Pope Leo XIV’s return to Peru could give the country something far more valuable than a temporary surge in visitors: a new international tourism product built around faith, culture, communities and the places that shaped the first pope with such deep Peruvian roots.
LIMA, Peru— When Pope Leo XIV arrives in Peru in November, the crowds lining the streets will be motivated primarily by faith. For Peru’s tourism industry, however, the economic implications could continue long after the papal motorcade has disappeared.
The emerging opportunity is to transform the places associated with Robert Prevost’s decades of ministry in Peru into a connected pilgrimage network — and, in doing so, create a tourism economy reaching communities that have traditionally received only a fraction of Peru’s international visitors.
The concept being promoted around the “Paths of Pope Leo XIV”links destinations including Chiclayo, Piura, Trujillo and Callao, where Prevost lived, served and developed his pastoral identity before becoming pope.
The important word for the travel industry is not visit . It is route .
A successful route changes tourism economics. Instead of flying into a destination, seeing one attraction and leaving, travelers move between communities. That creates demand for accommodation, restaurants, buses, guides, taxis, handicrafts, museums, cultural experiences and small businesses along the way.
From papal visit to tourism product
Peru already possesses one of the strongest tourism brands in Latin America. The problem is concentration.
Cusco and Machu Picchu dominate international perceptions of the destination. Religious tourism offers Peru an opportunity to distribute visitors differently, particularly toward northern Peru.
The First Specialized Conference on Religious Tourism, organized in August by Peru’s National Chamber of Tourism, CANATUR, and the World Religious Tourism Network, therefore looked beyond the immediate economic impact of Leo XIV’s Nov. 11–17 visit.
The larger question was whether Peru could convert the pope’s extraordinary relationship with the country into a permanent international travel product.
Adrián Lomello, director for the Americas of the World Religious Tourism Network, described Peru’s potential as “limitless,” pointing particularly to the intersection between Catholicism and Andean culture.
That combination matters commercially as well as spiritually.
Modern pilgrimage travel increasingly overlaps with heritage tourism, gastronomy, walking tourism, community tourism and experiential travel. A visitor does not necessarily have to be a practicing Catholic to be interested in colonial churches, religious festivals, sacred landscapes, local traditions and the life story of a pope.
The Camino de Santiago provides a lesson
Spain demonstrates what can happen when pilgrimage becomes a professionally developed destination network.
The Camino de Santiago is simultaneously a religious journey, cultural route and international tourism brand. Galicia reported that more than half a million Compostela certificates were issued to pilgrims in 2025.
Some individual routes are growing particularly quickly. The Portuguese Coastal Way increased from approximately 2,600 pilgrims in 2016 to around 90,000 in 2025, according to Galicia’s tourism authorities. Nearly €5 million was invested in infrastructure and signage along that route in recent years. ( Camino de Santiago )
The economic lesson may be even more relevant for Peru.
Research commissioned by Turismo de Galicia found that although pilgrims represented only 2.3% of tourism expenditure in Galicia, the economic impact of an individual pilgrim was equivalent to that of 2.3 domestic tourists because of differences including length of stay and economic multiplier effects. The research found that each euro of pilgrim spending could generate up to 11% more economic output and 18% more employment. That is precisely the kind of multiplier Peru would like to reproduce.
Mexico demonstrates the power of scale
Mexico provides another Latin American comparison.
The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe has developed into one of the world’s largest centers of pilgrimage. Mexico’s tourism ministry has previously estimated that religious sites across the country receive more than 20 million visits annually and identified Guadalupe as its dominant pilgrimage destination.
The scale remains extraordinary. During the Guadalupe celebrations in December 2025, Mexico City authorities reported that eight million pilgrims had already arrived around the basilica by the evening of Dec. 11.
Such numbers also illustrate a warning for Peru: successful religious tourism requires much more than marketing.
Transportation, crowd management, sanitation, security, accommodation, accessibility, information systems, and coordination among churches, municipalities, and tourism businesses become essential parts of the product.
Peru should not try to build another Machu Picchu
The opportunity is not to manufacture another mass-tourism attraction.
A better model would be a distributed pilgrimage economy.
Chiclayo could become the spiritual anchor because of Leo XIV’s particularly strong association with the city. Piura and Trujillo could add chapters to his Peruvian story, while Callao could connect the pilgrimage network to Lima and to Peru’s principal international gateway.
Smaller communities could then participate through local churches, festivals, food, handicrafts, accommodation and storytelling.
That approach could help Peru address one of tourism’s perennial problems: getting travelers to spend another night and another dollar outside the country’s established tourism centers.
Instead of competing with Machu Picchu, a Leo XIV route could complement it.
An international Catholic traveler might eventually purchase an itinerary combining Lima, Callao, Chiclayo and Trujillo with Cusco and the Sacred Valley. Tour operators could package papal heritage with archaeology, gastronomy and indigenous culture.
Each additional overnight stay increases the visitor’s economic value.
The airline and hospitality opportunity
If the initiative succeeds internationally, its effects would extend throughout the travel ecosystem.
Hotels in northern Peru could see new religious-tour groups and independent pilgrims. Domestic airlines and intercity transportation companies could gain passengers traveling between Lima and northern destinations. Tour operators could develop specialist faith itineraries, while guides could receive training in religious history and the life of Leo XIV.
Restaurants and artisans may be among the largest beneficiaries because pilgrimage expenditure is highly dispersed.
A church cannot capture all the spending generated by a pilgrim — nor should it. Visitors need breakfast, transportation, water, accommodation, souvenirs, and places to visit after religious activities conclude. This is where religion becomes tourism economics.
But pilgrimage cannot become a theme park
Commercialization also presents the initiative’s greatest risk.
Religious tourism works because the destination remains authentic to believers. If sacred places are treated primarily as tourist attractions, Peru could undermine the very authenticity it hopes to market.
The relationship between the Church, government and private tourism industry therefore needs clearly defined boundaries.
Religious authorities should protect the spiritual character of churches and pilgrimage activities. Tourism authorities can develop infrastructure, interpretation, accessibility and international promotion. Private companies can provide accommodation, transportation and experiences.
Local communities must have an economic stake in all three.
The Camino offers another useful lesson here. Galicia has increasingly treated pilgrimage as infrastructure requiring management, monitoring, and sustainability measures rather than simply as a marketing campaign. Authorities have installed sensors across pilgrimage routes to improve measurement of visitor flows.
Peru will similarly need data. How many people travel the Pope Leo route? Where do they stay? How much do they spend? Which communities benefit? How long do visitors remain? Are jobs being created locally?
Without answers, claims about the economic value of religious tourism will remain promotional estimates.
A tourism legacy bigger than the papal visit
Pope Leo XIV will eventually leave Peru. The tourism question is whether the visitors will continue arriving.
If Peru can turn papal history into a credible network of pilgrimage destinations — supported by transportation, accommodation, interpretation, digital booking, trained guides, community businesses and international promotion — November 2026 could be remembered as the beginning rather than the end of the story.
Spain turned roads leading to Santiago into a global travel brand. Mexico built an enormous visitor economy around Guadalupe.
Peru possesses something neither can reproduce: the living history of a pope whose ministry was profoundly shaped by the country.
That does not automatically create a tourism industry. But it gives Peru a story the rest of the world cannot copy.
And in an increasingly competitive global tourism market, that may be its greatest commercial advantage.
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