Chile attracts record 3.5m tourists in 2012

A record high of 3.5 million tourists visited Chile in 2012, Undersecretary for Tourism Jacqueline Plass said Monday. The number was up 13 percent on 2011, as compared to the 6 percent increase for Latin America as a whole, Plass told a press conference. "In two years, we saw the number of tourists jump from 2.7 million to 3.5 million. The country hasn't shown these growth figures since 2005, when the annual increase was 13.4 percent," Plass said. Argentina was still the biggest source, providing nearly 40 percent of all the visitors, followed by Brazil with an 11-percent share, she said. Asia, as an emerging market, showed a strong increase of 15.2 percent, and Europe witnessed an increase of 4.5 percent, despite the economic crisis, Plass said.