Peru opens Machu Picchu for single Japanese tourist after months of COVID-19 lockdown

Peru has opened its popular 5th-century Inca citadel, Machu Picchu, for the first time post months of coronavirus lockdown for a single tourist from Japan as an exception. According to sources of La Republica, Peru’s government opened the popular site for the 26-year-old Japanese citizen who waited almost even months, stranded in Cusco as the nation declared a state of a national health emergency. Dubbed as The last tourist of Machu Picchu, Jesse resided nearly eight months in Aguas Calientes as he waited, patiently, to visit the majestic World Heritage Site for once.

On October 12, Peru’s local tourism authority decided to grant Jesse special permission to tour the Inca city in response to his request made mid-March to the Decentralized Directorate of Culture of Cusco and the District Municipality of Machu Picchu. Minister of culture, Alejandro Neyra, told La Republica that the Japanese tourist became the first to visit the archaeological park in this part of the continent. "The first person on Earth who went to Machu Picchu since the lockdown is me," Takayama posted on his Instagram handle alongside the photos of himself visiting the park." This is truly amazing! Thank you,” he said, thanking Peru's government in footage that he posted online.

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Earlier, in an interview with Peru’s local broadcaster Andina Canal, the Ministry of Culture and Foreign Trade and Tourism (MINCETUR) said that they were laying plans for the reopening of the iconic archaeological site of tourism, which was being coordinated by the regional and local authorities of Cusco. Minister of Culture, Alejandro Neyra, however, pointed out that the health safety protocols for safe reopening were still being decided by the Cultural sectors and there was no exact date for reopening the site to the tourists was decided yet. The arrival of visitors to the town of Machu Picchu Pueblo (Aguas Calientes), then transfer to the llaqta (Inca citadel), and the visits itself were risky for the coronavirus outbreak among the tourists, he warned. 

Peru plans to allow 2,244 tourists

The 26-year-old boxing instructor, a resident of Nara, said that he was stranded in the South American country after the Peruvian government declared a movement ban, and suspended flights. The tourist had purchased the entry tickets to the archaeological site. Nyra said, in La Republica's report, that the Japanese traveller Jesse had a long standing dream of entering the site and the ministry thought that they can do this before he returned to his country.

According to Peru’s Ministry of Culture site, the country has plans to allow 2,244 as the maximum number of visitors per day post formal reopening of the Inka Citadel of Machu Picchu. A report in Gazette  El Peruano revealed that the Unesco World Heritage Committee advisory urged Peru to implement strict sanitary protocols for the arrival of visitors to the iconic site that will include mandatory use of a mask, and disinfectant gels and sanitisers at the entrance. 

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