2024-07-19 10:56:09
A term has been coined to describe the pilgrims on El Camino de Santiago who are like the pilgrims who regularly stop at the holiday spots of Spain: turgrina (tourist + tourist), a combination of tourists and tourists that has been translated as ‘tourists’.
In fact, the unofficial word has been around for nearly ten years, but the number of ‘tourists’ is getting higher every year.
On July 15th, the regional president of Galicia Alfonso Rueda celebrated the record number of pilgrims Santiago de Compostela received in the first half of 2024.
Advertising
Around 235,000 people have completed the last 100 journeys with which they qualify to receive the Compostela (the religious document that certifies that you have reached the tomb of the apostle, in other words that you have completed the Camino) . An estimated 30 percent more unregistered also filled the city at that time.
The right-wing leader of the PP boasted about the figures without any mention of the impact of such an attack on the pilgrims on the city of 96,405 inhabitants, a growing concern for them.
There is an emotional uproar as a result of the pilgrimage loud music and the use of loudspeakers as they arrived in Santiago, concerns about us there more pilgrims than hostel beds during the summer months (leading in some cases to the pilgrims sleeping rough on the street), the garbage is everywhere and the Obradoiro Square where the Cathedral of Saint James is used as a great picnic and drinking place.
Injury has also been reported, such as the case of a ‘tourist’ who arrived in Santiago with one Camino road sign you want to steal on your shoulder.
A pilgrim arrives in Santiago carrying a sign showing the Camino in what seems to be the umpteenth misdemeanor in a month pic.twitter.com/4mvyiCusH3
– Voice of Santiago (@vozdesantiago) July 21, 2023
In fact, in 2023 the authorities of Santiago launched a campaign to raise awareness among tourists under the motto “you have the right to enjoy it and the obligation to preserve it”.
For some years now sense that St. James (as Santiago’s road is called in English) is no longer a religious journey but rather a journey of self-discovery or adventure.
READ ALSO: Is El Camino in Spain worth it in winter?
However, now more than ever are behaving like tourists in a holiday resort, traveling in large groups rather than single, powerful hostels with sheer numbers and spending money which decreases overall.
“I think this is a disrespect for what the Jacobean path stands for, which should not be confused with a goal, it is a place of reflection and even a travel discipline,” Antonio Pérez Morata, manager of the O Apalpador hostel Melide. , told the local daily La Voz de Galicia.
Laura Cesarini, who organizes Camino tours for Italians, told the newspaper: “We call them ‘pilgrims’. There are many of these people who do the Camino de Santiago without knowing what is stopping and those who are destructive during the stages, people who just walk as if it is a celebration, not as a way to enjoy nature”.
Advertising
The argument in favor of a tourist tax in the north-western city is based on the fact that the The pressure of tourism is high than Barcelona, Granada or Palma.
Therefore, the Xunta government of Galicia has denied that Santiago has a problem with mass tourism and attacked the 2.5 tourist tax proposal of the Santiago City Hall.
The Rueda government is also against the recent decision of the Santiago authorities to force hundreds of tourist apartments to close.
READ MORE: ‘We will not look for tenants’ – Holiday let it be in Santiago that Spain was forced to close
Bearing in mind the number of Spanish cities and holiday resorts that have in recent months protested against the impact of tourism on their lives, it may not be long before the communities have Santiago de Compostela raised their voices against the unbelieving pilgrims in their city.
#rise #tourists #ruining #spirit #Camino #Spain