Camino de Santiago

Through the “Facer Caminho”project, Galicia and Northern Portugal launch a new joint project with the aim of continuing to promote cooperation projects in tourism within the framework of the Euroregion. In this case, the main objective of’ Fazer Caminho’ is to consolidate the routes of the Pilgrim’s Way to Santiago in the Galicia-Northern Portugal Euroregion and promote its sustainable use as a cross-border cultural and natural heritage resource capable of generating tourist and economic activities that contribute to the socio-economic development of this territory.

“Fazer Caminho” is a project that aspires to the financing of the Spain-Portugal Cross-border Cooperation Programme (POCTEP) and for this reason, Xunta and the Portuguese administration maintained contacts in order to advance in the definition of common objectives since it is intended to promote a candidacy that contributes to protect and valorize the Camino de Santiago as a resource as a sign of identity, which entails the promotion of cooperation in its protection. Within the framework of the Fazer Caminho project, the aim is to improve the conditions for joint management and the influx of the Camino de Santiago, to increase and improve knowledge of the same or to involve the local population more in its conservation.

The inhabitants of the territories through which the xacobeo itineraries of this Euroregion run would be the main beneficiaries of this candidacy, since to deepen in the organization of its activity will result in the improvement of the quality of life and the socioeconomic development.

Tourism initiatives in the Euroregion

This candidacy fits in with the objectives expressed in the Master Plan of the Pilgrim’s Way to Santiago in which the Xunta de Galicia has been working since 2015 with the Xacobeo 2021 in mind. This roadmap has among its strategic lines the protection of all pilgrimage routes and it dedicates 2018 precisely to the Portuguese Way and the Portuguese Way of the Coast.

In parallel to’ Fazer Caminho’, Turismo de Galicia is involved in other projects with the Portuguese country such as the project Gerês-Xurés Dinámico, already approved in the framework of POCTEP. It also collaborates through the Macroregion of Southwest European Regions (RESOE), in which are located, along with Galicia, Asturias, Castilla y León, Cantabria and North and Central Portugal.