Consellería de Cultura e Turismo

The forecast is that 2019 will end with a new record, reaching 350,000 pilgrims.

Jose Antonio Vázquez, a pilgrim from Valladolid who made the Xacobean Route for the second time, with half a century of difference between the first and this second Way, has been the pilgrim 300 thousand in a year in which it is foreseeable that the record of arrival of pilgrims will be surpassed again, with a forecast of around 350 thousand at the end of the year, coming from more than 180 nationalities.

The arrival of the 300,000th pilgrim also occurs 14 days earlier than last year, which is also a historical figure. The pilgrimage, José Antonio Vázquez, who travelled the French Way from León 50 years after crossing it for the first time, received in Compostela a special Compostela from the hands of the dean of the Cathedral in an act in which also participated the conselleiro of Culture and Tourism, Román Rodríguez. The latter highlighted the sustainable growth of the Route and said that “it is early to take stock because there is still a quarter, but we are sure that we will exceed the figure of 327,000 last year,” and added that the important thing “is not growth” but the values associated with it and the socio-cultural and economic wealth it generates.

The conselleiro recalled the international and decentralized nature of the Camino de Santiago, which is experiencing an increase in pilgrims on its different routes, a pilgrimage that in addition to being “a source of pride, is a source of wealth at all levels for the 138 municipalities through which they pass and for Galicia as a whole.