Analysis of territorial development and management practices along the way of St James in Galicia (Spain).

Abstract

This chapter presents an empirical analysis of the territorial, economic and social impacts of management tools adopted for the tourist development of the Way of St James pilgrimage route. The benefits and inconveniences of such practices are evaluated, highlighting the best practice of the Way, and reflections are shared upon improvements for future management practices.

A Guest at Home: The Experience of Chinese Pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago

“…The main routes and sections of the Camino were later included on the UNESCO World Heritage List of Sites [28]. With nearly three decades of rapid growth, the Camino has developed significantly and its success has resulted in an imitation of its model in other parts of the world, such as Via Francigena in Italy, and Kumano Kudo in Japan [29,30]. China is rich in cultural route heritage [31,32].…”

Filmic Gendered Discourses in Rural Contexts: The Case of the Camino de Santiago (Spain)

“…These routes would bring thousands of people from all over Europe; that is why the Camino played an important role in the construction of Western European culture during the Middle Ages; as Goethe once stated, "Europe was made on the pilgrim road to Santiago de Compostela". A major pilgrimage movement emerged, reaching its heyday in the 12th and 13th centuries [12]. After many years of intense pilgrimage movements, in the 15th century, the number of pilgrims walking the routes to Santiago de Compostela started to decrease, and the pilgrimage to St. James entered into a continuous decline, which lasted until the 19th century [13].…”

“…This Plan Xacobeo 93 led to the take-off of the tradition of pilgrimages to Santiago, assumed as the most well-known brand in Galicia and easy to sell on the European and world markets. Since that year, the Holy Years have turned Santiago and the Camino into two of Spain's most popular tourist destinations [12,19]. As a consequence, the growth in the number of pilgrims arriving to Santiago has been continuous, from 99,436 in 1993 to 347,578 in 2019 [21].…”

“…This is due to the fact that the city of Santiago and the Camino have turned into a polysemic space in reference to the plurality of meanings, functions, and motivations that nourish these spaces [17,21,22]. Motivation is one of the fundamental elements of the Jacobean pilgrimage [12]. Nowadays, the most common spiritual motivation is embodied in items such as "health", "religious motivation" or "pilgrimage", so the Camino is a sort of therapeutic route [23], as the movies will show.…”