Direct foreign tourist arrivals to Peru reach 3.16 million in 2013

With the number of direct foreign tourist arrivals reaching 3.16 million, Peru has almost met its target of attracting 3.2 million foreign tourists last year. The Ministry of Foreign Trade and

Tourism (Mincetur) on Monday released the official data on the number of foreign tourists visiting Peru from January to December 2013, which amounted to 3,163,639 people.

The figure was an increase of 11.2 per cent or about 318,000 people from the total number of direct foreign tourist arrivals in 2012.While the number of foreign visitors is rising, the demographics are changing. Many foreign tourists are now coming from fellow Latin American countries, as compared to the more traditional markets of Europe, the U.S. and Asia.Tourist arrivals during 2013 clearly demonstrate this trend as South American visitors represented 57.4 per cent of the total.

Chile was the No. 1 source for foreign visitors, followed among others by Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador. As in previous years, the United States was another important source of tourists to Peru last year.According to a report from the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, international tourist arrivals worldwide grew by 5 per cent in 2013, reaching a record 1.08 billion arrivals.The Peruvian government has predicted that the number of foreign tourists will increase to 3.6 million people in 2014.