The small village of Aguas Calientes, last stop en route to the famous Lost City of the Incas, has seen an explosion of hotels and shops thanks to increasing tourism. While Peru celebrates the 100th anniversary of Machu Picchu’s discovery in 1911, controversy has been brewing over plans to build a road to the site.
Currently accessible only by train or on foot, it’s easier to control the number of tourists arriving at the UNESCO World Heritage Site. The annual number of tourists has reached approximately 650,000 in 2009. As Peru’s most visited tourist attraction and major revenue generator, it is continually threatened by economic and commercial forces.
While the U.N. argues that the road will hasten the damage to the site, the Peruvian government unanimously voted to pave the narrow dirt roads connecting nearby towns as a “public necessity and a priority of national interest” after flooding in January stranded thousands of tourists for days, reports the Peruvian Times.
The UNESCO-sponsored plan for Machu Picchu called for no more than 917 visitors per day – and no more than 385 visitors at any one time – and eventually negotiated with Peru’s central government for a daily limit of 2,500 visitors.
The government also developed a $132.5 million emergency plan to preserve the ruins and limit the flow of tourists, as well as take measures to prevent forest fires and landslides.