"Papamania" has shaken Peru's tourism industry — pilgrims are filling hotels and buying souvenirs
Kyiv • UNN
During Pope Leo's six-day visit to Peru, 850,000 local and 50,000 foreign visitors are expected. Papal tourism has already brought the country $125 million.
Hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops in Peru are preparing for an influx of visitors ahead of Pope Leo’s arrival in the country on Wednesday, which he once called home, reports UNN, citing Reuters.
Details
Around 850,000 local residents are expected to come to see the Pope during his six-day visit to Peru. The trip includes visits to Lima, Cusco, Pucallpa and Chiclayo — the city where Leo once served as a bishop. According to Peru’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Rogers Valencia, 50,000 foreign guests are also expected to arrive; he added that all flights are fully booked and the tourism infrastructure is ready to receive visitors.
Before becoming head of the Catholic Church, US-born Robert Prevost spent many years in Peru as a missionary. His election as Pope gave a significant boost to Peru, where religious tourism is less developed than in other countries in the region — such as Mexico, which, according to the World Religious Tourism Network, attracts around 20 million such tourists annually.
The tourist route promoted at the government level under the name "In the Footsteps of Pope Leo XIV," encompassing places — including remote villages — where Leo carried out pastoral work on Peru’s northern coast, has already attracted more than one million visitors since his election as Pope in May 2025. According to the state agency PromPerú, the route generated 450 million soles ($125 million) in revenue during its first year.
In Lima’s Gamarra commercial district, clothing manufacturer Victoria Quiñones expects her workload to triple in October and November as demand for T-shirts and papal-themed souvenirs surges.
"This will be the most successful campaign of the year," Quiñones said. She added that she is already running out of fabric for the products, including clothing featuring prints of Leo sampling famous Peruvian dishes.
At Peru’s largest women’s prison, inmates are making velvet dolls depicting the Pope for sale, while bakers in Chiclayo are baking bread in the shape of the Pope. In addition, a huge statue of Leo was installed in the port city of Callao. More than two million people are expected to attend Masses in Lima and Chiclayo during Leo’s visit — part of a tour that also included Uruguay and Argentina, where record crowds gathered.