Santiago - Chile is introducing new rules to expel foreign tourists if they break rules intended to protect the country's national parks, following a devastating fire at the famous Torres del Paine, the government announced on Tuesday.
An Israeli tourist was fined last year and ordered to repair the damage caused by a fire he lit in December 2011 that flared out of control, burning more than 20 000 hectares of native forest in and around Torres del Paine. The area of glacial lakes and soaring granite peaks is a magnet for trekkers and one of Chile's top tourist attractions.
“If foreigners visit the national parks, and they don't comply with norms, we will not only expel them from the park, but we will take away their visa, and furthermore they will have just a few hours to leave the country,” Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo said on Tuesday.
Since 2012, 21 tourists, mostly foreigners and over half of them from Israel, have been expelled from the park for lighting fires or camping stoves in restricted areas, according to Chile's national parks authority, known as CONAF.
Chile received around 3.6 million foreign visitors in 2014. About 110,000 of them visited Torres del Paine, according to figures from CONAF.
Reuters