With the agricultural crisis in rural sectors it has become necessary to develop new productive activities. Accordingly, in Curarrehue, in the Region of the Araucania, Chile, rural tourism has appeared as a promising axis of development. This research characterises the profile of tourism entrepreneurs and their perceptions of tourism activity. Using a social constructivist approach, qualitative techniques were applied, e.g semi-structured interviews and SWOT analysis. The results show that participants are predominantly women and seniors with scarce formal education and a positive perception of tourism, which had led them to improve their living conditions, with low levels of partnerships found as a weakness. The main threat is posed by foreign activities related with the global capitalism that result in increased competition for natural and landscape resources.