This article investigates the work the municipalities of Chile in tourism promotion. The few studies that have approached tourism from a historical perspective have privileged the role of State in its development. It is suggested that the municipalities had legal tools to deal with tourism, although the lack of autonomy and scarcity of resources made it more difficult to form a bureaucracy at the local level. The case study that is presented is the Tourism and Information Office of the Municipality of Villa del Mar created in 1928, which allows us to understand the relationships between the State authorities and those of the local power. The sources include the archives of the Ministry of the Promotion and the Municipality of Villa del Mar, ministerial budgets, as well as the parliamentary sessions and the press.