Activities

The president of the Galician Tourism Cluster participated in the promotional act of the Xacobeo 21-22 organised by the Xunta.

The presentation in Portugal of the Xacobeo 21-22 and the Galician tourist offer gathered this Tuesday in Oporto the first vice-president of the Xunta and conselleiro of Presidency, Justice and Tourism, Alfonso Rueda; the director of Tourism of Galicia, Nava Castro, and the president of the Galician Tourism Cluster, Cesáreo Pardal, with a group of authorities and tourist operators of the north of the neighbouring country.

The event, which included the placement of the first milestone of the Way of St James in Portugal, served to strengthen ties and claim the importance of collaboration of representatives of the tourism sector on both sides of the river Minho. This was done by Alfonso Rueda, who pointed out that in the same way that the Xacobeo is being one of the engines of economic recovery for Galicia, it can also be for Portugal. The regional representative recalled that the Jacobean route from Portugal is the second preferred by pilgrims heading to Compostela, surpassed only by the French Way. In the first nine months of 2021 have already been 30,000 pilgrims arrived in Galicia by the Portuguese Way and the Portuguese Way of the Coast, and of the total number of people who have completed the various routes to Galicia so far this year, 5% were of Portuguese nationality.

Rueda invited the hundred Portuguese tour operators present at the event in Oporto to turn the Jacobean routes into a “successful claim for their business”, as did Cesáreo Pardal. “The North of Portugal offers a very similar tourism and, for this reason, Galicia and the North of Portugal must go hand in hand and share strategies before the period of opportunities that lies ahead of us”, defended the president of the Galician Tourism Cluster. Pardal also highlighted the good data that the tourism sector is reaping in many areas of Galicia in recent months and attributed this positive dynamic to the attractiveness of the Galician offer as a safe, quality and uncrowded destination.