Monetising Machu Picchu

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 24 November 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Peru is home to Machu Picchu - the ancient Inca city in the Andes mountains.

It's one of the seven wonders of the world, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The popular tourist destination attracts millions of visitors, making it very lucrative for the government, local and international businesses.

But Machu Picchu is in trouble.

Social conflicts, fights over who benefits from the money being made through ticket sales and transport are just some of the problems its facing.

Jane Chambers visits Peru to find out what's going on and if there are other local sites for tourist to visit instead.

Produced and presented by Jane Chambers Editor: Helen Thomas

(Image: A group of tourists waves while leaving on foot due to a protest by residents in Machu Picchu on 16 September 2025 over which bus company should run the local route. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts.
0:08.7	Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service.
0:13.1	I'm Jane Chambers.
0:14.4	Today I'm in Peru, home of Machu Picchu, the ancient Inca city in the Andes Mountains,
0:20.4	one of the seven wonders of the world,
0:22.4	and the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
0:25.1	It attracts millions of visitors, making it very lucrative for the Peruvian government.
0:29.9	They receive another of 200 million soles as an income for the visitors.
0:39.4	So we're talking about 70 million US dollars per year roughly.
0:44.4	And a great source of income for its nearest town, Aguas Calientes.
0:48.4	The biggest source of our income is tourism.
0:53.6	Around 95% of our economy comes from tourism.
1:00.5	But this popular destination is in trouble. Over tourism, social conflicts, issues with ticket sales
1:06.8	and transport are just some of the problems it's facing.
1:12.3	Yes, you're right.
1:16.1	It can be hard running a business here when products can only arrive by train.
1:18.2	There are lots of trains for visitors,
1:21.2	but the train that brings our product only comes at night,
1:22.5	and we have one carriage.
1:25.8	So what's the future for this valuable ancient site?
1:27.8	That's all coming up in Business Daily. We have 24 buses and we transport around 5 to 5.5,000 people every day.
1:47.7	The journey from the town to Machu Picchu takes around 20 minutes.
	...

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