Chile’s Altiplano Region Seeks Sustainable Tourism
Chile’s Altiplano Region Seeks Sustainable Tourism
By Marianela Jarroud
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The Andes highlands town of San Pedro de Atacama, in the northern region of Antofagasta, is the main tourist destination
in Chile. It receives more than one and a half million tourists a year, while the local residents are struggling to turn it into
a sustainable municipality. Credit: Marianela Jarroud/IPS
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SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA, Chile , Sep 22 2015 (IPS) - Chile’s altiplano or high plateau region, pounded by the sun of the Atacama desert, the driest place in the world, is home to dozens of indigenous communities struggling for subsistence by means of sustainable tourism initiatives that are not always that far removed from out-of-control capitalism.
“Here, money talks,” Víctor Arque, a tourist guide in San Pedro de Atacama, told Tierramérica. “If you don’t have money, no one’s interested in you.”
San Pedro de Atacama, the capital of tourism, archaeology and astronomy in northern Chile, is home to 4,800 people, 61 percent of whom belong to the Atacameño indigenous group, who refer to themselves as Lickantay in their Kunza tongue.
But during tourist season, hundreds of thousands of visitors come through the town, especially people from other countries drawn by the mysteries of the desert, its volcanoes and geysers.
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Dawn at the El Tatio geyser field in the northern Chilean region of Antofagasta, visited by some 100,000 tourists a year.
The geyser field is administered by two indigenous communities that were granted a concession for 30 years.
Credit: Marianela Jarroud/IPS
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More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/09/chiles-altiplano-region-seeks-sustainable-tourism/