Cuscoruns on a handful of strong industries. If you’re job-hunting or weighing a move, here’s where the opportunities (and the big-name employers) are.
Top industries & employers
Tourism & tour operations
Inca Rail, PeruRail, Belmond, Explorandes, Llama Path, Alpaca Expeditions
Cusco is the gateway to Machu Picchu and the entire Andean circuit, and tourism is not one sector among several here — it is effectively the economy. Employment, rents and the mood of the city all follow the high and low seasons.
Hospitality & food
Belmond Monasterio, JW Marriott El Convento, Cicciolina, Chicha, MAP Café
A dense and unusually sophisticated restaurant and hotel scene for a city this size, built on international visitor volume and increasingly on Andean produce — native potatoes, quinoa varieties, alpaca and river trout.
Textiles & artisan production
Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco, Kuna, Sol Alpaca, community weaving cooperatives
Alpaca and vicuña textile production is a genuine export industry with a real craft base in the surrounding communities, and the Centro de Textiles has done serious work documenting and reviving pre-Hispanic techniques.
Archaeology, heritage & conservation
Ministerio de Cultura Cusco, Dirección Desconcentrada de Cultura, university research programmes
The density of Inca and colonial sites supports a permanent professional community of archaeologists, conservators and heritage administrators, and Cusco's Dirección Desconcentrada de Cultura is one of the largest outside Lima.
Education & language schools
Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco, Amauta, Fair Play, Wiracocha
One of the oldest universities in the Americas, plus a substantial Spanish and Quechua language-school sector serving the long-stay visitor population and employing a rotating international teaching staff.
Agriculture & the Sacred Valley
Sacred Valley producers, Wayra, community cooperatives, craft brewers and cheesemakers
The valley floor around Urubamba and Calca is intensively farmed and has developed a serious small-producer economy — dairy, brewing, organic vegetables — supplying Cusco's restaurants and increasingly Lima's.
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