It made me think about first-world attitudes to poverty in general. While we have an awful lot of work to do in supporting developing countries, and undoing the injustices of the past, I think we need to try really hard not to impose our own standards from outside. Perhaps the deliberate commercialisation of their culture is the key to economic development, as much as it upsets our romanticised view. The important thing is that they retain a measure of control of the process. To be honest I have no idea what degree of control they do have, the dynamics within the country are crazy complicated, and the forces at work are well beyond my comprehension! Oh gosh, I don’t know. You’re dead on about the big chains, and I’m interested in your points about New Orleans. I’ve never been (although I’ve always wanted to) and never really thought about a place WITHIN the States as the victim of cultural homogenisation.

Thanks again for commenting, Sara. If nobody else chimes in we’ll be forced to settle this between ourselves!

I guess I look at Cusco through the eyes of someone who sees my own hometown (New Orleans) as kind of a tourist disaster, and sees a lot of my culture washed down the drain for the sake of profit.

At least in Cusco a lot of the distressing things put real money into the hands of individuals – in New Orleans it’s usually big chains appropriating our culture. Which the locals don’t benefit from.

It’s a complicated situation, and it will be interesting (and hopefully not dreadfully depressing) to see how the forces of globalisation and tourism play out here. As a mass tourist destination, Peru is quite young (compared with, say, Thailand). I wonder how it will be handled.