In conversations on this subject with me people have guessed between 10% and 30%. I read on the internet one of the most well known shamanism destinations quoted as serving 600 tourists in two years. Although there are many shamans, the vast majority never see a tourist, so my gut instinct is that 30% is too high, but your guess is as good as mine until there are better statistics, which there can’t be. Some people have criticized the data in this article about tourism in general as too high. I only culled the information that seemed most interesting to me. I could have posted hotel occupancy per month, lodge occupancy per month, how many tourists from North Korea, the sharp decline in the number of tourists from Venezuela from 2005 to 2006, the number of Peruvian tourists to Iquitos, which cities they came from, and lots more. I look forward to seeing the 2007 figures to see if there is a trend. I suspect there were fewer tourists in 2007. For several months planes were only scheduled to Iquitos very early in the morning or after dark, and fewer flights because of buzzards on the runway. That problem has been solved but I am sure it cost Iquitos thousands of tourist in 2007.

Bill Grimes