Peru's most famous archeological site, the ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu, hopes to draw about 1 million tourists next year thanks to a government promotional campaign abroad, the National Tourism Chamber (Canatur) said Thursday.

Canatur President Carlos Canales credited "a dynamic promotional campaign targeting emerging niche markets," saying those were "where tourism is being consolidated."

Tourists from "Brazil and Uruguay are growing at levels higher than 40 percent," said Canales, adding that the number of foreign travelers to the archeological site has surpassed 630,000 visitors in recent years.

Peru's tourism boom has sparked hotel chains to invest more than 1 billion U.S. dollars over the next five years in expansions. Currently, hotel projects worth 500 million dollars are under development that will expand Peru's hotel capacity, according to Canatur.

Despite those efforts, Canales said the 89,000 beds expected to be available by 2013 are still fewer than the projected demands.

Hoteliers say the main problems preventing the growth of the tourism sector include too much bureaucracy and the lack of impetus designed to attract more investments. Endi

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