Mining and Tourism: Urban Transformations in the Intermediate Cities of Cajamarca and Cusco, Peru

In recent decades, the exponential growth of tourism and mining in Cusco and Cajamarca has made these two intermediate cities in the Peruvian Andes important on the global economic scene. Foreign direct investment in these industries has attracted internal and transnational migrants who now dominate the lucrative real estate and labor markets in these cities. Residents have been driven to the peripheries, and there is a sharp contrast between those who have access to the benefits of mining and tourism and those who do not. The article shows that these intermediate cities can no longer escape the spatial segregation, economic exploitation, and inequality that used to be associated almost exclusively with metropolitan centers. These supposedly livable and harmonious urban environments are increasingly jeopardized by the growing imbalance between the livelihoods of local residents and those of transnational elites.