Clúster

The pilgrims have come from 172 countries and increasingly by xacobean routes

In December last year the number of 300,000 pilgrims arrived in Galicia for the first time. This year the number has been reached two months earlier, and this week arrived the pilgrim number 300,000 which makes us foresee that 2018 will conclude with a new historical record in the arrival of pilgrims, which may be above 320,000. Arriving from 172 countries – and each time by more xacobean routes – this new milestone shows that Galicia “likes, according to the president of the Xunta, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and makes the Camino de Santiago no longer just a phenomenon exclusive to the holy years.

In this sense, he recalled that the Galician Government is working on its care and promotion through the Master Plan of the Way of St. James, an instrument with an investment of 56 million and eight lines of work. And with a constant planning, criteria and sentidiño (common sense): to improve, to recover and to conserve the natural and cultural patrimony; to continue betting by a responsible and diversified tourism; and to continue putting in value what differentiates us – the excellence from the tranquility and the authenticity.

Throughout his speech, the head of the Xunta referred to the preparation of Xacobeo 21, a challenge for which we have the new Ministry of Culture and Tourism, with the entry of high speed a year before the holy year and the comprehensive rehabilitation of the Cathedral of Santiago. “We are talking about preparing the best Xacobeo in our history,” he said, appealing to the spirit of Xacobeo 93, which placed Compostela on the tourist map and gave it the title of universal city.