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Peru's Machu Picchu site reopens | |
(19 minutes later) | |
Peru's most famous archaeological site, Machu Picchu, has formally reopened after it was closed for two months. | |
Hundreds of tourists, including US actress Susan Sarandon, took the train to the 15th-Century Inca ruin - the most-visited site in Latin America. | |
Heavy rains and landslides at the end of January cut rail access to the site, trapping some 4,000 tourists. | |
Peru had lost some $200m (£131m) in revenue because of the closure, Peru's tourism minister told the BBC. | |
The world-famous Inca citadel is Peru's national treasure | |
The damaged railway line linking the citadel to the rest of Peru was repaired with an urgency rarely seen before, the BBC's Dan Collyns in Peru says. | |
For all its other tourist attractions, Peru has had a tough lesson in just how central Machu Picchu is to its tourist industry, our correspondent says. | |
"This incident with the train to Machu Picchu has definitely had an impact on us I would say our sales have been reduced by 50%," said Bernard Schleien, director of the Latin America For Less travel agency. | "This incident with the train to Machu Picchu has definitely had an impact on us I would say our sales have been reduced by 50%," said Bernard Schleien, director of the Latin America For Less travel agency. |
FROM BBC WORLD SERVICE class="" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/index.shtml">More from BBC World Service | |
Some 90% of Peru's tourist revenue comes from the Cuzco region, where Machu Picchu's two-month closure meant the loss of about 60,000 tourists. | |
The local chamber of commerce says more than half the population of the regional capital, Cuzco, works directly or indirectly in tourism. | |
The reopening of Machu Picchu is hugely important, not just for Peru's economy, but also its image abroad, our correspondent says. |