Chile targets Chinese, German tourists

The National Tourism Service of Chile and the Tourist Promotion Corp. are now in for Chinese and German travelers.

Oscar Santelices, chief of Chile’s Tourism Institute, explained that only a thousand German and Chinese trippers combined are coming to the South American nation every year. “Now the goal,” he says, “is to double that amount in just five years.” In Mr. Santelice’s opinion, these tourists are big spenders just like Americans and other Europeans are.

In order to grab a bigger number of German trekkers, Chilean authorities have forked over $531,000 in a promotional blitz aimed at the European country.

Last September, the number of foreign tourists that visited Chile was up 11 percent compared to the same month in 2002. This time around, as many as 1,116,110 sunbathers have come to Chile, a figure that was included in some preliminary estimates made earlier this year that put growth in double digits.