**6. Conclusions**

European immigration in the city of Antofagasta and Atacama Desert meant that various elements fostering non-chimney industry got together during the nitrate cycle, 1880–1930. There were hotels, gastronomical venues, photo businesses, and studios, and also commercial guides and hundreds of postcards of the city. In addition, there was unique connectivity with the most relevant European ports due to the nitrate production for the Old World agriculture. This resulted in a significant flow of Europeans, considering that Chile was not a destination for European immigration. However, the crisis of the nitrate economy introduced a key of instability in economic activities, mainly services, affecting the hotel circuit and gastronomical venues. In addition, easy accessibility to certain geographic areas with tourist potential, such as the Andes, its hot springs, colonial towns, oases, material culture, was not possible at that time. The means, such as pictures, postcards, and irregular local guides used, did not help to establish clear tourist images of the good things for tourists. European immigrants made efforts to establish the attractive conditions of the Atacama Desert to meet the expectations of Europeans who had the same hopes as them to settle in Antofagasta, that is, a landscape that was daily built in a struggle with nature and also subjected to international market swings, concerning the main resource supporting its presence and life in the desert: nitrate.
