Motion Passed: Create a Peru Forum
 

I'd like to propose a forum for Travel&Dining: Destination >> The World >> Peru

Peru has a growing economy, perhaps the fastest growing economy within South America. It's already a highly interesting tourist destination and an increasing foreign investment market in this region.

Peru is one of the 17 megadiverse countries in the planet (group of countries that harbor the majority of the Earth's species and are therefore considered extremely biodiverse). Amazon Rainforest and River is nowadays a provisional winner in the New7Wonders of Nature list.

The Unesco World Heritage List includes these peruvian sites:
City of Cuzco
Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu
Chavin (Archaeological Site)
Huascarán National Park
Chan Chan Archaeological Zone
Manú National Park
Historic Centre of Lima
Abiseo River National Park
Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Pampas de Jumana
Historical Centre of the City of Arequipa
Sacred City of Caral-Supe

Peru's Intangible Cultural Heritage list includes:
Pilgrimage to the sanctuary of the Lord of Qoyllurit’i
Huaconada, ritual dance of Mito
The scissors dance
The Oral Heritage and Cultural Manifestations of the Zápara People (shared with Ecuador)
Taquile and its Textile Art

And peruvian cuisine is to be added to Unesco’s Intangible Heritage of Humanity list in 2012, we hope. Peru is a country that holds not just a variety of ethnic mixes since times ranging from the Inca Empire, the Viceroyalty and the Republic, but also a climatic variety of 28 individual climates. The mixing of cultures and the variety of climates differ from city to city so geography, climate, culture and ethnic mix determine the variety of local cuisine. That's why this country boasts one of the finest cuisines in the Americas.

Lima Airport is becoming a hub and it's located in a strategic position in the continent. Flying to 36 international destinations and 17 within Peru, in 2011 the airport served 11,904,553 passengers, growing over 16% when compared to the previous year. For 2nd consecutive year, it was presented the "Best Airport in South America" award by Skytrax. In addition Priority Pass announced in March 2010 that Sumaq VIP Lounge had been voted by its members "Lounge of the Year 2010" for second consecutive year among 600 VIP lounges in the world.

Peru ties Colombia with over 1800 species of birds, more than 85% of which are permanent residents. Peru is second only to Brazil in the number of endemic birds and second only to Indonesia in the number of bird species with restricted geographical ranges. Several rainforest lodges in Peru offer superb birding, each with a list of over 550 species. So it's a paradise for birds watchers.

And of course Cusco and Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu was declared a Peruvian Historical Sanctuary in 1981 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. In 2007, Machu Picchu was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a worldwide Internet poll.

Peruvian goverment is focused in increasing responsible and sustainable tourism.

I have not found (english language) enough useful forums dedicated to Peru, and I'm sure this would be very beneficial for FT members planning to go to any place in Peru, for business, adventure, gastronomic, luxury, leisure or eco travels. I'm very interested in this forum and to support and promote travels in my country, so count on me as moderator if this forum is approved. I'm sure also there would be several entities interested in advertise in Flyertalk forum.

Search within the South America Forum has resulted in following results:
Search Keyword(s) Peru = 252 times
Search Keyword(s) Lima = 227 times
Search Keyword(s) Cuzco = 120 times; Cusco = 111
Search Keyword(s) Machu (Picchu) = 111

Regards

I'm guessing this is for the almost 14 year history of FlyerTalk?

Please also see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/talkb...onsidered.html

I'm not opposed to the idea, partially because I've always wanted to visit Machu Picchu, but at the same time, I'm not 100% sure that there's defined demand for a standalone forum.

Just as an fyi, here's the pertinent info bhatnasx was referring to with his link:

"The following are qualitative criteria that the TalkBoard believes are useful to consider when evaluating proposals to create, close, split, or move forums. Whenever a forum change is discussed on the TalkBoard Topics, the TalkBoard encourages posters to fully address these criteria in addition to any other reasons supporting or opposing the change.

1. Will the forum be (or is it now) beneficial to FlyerTalk?

2. Will the new forum benefit a relationship with FlyerTalk? E.g., does the forum provide value for FT members, such as a friendly ear highly placed in the company

3. Is FT the best place to discuss this subject?

4. Is there a passionate following? This is essential in order to provide dedicated expert helpers to get questions answered.

5. Is a critical mass of posts and readers anticipated or existing? We need adequate traffic to keep everyone visiting frequently. One living forum is more valuable than two mostly dead ones.

6. Is this the best place on FlyerTalk for this subject? This is the classification issue. The answer depends primarily on achieving and maintaining critical mass. It also depends on whether or where the discussion might (or does) occur in the absence of the forum.

7. For proposals to split a forum, is the split expected to improve the signal to noise ratio? Why?

Procedural Statements by the TalkBoard

8. The TalkBoard does not anticipate using automatic sunsetting of forums, preferring instead to create forums only when we they are strongly expected to succeed."

Cheers.

The search was a default one, that I understand is any date, though not sure if it searches the whole database. Anyway I wouldn't count on the oldest posts, cause the tourism in this country has been growing rapidly in recent years. I mean 14 years ago there were, for example, just two weekly flights to Spain, maybe 3 or 4 weekly to Europe (KLM & Iberia). Nowadays there are 2 daily flights to Madrid, Amsterdam; Air France has returned to Peru. United, Lan, AA, Delta, has also increased their US - Peru flights. Only Houston, Dallas and Miami were the gates to enter the States 15 years ago. Right now you can fly directly to SFO, LAX, JFK, EWR, ATL, etc. And Callao as a cruises stop is relatively recent too. That's why I found very interesting and valuable if there is a Peru forum.

Answering the criterias FlyerTalk asks,

1. Will the forum be beneficial to FlyerTalk?
As I understood Flyertalk's mission is to help travelers. I've already found several members very interested in Peru with specific questions so I think it would be valuable to count on a dedicated forum. I've seen several advertisement sections within the forums pages, and I'm sure there will be people, business, interested in advertise in this forum, with Peru focused services. Each month you find new hotels (any category), tour operators, travel agencies, insurances, etc. I think this will be beneficial to Flyertalk too.

2. Will the new forum benefit a relationship with FlyerTalk? E.g., does the forum provide value for FT members, such as a friendly ear highly placed in the company.
I think this may be a good opportunity for any FT member interested in traveling to Peru, as well for FT managers.

3. Is FT the best place to discuss this subject?
It would be similar to the China, Argentina, Brasil or New york forums so the answer is yes. And since Peru is classified as megadiverse, the probability of capting more members interested in any of the destinations it offers (desert, beaches, mountains, jungle, hiking, skiing, rafting, boating, sandboard, bird watching, rain forest lodges, experiential tourism, archeology, history, architecture, gastronomy, business travels (for mining, industries, gas/oil companies, etc.), dances, art, jewelry, festivals, etc..) is very large as you can see. I mean, please don't miss my point in this paragraph, I'm not trying to advertise how beautiful my country is, but to emphasize that there is a huge variety of topics that can be discussed in this forum.

4. Is there a passionate following? This is essential in order to provide dedicated expert helpers to get questions answered.
Yes I have found members replying to people consulting their itineraries, restaurant recommendations, transport, etc.. with valuable information. There is a high volume of people each day loving more Peru. People passionate about this country are appearing each day.

5. Is a critical mass of posts and readers anticipated or existing? We need adequate traffic to keep everyone visiting frequently. One living forum is more valuable than two mostly dead ones.
Anticipated I think. As I said there is kind of an explosion of this tourism activity and interests. Yes Machu Picchu and Colca canyon were always there as well as their visits and excursions, but the interest and the investments the government is doing right now to attract travelers is something never seen before, and now in a more ordered, safety, and organized way.

6. Is this the best place on FlyerTalk for this subject?
Similar to Brazil, Mexico or Argentina, I consider valuable to count on a dedicated forum. My reasons are the same ansered in question 3.

7. For proposals to split a forum, is the split expected to improve the signal to noise ratio? Why?
I'm not sure if I get this question. What I think is that a dedicated forum will give the opportunity of posting, and specially finding (to people looking for any kind of info related to Peru) more accurate data, and easier. Better organized sticky threads, better focused, etc. About off topics or spams, I think there is always the risk of them, in dedicated or global forums.

Thanks

Thanks for answering the questions. Provides input to TB members who might not be familiar with it/need more information.

Cheers.

I can see OP's attempt to address the questions and I do read quite a few "generic" responses. But I am still not sure if those answers are unique and/or specific enough for Peru.

I haven't visited our South America Forum good enough to know if Peru dominates the forum discussion. OTOH, I do frequent Asia Forum. I would advice OP to look into an old proposal for Korea Forum, which fails to materialize. If I were the OP, I would do my best to learn from the failure and conduct more research to strengthen arguments for creating a Peru Forum on FT.

No doubt there's a lot to see and do in Peru. More importantly, does the current FT traffic justify or validate this request?

I have often wondered why Brazil and Argentina get singled out for their own forums in South America and whatever the criteria for creating those was is also probably good for Perú.

Perú is a positively mainstream tourist destination by anyone's standards in a way that its stablemates in the South America forum are not. Suriname, Paraguay and Bolivia simply don't figure on the radar in the same way.

LIM is already a hub, it is a LAN hub and FT already has a LAN forum.

The stats that Villavic has pulled out for "mentions" of Lima, Cusco, Perú etc. are probably meaningless. FT's search function sucks and it probably means FT needs some IT input rather than Perú shouldn't have its own forum.

Villavic is a great ambassador for Perú and if he wants a forum then why not? My only doubt would be where would someone post the recurring thread "Perú, Chile or Ecuador?"

Well, from the Chileno perspective (not mine, just observations over the years), "They're short, they're ugly, they're taking our jobs" would be a reason to perhaps segregate Peru items in its own forum. But if Peru gets a forum, Chile will need at least 2, and Argentina will probably require at least 5. :o

As you can see in my first posts I avoided the comparision of Peru with other South America countries. I don't want to fall in the "Peru deserves a forum more than..." discussion. I just listed the reasons for a forum according the questions I read in previous posts.

I'm not sure either if this is the place to discuss or evalute the historic wealth and social-political issues of each country. I just think there is a lot of ugly people, short, etc.. in Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, India, US, UK, and the whole planet. Does Peru have something to be ashamed, from past or present? Sure! And Does Argentina and Chile? Of course!! As US does, Cuba, France, China, etc...

Not sure if all chilean people share that chileno perspective you mention. Probably a lot do, but if chilean corporations love to invest in Peru (retail, banking, airlines), I guess there must be something good in this land, beyond the rich gastronomy chileans love to adopt.

WTO: Peru seen as increasingly recognized destination
 

I found this relevant...

The Secretary General of the United Nations World Tourism Organization, Taleb Rifai, described Peru as an increasingly recognized destination in the world. Rifai met with Peru's Vice Minister of Tourism during his visit to the Peruvian stand at the ongoing Internationale Tourismus Börse (ITB) in Berlin, Germany.

This, plus the new I read last week about Wall Street celebrating first annual Peru Day at NYSE, featuring a huge Peru brand logo on the New York Stock Exchange building, enforce my idea that a Peru forum would be beneficial for this website and members interested in traveling to Peru.

http://www.andina.com.pe/Espanol/not...on-403267.aspx

Is it possible to move all country specific South America forums into a South America subforum?

Destination>>The World>>South America>>Peru (or Brazil or Argentina or Chile, etc.)

Country specific information can be within each country and regional information can be held in the broader S.A. forum. This goes the same for other world regions such as Europe.

I hope you understood I was just trying to be funny. However, sadly, the peruano food I've had in Chile (not at top top restaurants, but in moderate places) has been lacking, substantially!

If you like to try foreign food in countries different from the original, try chinese food in Peru! ^;)

And talking about gastronomy, according to the Lima Chamber of Commerce (CCL), restaurants and bars will see $60.5 million during this year’s Easter holidays, thanks to an increase in the number of tourists traveling in Peru.

http://www.peruthisweek.com/news-173...m-restaurants/

To the TB members.. about this proposal, what are the next steps? Do you evaluate this in specific dates? Is there any other step to do? Is there an official answer about it?

Thanks
Villavic

According to the guidelines, this is what to expect: