Travelers Avoiding Peru Because of Cholera Fear

The cholera that has struck more than 200,000 Peruvians in four months has also devastated Peru’s tourist industry.

The 20-mile hike along the Andes to Machu Picchu, on the road once used by Incan priests, is nearly deserted. Visitors to one of the most important pre-Columbian ruins on the American continent are averaging about 120 a day, only 25% of the normal seasonal rate, officials say.

“The cholera epidemic is really the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Daniel Estrada, mayor of Cuzco, told foreign journalists. “We could overcome terrorism, poverty and growing crime, but with cholera we have a disaster, a cataclysm for the tourism in our city.”

In Cuzco, once the heart of the Incan Empire and now known as the archeological capital of the Americas, tourism has fallen by about 90% in recent months, Estrada said. Officials say some 40% of the city’s hotels have closed either temporarily or for good.

Peru’s National Agency for Tourism Promotion and the National Chamber of Tourism (CANATUR) have drawn up an emergency plan that includes improving the industry’s services and infrastructure, promoting them overseas and encouraging foreign investment.

Eduardo Arrarte, president of CANATUR, said it had won a commitment from Peru President Alberto Fujimori to dispense with some government charges imposed on tourists.

Cuba Cleanup: When tourists, athletes and officials arrive in Havana in August for the 1991 Pan American Games, the city may be a cleaner version of its former self. Authorities in Havana, worried about the Cuban capital’s image, have launched a big cleanup operation to give the city a face lift.

The domestic news agency AIN quoted city officials as saying that neighborhood block committees would join municipal workers to clear up piles of rubble and garbage. According to the report, the trash has accumulated, in part, because disruptions to oil shipments from the Soviet Union have brought fuel restrictions that impacted trash services in some areas of the capital.

City officials said more than 160 horse-drawn garbage collection carts have been operating in the capital and its outskirts in lieu of mechanized trash collection trucks.

Quick Fact: Where did most Americans stay on their last vacation? With friends and relatives. (Source: The Roper Organization.)

Going to the Dogs: Not only are hotels encouraging us to take the kids along by offering special discounts, amusements and baby-sitting services for children. A Chicago hotel, the Omni Ambassador East, has a special pet program that begins with pet check-in with a paw print (optional). Dogs and cats also receive doggie bags of food, and the hotel provides feeding bowls, portable kennels, identification tags, dog walking, grooming and pet-sitting services, as well as the all-important litter boxes. Not surprisingly, there is a fee for all of this. But part of the $15 charge per pet per night is donated to Leader Dogs for the Blind, a Michigan-based organization.

Tampa is Tops: What do fliers want from an airport? Ease. Tampa International Airport in Florida has been selected best airport in the world by readers of the Robb Report, a monthly magazine for the affluent. Magazine readers liked the airport, which is 20 years old, for its layout, which makes it easy to get in and out of, they said, as well as easy to get around in. It also was top-rated for its cleanliness.

Irish Roots: Irish Tourist Board surveys show that up to 25% of visitors to Ireland choose ancestor-tracing as their main reason for traveling to the country, partitioned in 1921 into British-ruled Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

And officials believe that by the year 2000, the “roots business” could bring in up to $220 million in extra tourist income.

In an effort to beckon back the world’s 70 million people of Irish descent, Ireland, with north and south united on the project, is assembling ancestral information in 35 database centers. Computerized church and state records dating back hundreds of years are being entered into the data base--with everything from birth, marriage and death certificates to the records of convicts sent abroad, and with built-in safeguards to avoid the priceless records being pirated abroad.

All data-base centers should have their records complete within three years, officials say.

Comparatively Speaking: March on-time record for U.S. carriers, worst to best: United, Southwest, TWA, America West, Midway, Continental, Pan Am, Delta, Alaska, Northwest, USAir and American (best). (Source: Department of Transportation.)

Fair Warning: Picnicking under the pines at the Nevada County Fairgrounds and listening to a pop concert will be just one of the activities connected with Music in the Mountains, June 13-30 in Nevada City. The 10th annual classical, pop and Broadway music festival will host internationally acclaimed musicians performing in recitals, as well as with full orchestra and in chamber concerts. In addition, The Foothill Theatre Company will perform at the Nevada Theatre.

For more information, call (916) 265-6124. Nevada City is 45 miles west of Lake Tahoe.