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Last month around 4,000 tourists were stranded for up to five days in a town beneath the ruins, after flash floods and mud slides damaged the railway. Since then thousands of foreign tourists have cancelled their holidays to Peru. Apart from making a four-day trek along the Inca trail, a privately-owned railway line was the only the route to or from the site.
Now domestic tourists are being offered half-price flights and hotel rooms to visit Cusco, the city nearest the world-famous Inca site. They won't be able to visit Machu Picchu but will have access to a host of other archaeological sites of Inca origin. The Peruvian government is considering making a similar offer to international visitors as the Cusco region accounts for some 90% of its tourism revenue.
Peru's tourism minister, Martin Perez, predicted Machu Picchu, which survived the rains unscathed, will be reopened at the beginning of April.
Dan Collyns, BBC News, Limainaccessibility - very difficult or impossible to travel to or to reach
Inca - the ancient civilisation and tribe from the Andean mountain region of South America
stranded - unable to leave a place because of a problem such as not having any transport or money or here, because of very bad weather
flash floods - sudden and severe flooding (caused by water filling or covering an area in a way that causes problems)
a host of - a lot of
archaeological sites - places that are important or significant because we can study them and learn about people, places and cultures of the past
accounts for some - is responsible for almost
revenue - income or money that an organisation (here the Peruvian government) receives regularly
predicted - said that an event (the reopening again of Machu Picchu) will happen in the future
unscathed - was not affected or damaged
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