Benefit To Machu Picchu Tourism example essay topic

High in the Andean mountain range, nestled on a ridge between two mountains high above the valley floor below sits the amazing city and archaeological site of Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu is about 1400 kilometers south of the Equator on the eastern slope of the Peruvian Andes. The site lies near the head waters of the Amazon River and is on the ridge between two prominent mountain peaks - Machu Picchu and Hau yna Picchu - about 500 meters above the valley bottom (Wright and Kenneth, 2-3). Machu Picchu, believed to be the royal estate of the Inca ruler Pacha cuti, is the most well-known of all the Inca archaeological sites. Professor Hiram Bingham discovered the site in July of 1911 and excavated it with the help of National Geographic and Yale University (Bingham, "The Story of Machu Picchu", 172). When Professor Bingham discovered the Incan city it was hidden by a thick layer of forest vegetation, but after years of excavation, he uncovered and documented the findings of Machu Picchu (Bingham, Lost City, 223).

Now, 94 years later, thousands of tourists fly from around the globe to visit the sacred and awe-inspiring site each year. The effect of tourism on the people of Peru, the site, and the countries economy is staggering. More than 300,000 people a year go to Peru to make the trek to Machu Picchu where they marvel at the 500 year old structures built from blocks of granite chiseled from the mountainside (Roach). Tourists travel by helicopter, train, foot, and bus and the reasons for visiting the site are variable and many in number - to fulfill a romantic dream, a spiritual quest, or simply because they want to visit one of the world's must-see sights to name a few. The question that needs to be asked and researched is: How is tourism affecting the archaeological site of Machu Picchu? The reasons for visiting Machu Picchu are not as important as is to understand the impact that the tourists and tourism industry is having on the site, the people, the country, and the environment.

It is also important to investigate the possible implications of what will happen in the future and whether Machu Picchu will be preserved for future generations to come. There are both costs and benefits to the impact of tourism on Machu Picchu and to the community. Social Costs and Benefits The social costs and benefits to Machu Picchu are an important part of the puzzle when investigating the full impact that tourism has had on the community and the site. One of the benefits of tourism is that it brings in money from outside the community that helps to support community facilities and services that otherwise might not be developed or supported. It also encourages civic involvement and pride from the people. The tourist industry helps to provide cultural exchanges between local people and tourists from around the globe.

There is also the immense benefit from the encouragement of and preservation of the celebration of local festivals and cultural events that might otherwise be lost over time. The final benefit to the social aspect of Machu Picchu's community is that the tourism industry helps to facilitate the infrastructure and facilities that are used by tourism (e.g. the railway) and in doing so, it can prove to also benefit the residents as well (e.g. transportation maintenance and support). (Barcelona Field Studies Centre S.L., Machu Picchu: Impact of Tourism) Tourism also has its costs / down -sides. One of the social costs to the community because of tourism is that it may attract visitors whose lifestyles and ideas may conflict with the community's (which commonly happens throughout the world, a good example of this can be seen in the settling of North America, and the effect it had on the Native Americans). Tourism could also lead to the overloading of porters which would lead to health problems. A loss of traditional values and culture is a possible outcome as well, through imitation of visitor behavior or cultural diffusion resulting from normal, everyday interactions (which the Peruvian people are an example of, through the acceptance of Christianity into their culture, but it is interesting to see how they both worship the land and the Christian / Catholic God and trinity).

There is also the impending problem that with the increase of tourism in Machu Picchu there will also be an increase in the crowding and congestion on the roads, footpaths, and in the narrow streets of the site. In addition, tourists also compete with residents for available services and facilities (a prime example of this is the local train service in Peru, in which many backpackers tend to use the local train service rather than the much more "luxurious" and expensive tourist train). An increase in visitors to the area will also lead to an increase in the crime in the area. Finally, a big social / community impact from tourism has been the desecration of burial sites and the removal and display of human remains from Machu Picchu to further stimulate the tourist industry, which has ultimately led to the destruction of the Indian spiritual heritage. (Barcelona Field Studies Centre S.L., Machu Picchu: Impact of Tourism) Environmental Costs and Benefits The environmental costs to increased tourism to Machu Picchu out number the benefits in many ways. Environmentally, tourism does help to facilitate increased awareness of the need for conservation and preservation of natural, cultural, and historical resources.

Machu Picchu could also be considered a clean industry, but that might be asking a lot when one looks at the impact that tourism has had on the environment surrounding Machu Picchu (Barcelona Field Studies Centre S.L., Machu Picchu: Impact of Tourism). With over 2000 people visiting the citadel of Machu Picchu every day, and that number growing by 6% or more each year, the site is slowly eroding away by tourist feet ("The Americas: Road to Ruin", The Economist). In addition to erosion caused by foot-traffic, there is also the impact that poor drainage and heavy rains have play on the site since it was discovered. Machu Picchu is located among steep slopes that are constantly being eroded by heavy rains and landslides are common there (Barcelona Field Studies Centre S.L., Machu Picchu: Impact of Tourism). The In cans created one of the most advance drainage and water way systems yet found. Out of necessity they had to be resourceful with their water in order to survive on the granite faces and the surface of the mountain ridge, as well as be productive agriculturalists growing corn, potatoes, and other plants as food sources on terraced fields (Bingham, "In the Wonderland of Peru" and Wright and Kenneth, 47-56).

With such an advanced drainage system the great city of Machu Picchu was able to survive on top of a mountain for thousands of years without fear of land slides or erosion (Wright and Kenneth, 36). But the drainage system that was originally there does not work they way it used to any more and Machu Picchu is being eroded away by heavy rains. Researchers have indicated that the main phenomena affecting the citadel are related to water and the force of gravity (Carlotto and Cardenas, 23). There is a high risk and worry that a land slide could occur that would cause the city to slide down the side of the mountain and be lost forever (Brown, 16). Researchers from the Disaster Prevention Research Institute at Kyoto University visited Machu Picchu and set up 10 extensometer's to measure the rate of surface movement at the site. What they found was that one of the sections on the back slope of Machu Picchu was moving downwards at a rate of up to 1 cm per month (Hadfield, 20).

Sass a, the researcher in charge of the recent assessment estimates that the landslide will be around a 100 meters deep, enough to destroy all of Machu Picchu (Hadfield, 20). Already small rockfalls and deformations have been discovered and there is a deformation line running north-south along the ridge within the citadel, and many of the buildings along the line show signs of damage (Hadfield, 20). That damage is mostly done by settlement of the land from the weight of the structures on the water-saturated soil underneath it (Carlotto and Cardenas, 23). What would happen if Machu Picchu was lost in a massive land slide?

Another huge environmental impact is the Peruvian governments desire and plan to build a road from Cuzco to Machu Picchu and a possibly even a cable car that would run from the valley to the top of Machu Picchu. The impact of put either of these two things there could cause irreparable harm to the site itself. More than anything, the two new transportation ideas would increase the number of people visiting the site, and would inevitably cause the destruction / erosion of Machu Picchu to happen even faster ("The Americas: Road to Ruin", Economist, 29). Plastic water bottles litter the route Copyright (c) 2004 Barcelona Field Studies Centre S.L. Other environmental impacts that are caused by the tourism industry includes all the timber that is cut down along the Inca trail for fuel in cooking, as well as the forest fires in the vicinity that have threatened Machu Picchu on several occasions (Barcelona Field Studies Centre S.L., Machu Picchu: Impact of Tourism).

Helicopters are now allowed to fly tourists up to Machu Picchu not, which disturbs the natural, peaceful quality of the ruins that so many tourist go there for, as well as potentially damaging the site. In addition with the number of people hiking along the Inca trail (increased from 6000 in 1984 to 82,000 in 2000), the trail and the area surrounding Machu Picchu is being polluted by tea bags and water bottles left behind by tourists (Barcelona Field Studies Centre S.L., Machu Picchu: Impact of Tourism). The unorganized growth in the areas population has created a lot of waste, and much of that waste is being pumped directly into the Uru bamba river. The environmental costs of the tourism industry on Machu Picchu and the community there are large, and will play a part in the sites well being and "life". Economic Costs and Benefits The benefits to Machu Picchu's community something important to think about when weighing the impacts of tourism, especially in this day and age when money and law are what determine many of the decisions made in the world. One economic benefit of tourism at Machu Picchu is that it attracts high-spending tourists from higher socio-economic groups to come to the country and spend money there.

It provides the with extra tax revenues each year through hotel and restaurant taxes, airport taxes, sales taxes, Inca trail and Machu Picchu entrance fees, employee income taxes, and many more. (At $20 a head to get into Machu Picchu, that would generate over $6 million a year for Peru, while the Inca trail brings in about $3 million, according to Machu Picchu Management.) The tourist attraction also creates local jobs and business opportunities, which include all the jobs related directly to tourism as well as those indirectly related. (Barcelona Field Studies Centre S.L., Machu Picchu: Impact of Tourism) Another benefit to Machu Picchu tourism is that it is a labor intensive industry and it earns valuable foreign exchange as well as brings in new money to the economy which gets circulated into the local economy as it is spent over and over again. In addition to the benefits of Machu Picchu to the economy there are also some costs to the community economically. One of which is that tourism inflates property values and prices of goods and services, which doesn't help the locals when most of the jobs getting done and provided are usually not paid well, and the jobs all tend to be seasonal (and workers are laid off in the low season). Tourist numbers are also affected by events that are not in control of the destination (e.g. terrorism, economic recession, etc) and this is a problem for Peru because the country is overly dependent on its tourism (Barcelona Field Studies Centre S.L., Machu Picchu: Impact of Tourism).

Conclusions Machu Picchu is one of the most sought and visited place on the planet. The local people depend upon its tourism industry for its economic well being, but also look to the great city as a piece of their heritage (proof of a great civilization before the Spanish came in to their country and took control). The site is valued by the local community as well as the people who visit it, but the impact of the tourism on Machu Picchu is causing it to be destroyed at a much faster rate through pollution, erosion, and transportation. In fact, the entire site may be lost to a massive land slide in the years to come, and the great city of Machu Picchu could be lost forever.

Part of the problem is poor management. Jurisdiction over Machu Picchu is shared by a gaggle of local and national authorities. Finally, in 1996 a five-year plan was drawn up to streamline the running of the site and its environment, financed by a $6.1 million debt-swap agreement with Finland. There has been some minor progress, but only half of the money has been spent.

This is because Finland insists that environmental projects should be undertaken only if the local authorities agree to keep them going by using part of the revenues from ticket sales for entry to the site ("The Americas: Road to Ruin", Economist, 29). Hopefully a plan will be figured out soon to complete the management conservation of this historic and beautiful site so that future generations will be able to visit it as well.

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