A historic year for tourism in Chile
More than 5 million foreign tourists visited Chile in 2024, tourism authorities reported this morning at the Le Méridien Santiago hotel, as part of the presentation of the balance of figures of the Undersecretary of Tourism and Sernatur. The figure represents an increase of +40.4% over the same period of 2023 and marks the best number since the pandemic, thus confirming 2024 as the year of the tourist reactivation of our country.
The Undersecretary of Tourism, Verónica Pardo, stated that "we are very pleased to announce that 2024 marked the definitive recovery of tourism in Chile, with 5,239,233 tourists visiting Chile, 40.4% more than in 2023 and 16.0% more than in 2019. December, with more than 647,000 arrivals and an increase of 47.3%, was the best month of the year, driving an upward adjustment in projections for the summer season. These figures reflect the joint efforts of the public and private sectors to position Chile as an attractive, sustainable, and safe destination worldwide."
With 647,743 international arrivals, the last month of the year exceeded the sector's expectations, so, incorporating these positive results, the projection of foreign tourist arrivals for the 2025 high season that was made in December was also adjusted upwards. From 2,100,292, 2,225,773 arrivals are now projected, marking a variation of +22.5% with respect to the 2024 summer season.
Most visited countries in Chile
The first place within international arrivals was taken by Argentina, which, with 2,088,389 tourist arrivals to Chile, recorded an increase of +73.2% over 2023 (1,205,662) and +45.5% more than in 2019. However, the novelty was marked by Brazil, which recorded 787,036 arrivals and a growth rate of +62.0% over the previous year, its best historical performance in the period 2013-2024. In this regard, the order of nationalities and prioritized markets highlighted Argentina with 39.9%, Brazil with 15.0% and the United States with 4.8%.
For his part, the national director (s) of Sernatur, Santiago Fernández, said that "this increase is consistent with our International Tourism Promotion Plan 2023-2027 and the strategy to recover pre-pandemic levels with emphasis on key markets for our sector such as Argentina and Brazil. This has had a very positive impact on regional destinations, especially where there are international passes that are widely used by Argentine tourists, as is the case in the macro-areas of Los Lagos, Volcanes and Patagonia, where Araucanía stands out with the Pino Hachado and Mamuil Malal passes; Los Lagos with the Cardenal Antonio Samoré international pass; and Magallanes with the Dorotea international pass, for example".
The authorities also highlighted the performance of markets relevant to tourism. international tourism that showed growth rates in 2024 that exceeded the figures for 2023, such as: the United States (+6.5%); Colombia (+11.8%); Uruguay (+80.6%); and Mexico (+20.1%). Likewise, tourist arrivals from the Chinese market (+71.7%), Australia (+34.8%) and, in general, from Europe, which, as a whole, with 440,380 foreign tourists in Chile, showed an increase of +15.2%, recovered.
In addition to celebrating the good figures for foreign tourist arrivals in 2024 and the domestic tourism projections for the 2025 high season, which indicate that there will be between 25 and 30 million total trips with overnight stays by Chilean men and women moving within the country, in alliance with Sernac, recommendations were given to encourage responsible and safe tourism.
The national director (s) of Senatur, Santiago Fernandez, said that "Our main recommendation is that visitors use services that are in our National Registry of Tourism Service Providers, Tourism Services, where they will find the formal tourism offer throughout Chile. In this directory there are more than 37,000 tourism services of all kinds, including lodging, transportation, adventure tourism and more, to enjoy the different alternatives offered by our country".
Foreign tourists can plan their vacations by reviewing the offer available on the Chile es Tuyo website, where they can find unmissable and very diverse destinations, as well as different tourist experiences to enjoy this summer.
Check the original article on Sernatur's website.
