Tourism and Immigration: The European Contribution to the Invention of Landscape and Hotel Industry in the Atacama Desert During the Nitrate Epoch, 1880–1930

Abstract

This paper deals with the relation between European immigration and tourism industry in Atacama Desert. The period studied ranges from 1880 to 1930, coinciding with the greatest boom of the nitrate industry in Chile until the great nitrate crisis and world depression. Europeans arrived in Antofagasta Region between 1895 and 1920, developing different productive activities related to the nitrate exploitation and business, mainly by British, German, and Yugoslavian immigrants, and to a lesser extent by Spanish and Italians. The lodging industry, from hotels to boarding houses, grew tremendously owing to constant migration flows, both European and Latin American. As recreation sites were discovered on the coast, along with unexplored spaces in the hinterland, the possibility of a tourist landscape emerged and sustained by various European photo studios. The publicity of these recreation places was accompanied by gastronomy data and transportation by sea and earth, through different business guides issued since 1894. This paper is based on documents from regional and national archives and also several secondary sources.