Managing Machu Picchu: institutional settings, business model and master plans

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze elements of continuity and change in the administrative history of the Historical Sanctuary of Machu Picchu (HSM) over the last decade.Design/methodology/approachBased on a field study and of both qualitative and quantitative data, the paper reconstructs changes in accounting and planning processes and discourses.FindingsAt the macro level, in the recent past Peru has gone through a process of modernization of the State, moving to more transparent and accountable forms of public management that deeply restructured the public sector. In parallel, the international community (particularly, UNESCO) has urged the adoption of a comprehensive strategic management plan for the HSM. Common to these pressures for change is a logic of efficiency, of rationalization and control of public expenditures and of more effective public services. At the micro level, these two pressures for change are shaping both the transformation of the accounting representation system and the managerial and planning practices in Machu Picchu.Originality/valueThe paper focuses on a description of the institutional settings in order to make sense of the multiple rationalities involved; second, a reconstruction of the underlying “business model” of the main entity involved in the administration of Machu Picchu (in terms of internal structure and scope, visitor performance, financial performances, human resources); and third, a focus on the progressive introduction of master planning as a practice.