Camino de Santiago

The project will be implemented in the Portuguese Way and the Sea Route of Arousa and Ulla, while reinforcing the wine routes

Within the route map drawn up by the Xunta de Galicia for the preparation of the Xacobeo 2021, the Xunta has authorized the signing of an agreement with the Institute for Spanish Tourist Quality (ICTE) in the framework of which both institutions will work together in a “pioneering” project that identifies elements of the Camino de Santiago that need to be improved to obtain the certificate ‘Q’ of quality.

The agreement, which will be materialized through an agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the ICTE, will involve the investment of 250 thousand euros in two years, 2019 and 2020 with the aim of continuing to bet on quality both in the route xacobeo as in the wine routes of the Galician Community. “We are interested in improving the quality of the Way and also of the enogastronomic routes”, announced the president of the Xunta, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who has specified that the ICTE will be responsible for designing quality standards for organizations and tourism managers of the routes Jacobean and wine –including wineries–. Galicia, betting on pola calidade’ will focus on achieving the ‘Q’ certification in different tourist sectors and, in the case of singular public spaces, will work in places such as squares, gardens, monuments of special interest or commemorative, among others.

Specifically, the project will be implemented in the Portuguese Way and in the Route of the Sea of Arousa and Ulla River, while in the wine sector will be done in the Ribeira Sacra and Rías Baixas.

Agreement to strengthen wine tourism
On the other hand, the Galician Government has authorised the signing of an agreement between the Galician Agency for Rural Development (Agader) and the Galician Agency for Food Quality (Agacal) with the Galician Tourism Agency, the Galician Institute for Economic Promotion (Igape) and the Juana de Vega Foundation for a total amount of almost 700,000 euros to strengthen the international, tourist and territorial dimension of wine. The aim of the agreement is to design a strategy for joint economic, territorial and tourist dynamisation in five designations of origin in Galicia –Rías Baixas, Ribeiro, Valdeorras, Ribeira Sacra and Monterrei– and the four protected geographical indications -Val do Miño, Betanzos, Barbanza and Iria, Ribeira do Morrazo.