Responsible tourism with Andean communities

Five decades dedicated to adventure tourism make Explorandes one of the most prestigious companies in this field in Peru. Pioneers from the start, today they are betting on a new way of working, hand in hand with communities, supporting sustainable development and taking care of Nature.

“For almost fifty years we have operated and promoted trips throughout Peru, offering adventure and cultural experiences, as well as ecotourism. We were the first company to operate the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and we are pioneers in taking tourism operations to rural and remote sites in Peru.” This is how Explorandes describes its passion for Peru and its tireless commitment to offering unforgettable experiences to travellers from all over the world.

Today, seeing how the tourist experience on the Salkantay circuit –the route they pioneered– has been deteriorating due to mass tourism and lack of controls, they have decided to design an alternative route. They are working hand in hand with the Misquiyaco community, located in the heart of the Limatambo valley, to develop together a new way to reach the citadel of Machu Picchu.

“Over time,” explains Martín Romero, Explorandes general manager, “we observed the degradation of the tourist experience, the landscape, and the standard of life of the inhabitants, caused by water pollution and conflicts with farmers over the quality of products such as avocado, the star crop of the region. So we asked ourselves, why not develop a new tourist product? But this time considered from all angles, learning from mistakes and successes, with the objective of maintaining this pristine landscape. That’s when we came across the community of Misquiyaco-Urpaypuquio.”

The members of this agricultural community dedicated to the cultivation and export of avocados, are the proud owners of a well-preserved native forest populated by huge ‘chachacomo’, ‘queñual’ and ‘qolle’ trees. Known as the Illpay forest, it covers almost two thousand hectares of land located in the upper part of the community. “As soon as we visited the forest, we knew we were on to something, so we changed the route to start there. The challenge was to ensure the continuity of the forest and the landscape, so we proposed the creation of a private conservation area (PCA), which, with the advice of the NGO Conservación Amazónica, became a reality in 2021,” says Martín.

Closing the circle

Once the creation of the ACP was finalised and the new tourist route designed, the Explorandes team realised that it was necessary to take a further step towards the sustainability of the project. “We thought that, as a source of income, tourism was not enough for the community; we had to add value to their conservation efforts,” says Martín Romero. “Explorandes is a member of Regenera since 2018, and since the community has a powerful natural capital in their forest, we thought that if they, too, were part of the initiative as Guardians, they could benefit from an additional income from the ecosystem services they help protect.”

This is how the community began its journey to become a Regenera Guardian. Supported by technical partner SePerú, they are about to publish their first life plan, as well as their tourism plan, documents they have been working on steadily in recent months.

“The benefits to us and the community from this vision of tourism are great,” comments Martín. “From a governance point of view, it is important to have a clear development vision, a long-term plan where priorities and initiatives are well identified… and with tourism and payment for ecosystem services there are tools to keep the landscape conserved, aligned with the needs of the community.”