of Qenko, Pukapukara and Tambomachay, totally built of stones.

The Peru Travel Mart is co-sponsored by the Comision de Promocion de Peru, or PromPeru, a government agency that provides assessment and training courses for members of the public and private sectors. Associated with the national government, PromPeru is carrying out a plan to work with tourism companies in order to transform cities, such as the Huacas, into new tourist attractions. As an example of its potential, the Huaca Pucllana in Miraflores, Lima, is a historical and cultural centre of ancient Lima. The city receives more than 20,000 tourists a year, and PromPeru has invested 8 million USD in 2006 in a campaign to promote Peru as a travel destination. The campaign promoted the northern Amazon region, which occupies half of the country to the US, South America, Europe and Asia.

Peru Travel Mart
Dates: 23-27 April, 2008
Venue: In Lima, Cusco, Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu
Address: Alcanfores Nº 680, Miraflores
City, Country: Lima, Peru
Telephone: [511] 975.72285
Website