**1. Introduction**

During the 1860s, the Chilean citizen, José Santos Ossa, discovered sodium nitrate in Atacama Desert. The discovery of this mineral, and later Caracoles silver mine in 1870, made a big change in the desert territory. The first effect was the consolidation of Antofagasta city, whose settlement began in 1866, its official foundation being in 1868. After a few years, its basic institutions had already being established the City Hall and the fire station. After the Pacific War (1879–1883), Chilean dominion over the territory coincided with political and economic liberalism, along with the world directions that gave rise to the so-called "first globalization," which historiography dates from 1880 to 1914, when three relevant factors came together: the increase of foreign trade, capital flow, and mass migration [1].

The first globalization was basically related to four factors of regional tourism, which are interesting to highlight. The first factor was the strong European presence in the region. The social capital was British. Germans established the main stores internationally connected and the most relevant investments in the nitrate industry. This strengthened Antofagasta as a cosmopolitan city combining elements converging in the globalization aforementioned and, at the same time, as the counterpart of an important population segment and labor market more peripheral to the positive effects of globalization. The second factor was the change of the natural space of its hinterland in a few decades. A natural, unhospitable, and unknown space gave rise to a cultural space in the intermediate depression where *the nitrate mines* and their mining camps settled, followed by *Chuquicamata*, the main copper mine in Chile and the continent, with a demographic relevance of about 100,000 inhabitants and a wide connectivity of roads, public and private railways both local and international, several paved roads, and paths. Air connection was established at the end of the nitrate cycle. The nitrate ports of Antofagasta, Tocopilla, and Taltal were essential for communication. They were connected to the nitrate cantons, that is, groups of the nitrate mines located in a certain geographic space. They were also located in Coloso and Mejillones. These places had a sudden change in port infrastructure—more piers, boats, and seamen—and also more shipping tons, steamships from different countries, and sailing boats that were used for cargo and passengers.

The third factor was the establishment of small hotels since the 1870s, involving greater complexity of services such as gastronomy, along with new restaurants and cafes to serve a floating population traveling to Bolivia or the nitrate and copper industry, with the specific need to learn about the landscape of the world's driest desert and the purpose of providing it with the world's most advanced railroad technology and metallurgical processes from the European industrial world.

The fourth factor was the presence of business communication elements. Since its beginning, Antofagasta counted on European and local photo studios which, together with those in Valparaíso, the administrative city for the main nitrate companies offered postcards of all the territory, posters, and pictures of famous characters at that time. Later, business guides were published on a local and regional basis. They included text and pictures related to hotels, restaurants, transportation, parity, money exchange based on sterling pounds, unknown places, others clearly identified owing to progress, and remote inaccessible places. These guides contained information to influence the aesthetic and emotional sensitivity of tourists, travelers, or foreigners.
