According to a report made by the Spanish newspaper, El País, Latin America is becoming more frequent among the choices of those who consume exclusive travelling. The situation occurs not only among other regions travellers, but among Latin Americans themselves, who are starting to sense that there is luxury in their beaches and cities as well.

“Luxury is an experience”, assures Carla Guerrero, who represents the Peruvian tourism office in Mexico, at the International Luxury Travel Market Americas (ILTM), the third edition of the luxury travels fair that took place a few days ago in Cancun, Mexico.

Latin America’s economic growth has favoured tourism like never before. The wealth of the region is mainly focused in Brazil and Mexico (73%), while the rest is distributed among Argentina, Colombia and Peru.

These countries hold the largest number of millionaires, the main market of the luxury tourism industry. According to a research conducted by UBS bank, last year the number of multimillionaires in Latin America grew to 37, 8%, most of them being located in Mexico and Brazil.

Both countries registered historical levels of tourists’ reception during the past year. Over the last seven months Mexico received 16, 2 million travellers -20% more than what it received for the same period last year- and has become the second touristic destination in America, according to data from the Mexican government. During June Brazil experienced an exponential growth on the touristic flow in those cities were the World Cup took place. During a 30 days period the country received over 3, 4 million visitors and the planning of the event caused a 25% increase of the luxury tourism infrastructure during the past two years. Such reality is another challenge for the employment world. Companies linked to tourism, particularly luxury tourism, demand competences such as languages knowledge, empathy, service orientation, adaptability and flexibility.

Tourism businessmen in tune with the region’s growth, offer experiences that used to be available only in Europe, Asia and the United States. The development of this sort of experiences is closely linked to the growth of qualified human capital that shall create such experiences. Natural sceneries are available and so are investments.

Some areas that did not used to appear in the luxury tourism destination map have evaluated their potential and begun attracting fortunes.

“We want to settle not only as the classical cultural touristic destination of Machu Picchu, but as a diverse destiny with a variety of activities”, explains Carla Guerrero. Besides the traditional Peruvian touristic offer, the Government is aiming to promote regions close to Lima, and Amazonia.

Furthermore, Peru has made an addition to its touristic diversity: the gastronomic offer of awarded restaurants such as Central and Astrid y Gastón, as well as the Mistura fair that attracts over 600.000 visitors to taste the Peruvian cuisine. “It is becoming a major attraction that lures the entire gastronomic offer of the region. Chefs from all around the world and well known Peruvian chefs go there”.

The region’s potential on this segment is huge, as it is the challenge to live up the expectations.