t is for tourist.

When you travel it is really easy to get sucked into things that target tourists. Particularly shopping. The people are masters at manipulating tourists and trying to squeeze more money out of us. This is extremely noticeable at places like Machu Picchu and the Cristo Redentor.

At the Christ the Redeemer statue there were shops and small eateries that tourists could stop at. I noticed that the shops and food items were very overpriced, which was to be expected. Fortunately, I knew that the items they were trying to sell sold for a quarter of that price at the market near the beach. The problem is that there are tourists that will actually pay those prices just because it’s “authentic.”

When it comes to the bathroom and food, they have a huge advantage because tourists are lazy. We will pay for the convenience of a drink at the top of a mountain because it’s hot and we don’t want to wait until we get to the bottom of the mountain.

At Machu Picchu they try and get as much money as possible and because they’re on top of a mountain, they can. They even go to the extreme of charging money for the bathroom. At the beach, vendors will come around and try and sell you overpriced goods and take advantage of your supposed naiveté.

I think that it is a very interesting marketing aspect that they charge more in tourist areas. This even occurred in the more touristy areas of the different cities.