Interview with Jorge Hirose (CEO Latventure Peru)

Latventure Peru has been a new member of the Latinconnect Alliance since the beginning of the year. How long has your agency been around and how are you currently positioned?

Latventure Peru has existed since 2005, our first major customer was Papaya Tours from Germany. With the success of our services, customer satisfaction and increasing sales, we decided to become an independent service provider for the Inca Trail in Cusco in 2009. In the same year we also decided that we wanted to specialize completely in the European market as a DMC. After three years full of challenges due to the pandemic, our sales are currently recovering and we estimate that in 2025 we will reach the same sales figures as in 2019.

What is your focus and special know-how?

We are specialists for many hikes in the Cusco region (Inca Trail, Salkantay, Lares, Choquequirao). We are particularly proud to be the only certified provider that independently offers the Inca Trail in German. We are currently offering a new product: the 'Quarry Trek' in the Sacred Valley. Sustainable tourism is important to us and that is why we support various projects and communities with which we work closely. For example, we offer experiences in community-based tourism, such as in the Llachon community on Lake Titicaca. We also support a project that promotes the breeding of llamas in the Sacred Valley and offer hikes with these animals.

Do you offer seat-in based tours and when do you plan to upload your services to the Latinconnect product platform?

We offer seat-in bases tours for Peru, as well as for the combination of the destinations Peru and Ecuador. We are currently working on an Argentina/Bolivia/Peru seat-in tour. We are now also specialists for Bolivia and work with qualified partners on site. In the future, we plan to open our own office in La Paz to further increase our sales in this destination. We are currently preparing to upload all services for Peru to Latinconnect, an exact date has not yet been set.

You exhibited at the Latinconnect joint booth for the first time at this year's ITB. How was your offer received?

The first time at the ITB and with Latinconnect could not have been better for us. We had the opportunity to present our many years of experience and knowledge of our country in the best possible way, thanks to the network and trust that Latinconnect enjoys among its customers. We had many meetings with customers who expressed their satisfaction. Above all, they were happy about the cooperation between Latinconnect and Latventure Peru.

In the autumn, the Latinconnect DMC partners will be visiting Peru for their annual meeting. What route and highlights are you planning? 

First of all, the capital city of Lima allows us to hold our meetings in a comfortable and practical way. After that, we want to travel to two highlights of Peru that are not yet so well known in tourism: the north of the Peruvian jungle with the ruins of Kuelap and the Gocta waterfall near the city of Chachapoyas. After that, we will travel to a classic of the Peruvian south: the deserts and dunes of the Ica region. In this region we will visit the protected reserve of Paracas, some will sail to the Ballestas Islands and others will fly over the Nazca Lines.

For inquiries, please contact jorge.hirose@latventure.com or lima.schweitzer@latventure.com.