A closer look
Booking a luxury train and hotel to visit an ancient wonder feels incredibly culturally enriching, but the vast majority of your tourist dollars violently leak straight out of the local economy. Foreign-owned consortiums control the exclusive train routes and high-end lodgings surrounding Machu Picchu. Consequently, the massive influx of wealth completely bypasses the indigenous communities living right next door, demonstrating how global heritage tourism is often just a highly scenic form of economic extraction.
