CaixaBank

With the aim of continuing to provide resources to the sector and the territory for the next Xacobeo2021, the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Román Rodríguez, and the territorial director of CaixaBank in Galicia, Emilio Barreiro, have signed an agreement whose objective is to help promote, renovate and modernize tourist and hotel establishments linked to the Camino de Santiago.

CaixaBank, through Hotel&Tourism, its line of business specialised in the tourism sector, will make 1000 million euros available to tourism companies that form part of all the routes on the Camino in order to contribute to the improvement of its commercial activity.

CaixaBank’s contribution will be distributed in two lines: the first, endowed with 950 million euros, will be aimed at financing the modernisation needs of the hotel plant, in a sector marked by the permanent demand for renewal and commitment to quality. The second will be aimed at entrepreneurship to which 50 million euros will be allocated through microcredits to encourage entrepreneurship in those towns through which the Camino runs, through the creation of new companies that meet the demand of the pilgrimage route.

Both financing lines, which are made available to all the Galician towns through which the Roads of Santiago pass, are expandable if the requests for credit exceed the initial amount.

The Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Xunta thanked the CaixaBank for the great willingness shown from the beginning for this agreement and recalled that the next Holy Year “is a dynamic element of our economy and a great opportunity to value our tourist and cultural potential”, without forgetting the “day after”, so that the Xacobeo is a revulsive that serves to leave a Galicia more prepared and a better quality offer.

For his part, Emilio Barreiro, territorial director of CaixaBank, stressed that the entity wants to accompany the Galician tourism sector so that it can face “in the best possible conditions” the challenge posed by the Xacobeo 2021. “Galicia has high level tourism companies”, he commented, “but an event of this magnitude, which will position us in the centre of national and international attention, will demand its best version”.