Abstract

The article addresses tourism development in three indigenous territories in Chile, characterized not only by their natural and cultural attractions but because indigenous culture is considered a tourism asset. It discusses and compares the role of public policies in the promotion and ‘touristification’ of these territories, and the tensions generated when culture is considered from an objectivized perspective to have tourism value. Mapuche tourism in the Araucanía Region is discussed in depth and compared with tourism in San Pedro de Atacama and Easter Island, where this activity has a longer history and is more developed. In contexts marked by neoliberalism and the weak recognition of indigenous peoples such as Chile, analysis of the role of tourism from a comparative, contextualized perspective of state construction of the value of indigenous culture reveals the contradictions and synergies that the commercialization of culture produces among state agents, indigenous individuals and other actors present in indigenous territories.