Promoting Peru: Tourism and post-conflict memory

Travel advertisements invite youthful backpackers or the wealthy older set who can travel in comfort to explore the Andes and the highland peoples: guidebooks and documentaries portray images of llamas chewing in highland pastures, rural folk wearing ponchos, majestic ancient civilizations and remaining ruins, all in the scenic setting of jagged, snow-capped mountain peaks.¹ Year after year, hundreds of thousands of tourists visit Peru in search of an Andean experience and adventure. For most, this means visiting Cusco and the newly named, in 2007, world wonder Machu Picchu, walking a few days on the Inca Trail, and spending a brief sojourn in Lima before returning home with photos and handicrafts as souvenirs of their voyage.