40% increase in pilgrim numbers in February?

[Bradypus]

An article in El Correo Gallego reporting a substantial increase in pilgrim arrivals recorded in Santiago so far this year compared with the same period in 2022. Surprising given the 2022 Holy Year status. Early signs of a specially busy year rather than the drop observed after previous Holy Years?

The article summarises the figures: "Number of pilgrims who have arrived in Santiago in 2023 So far this year, a total of 9,368 people have completed the Camino de Santiago. Of all of them, 2,027 have finished it in the month of January; 2,860 in February, more than 40% more than during the previous period; and 4,481 during the days that we have been in the month of March." (Google Translate)

El número de peregrinos del Camino de Santiago sube en el mes de febrero un 40%

Los once concellos de la mancomunidad por los que atraviesa la Ruta Xacobea francesa dispondrán de un millón de euros en ayudas para digitalizar sus recursos turísticos

www.elcorreogallego.es

 

[dick bird]

Last February, there were still pandemic restrictions in place so the number 2034 for February 2022 was quite high, but 2860 is still a lot of pilgrims. It looks like it will indeed be a busy year for Santiago. And we are not going to start speculating about where they started or whether they carried their own bags, are we?

 

[Bradypus]

Last February, there were still pandemic restrictions in place so the number 2034 for February 2022 was quite high,

I walked the Via de la Plata in January and February last year and the restrictions did not seem very onerous to me. But there were probably large numbers who were still deterred from walking. I've just looked at the 2019 February figures for a pre-Covid comparison. 2,119 that month. So this February's figures are still a significant increase but not the dramatic 40% of the article headline.

When I went to look at the pilgrim office statistics I found that the website has been radically redesigned. It might take a while to get used to the new format!

 

[Kathar1na]

An article in El Correo Gallego reporting a substantial increase in pilgrim arrivals recorded in Santiago so far this year compared with the same period in 2022.

What it is is that the Correo Gallego reports a press event given by the director of Turismo de Galicia.

Oh boy and how they missed their chance for a great headline if they’d had a look of their own on the revamped statistics page of the Oficina del Peregrino. Because they could have seen that while the number of Spanish pilgrims decreased by 3% in February 2023 compared to 2022, the number of foreign pilgrims increased by a whopping 100% for the same period of comparison. And when you include February 2019 in these comparisons, yet another different picture emerges …

I think that the bottom line is this: The more people (“”tourists””) travel overall - globally, within Europe, domestically -, the more people will walk a Camino in Spain. Major expection: Easter week, long weekends due to national Spanish holidays and summer months in Holy Years.

 

[Kathar1na]

I've just looked at the 2019 February figures for a pre-Covid comparison. 2,119 that month. So this February's figures are still a significant increase but not the dramatic 40% of the article headline.

That was the first thing I did, too.

Total figures for February 2018, 2019, and 2022 are all in the 2000-2200 range.

For these months, total figures for Spanish pilgrims show a yearly increase and now a stagnation while for foreign pilgrims there is a significant drop in February 2022 and a significant increase in February 2023, always compared to the previous year.

I am not convinced that this is particularly predictive for total figures of the current year … maybe for May and September though … the preferred months for foreign pilgrims, especially the first two weeks of these two months.