With the eyeballs of millions around the world glued to televisions and computer screens showing the incredible rescue of 33 trapped miners, Chile is hoping those eyeballs will translate into tourists carrying wallets.
"I will take a trip to London, Paris and Madrid and I am sure Chile is now a country that is more respected than before," President Sebastian Piñera said last week prior to a planned trip to Europe.
Steps have already been taken to maximize the tourism potential of the miner's rescue. The Phoenix capsule, which each miner rode to the surface, has been put on display in the nation's capital, Santiago.
There are also plans in the works to turn Camp Hope -- where the miners' family and friends stood vigil during the 69 days spent underground -- into some kind of memorial or tourist attraction.
However, travel experts aren't sure foreign tourists are going to flock to the site of the near-mining disaster.
"If you look at it, it's not like (the mine) was a particularly attractive area of Chile, and I don't think people from over the world are going to fly there (to see the mine,)" CTV's Canada AM travel expert Loren Christie said in an interview.
"It was great good news story but I don't think it showcased a lot of Chile as a destination, other than (the spirit of) Chile the people.
Travel agencies say that while Chile remains a popular destination, they haven't seen a notable up-tick yet in tourism inquires.
"Overall, we have seen no real increase or decrease in travel to Chile due to recent events. Chile remains a popular travel destination. We book a lot of southern Chile, whose high season is coming up (December – March)," Jennifer Patterson, manager of Adventure Travel Company in Toronto, said in an email.
According to Google Trends, search terms such as "Chile travel" and "Chile vacation" spiked in late September and early October. However, the level of interest for those search terms was actually slightly below what is was in February, after the country was rocked by a massive earthquake.
But Christie notes that any publicity is generally good publicity when it comes to travel.
According to web statistics done by the Akamai's Net Usage Index for News, the Chilean rescue was the fifth-most read story of the last five years.
Christie says Chile should not have too difficult a job in selling itself to anyone whose interest was sparked by the constant coverage.
"It's a long and slender country, so it has everything from jungles to mountains to desert," Christie said. "As a tourism destination, it's an interesting place to go.
"Chile is on the tourism map as it stands anyway, but will people be running to the mine in the desert? I don't know."
