However, although I think you may possibly be confusing me with someone else, I will add some points about the current phenomenon of Ayahuasca tourism.
Tourism itself is very complex in its impact. It can help or harm a community, depending on many things; in the Andes many communities want to increase tourism to increase the markets for their crafts, for example. But when the impact of tourism becomes too great and crafts are produced primarily for tourists, many valuable things can be lost. That is one simple example of the impact of tourism. It is very complex and difficult for an outsider to judge.
As far as Ayahuasca tourism is concerned, there are several important points.
First of all, almost all of the Ayahuasca tourism is, in fact, happening in mestizo and not indigenous communities. Mestizo Ayahuasca practice is not a product of tourism but was already well-established in Peru long before Ayahuasca tourism began. Its origins are similar to those of the Brazilian Ayahuasca churches -- through the contact of rubber tappers with indigenous people in the western Amazon during the Rubber Boom of the early twentieth century. Rubber trees could only grow wild and were scattered around the forest, so rubber tappers basically worked alone, and if they had any health problems, they had no one to turn to but the Indians. Some of these rubber tappers apprenticed to indigenous curanderos, and as the mestizo population grew and developed into towns, the mestizo curanderos were the only health practitioners available to them. Over several generations, a distinct mestizo Ayahuasca healing tradition grew up, and it became an urban practice.
Ayahuasca is considered a healing practice, not a religious practice, by these mestizo curanderos. It is treated as a business, they regard themselves as professionals. like doctors. They are used to treating strangers.
However, the foreigners who come have so much more money than local Peruvians that that has had an increasing impact. It is creating more and more competition among curanderos for money, more focus upon the foreigners who can pay more than the locals who can pay little, and much more charlatanism. The Ayahuasca retreats being built in the jungle are being built by curanderos who formerly served their own people in the cities of Iquitos and Pucallpa. Personally, the commercialization of Ayahuasca creates strong feelings in me.... but Ayahuasca tourism did not create that commercialization. It only folded into it. Urban Ayahuasca curanderismo was already a commercial business decades ago.
I have my feelings about it, but it is not for me to judge. Especially since I discovered that even among the indigenous groups untouched by tourism (like the people among whom I lived) it was normal, traditional practice to charge money for ceremonies. That was hard for me to get used to, and there were many other things like that that were hard for me to get used to. But it is their culture, and not for me to judge.
But back to the subject of Ayahuasca tourism, among the 100+ indigenous cultures that use Ayahuasca in the Amazon, only one -- the Shipibo -- has embraced Ayahuasca tourism and has actively become involved in it. I don't feel that as an outsider I can judge them for that. I don't know all the effects that this has on their culture, but I have been told that it has caused a revival of interest in Ayahuasca, where it had been being lost due to the missionaries. Another effect that tourism has had is to bring female curanderas to the forefront. There have been so many incidences of sexual molestation of female tourists by male curanderos that female Ayahuasca tourists are now increasingly going to the Shipibos because of their female curanderas, and this has greatly elevated the position of the women. Again, as an outsider, I cannot judge the Shipibos or what is happening to them as a result of this situation.
One other point -- in a certain way, the word "tourism" has misleading connotations. "Tourists" usually seek pleasant and diverting experiences. Ayahuasca is not pleasant. In fact, it can be an ordeal. It can be the worst ordeal of your life. That is why Ayahuasca will never be a recreational drug. The "tourists" who go are going to seek healing. Ayahuasca is a powerful healing spirit. It is a being.
Although there was no Ayahuasca tourism where I lived, I was very surprised at how open the Indians were to sharing Ayahuasca with total strangers. But after I knew Ayahuasca better I understood. She doesn't need to be protected, she is very capable of protecting herself. If someone comes to Ayahuasca with the wrong intent, she can take care of them herself. But she wants to help people, if they come to her for help. (Once upon a time I would have been reticent about talking about spirits in such an open way, but I got very used to openly discussing the Ayahuasca spirit when living with the indigenous people there.)
Among the 100+ indigenous groups
