Paracas projects more than 1 million visitors in 2026

Paracas expects to receive close to 1 million 100 thousand visitors during 2026, driven mainly by the arrival of domestic tourists, especially from Lima, according to Eduardo Jáuregui, president of the Paracas Chamber of Tourism and Foreign Trade (Capatur), in the Ica region.

“This year we’re projecting growth to 1 million 100 thousand visitors. This summer 2026 alone, 500,000 tourists already arrived. There’s an excellent hotel infrastructure here, very well prepared, ranging from hotels, private homes, beach apartments, to 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5-star hotels. In other words, there’s something for every budget, but the important thing is that it has a magnificent sea, a magnificent bay, abundant aquatic products, abundant scallops, which allows us to offer fresh, top-quality seafood cuisine,” said Eduardo Jáuregui.

The Capatur president explained that Paracas’s location is one aspect that makes it a preferred destination for tourists. The seaside resort town is located about 200 km from Lima and has a divided highway on the Panamericana Sur Highway that allows for easy travel by visitors year-round.

“They can come via the divided highway in their own car. The fuel cost for 200 km is between 80 and 100 soles, or they can also come by bus. There are many companies like Cruz del Sur and Soyuz that charge fares ranging from 25 soles to 50 soles,” he added.

On the other hand, Jáuregui noted that the region’s tourism growth faces a limitation due to the Pisco airport, Ica’s only regional airport, not being operational.

“We’re not asking for exemptions or anything like that, we’re asking for the airport to be reactivated. As a country whose economy still isn’t very robust, we can’t afford the luxury of building an airport only to leave it shut down. It’s been more than seven years since it was granted under concession and it still doesn’t operate,” he said.

For this reason, Jáuregui asked the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to adopt measures to guarantee the airport’s operability. He suggested that if the current concessionaire is unable to get it up and running, the possibility of handing the concession over to another business group that could actually operate the Pisco airport should be considered.