MADRID — It’s one of the world’s most famous pilgrimages, but long-suffering residents along the Camino de Santiago describe its impact on where they live in ungodly terms.
Every year, thousands of tourists follow the French or Portuguese trails to Santiago de Compostela, where the remains of the apostle St. James are said to be buried in the city’s cathedral.
In 2023, more than 442,000 people made the pilgrimage along the yellow shell sign that is the symbol of St. James.
Yet when walkers from the UK and other countries arrive in Santiago de Compostela, residents say the small city is often swarmed with tourists.
Adrian McManus, a Briton who has lived in the Galician region for 33 years and runs a wine tourism company, told reporters I: “What’s happened recently is an increase in vandalism and camping in the streets.
“Some people climbed up the cathedral and entered the fountain. Local dissatisfaction was growing. It was getting out of control.”
Mr McManus, 63, from Peterborough, said relations between people who relied on tourism and residents were not harmonious.
“The city is saturated and simply lacks the infrastructure to cope with the current number of visitors,” he said. “The San Diego theme parks are really so in the spring, summer and early fall that walking around the place can be a chore.”
Resident groups have called for tighter management of tourists.
Roberto Almuiña, president of the residents association, said: “In a small place like Santiago, with a population of only 100,000 people and 3,000 people living in the historic center, the number of pilgrims is too many for the city ” I.
“It just needs to be better managed to control the flow of visitors. We don’t have the drinking or bad behavior issues that you would in a Mediterranean resort. Most people are well behaved.”
Emily Smith, a half-British and half-American artist from Dartmoor, Devon, completed the 250km (155mi) trip from Porto to Santiago de Compostela last May ) Camino hike.
“When we arrived in San Diego, it felt very special, there was a beautiful energy. It was overpopulated, but very special,” said Ms. Smith, 45, who plans to return this summer. “But there are tattoo artists and people setting up stalls on the roadside.”
I Santiago de Compostela Tourism was contacted for comment but has yet to receive a response.
In 2021, a project was launched to remove litter from Spain’s pilgrimage routes, which is increasingly affecting the pilgrimage experience.
Cigarette butts, food wrappers and used Covid-19 masks discarded along the way form part of a modern problem that conservationists have dubbed “littered nature”.
SEO/Birdlife and Ecoembes, two Spanish NGOs involved in conservation efforts, encourage pilgrims along two stretches of the route to join them in picking up litter on the roadside.
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