AussieCamino
New Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- CF 2018 (St Jean-Leon)
CF 2024 (Leon-Santiago)
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Thanks for reaching out, Dick. I personally enjoy heading out on pilgrimage – having walked the CF in both 2018 and 2024, and a little of the CP last year also. Next adventure is the Italian stages of the Via Francigena next year…can’t wait! There is a growing interest from tourism stakeholders (including government) in developing this unique type of tourism, which is sometimes categorised as a type of ‘slow tourism’. I think taking on a pilgrimage is a wonderful way of gaining a deep, authentic and cultural experience.Can you give a bit more detail about the purpose of your research? What will the data be used for?
I doubt that you'll get answers that are relevant enough.
Just in Spain, Montserrat is a more important pilgrimage site than Santiago, and both pale in comparison to Lourdes, Rome, Jerusalem, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and many other sanctuaries where only a minority of the pilgrims are foot pilgrims. I'm not even certain that foot pilgrims outnumber the other pilgrims in Santiago itself !!
Thanks for participating, Luka. It is appreciated. And yes, I had a sense (having walked the CF and CP previously) that elements like night life or theatres might not be important for some – they weren’t important for me personally. But of course everyone’s experience and needs differ, hence why I included such element in my survey scale. It is quite amazing to see all the Caminos across Spain and beyond. Just makes you want to get back out there!I also filled in the survey, but had a similar reaction as @Peterexpatkiwi. Lots of thing mentioned are not important to me when walking a Camino (tourist information, night life, theatres...).
I hope the data will be useful to you. There is no such thing as 'the' Camino de Santiago. There are Caminos all over Spain (and even in other European countries), so respondents can have very different parts of Spain in mind when answering the questions.
I am hopeful that my research can help guide these stakeholders and decision makers to develop and grow both new and existing pilgrimage routes across the world for us all to enjoy – with the needs of the pilgrim front of mind.
Some light-minded and inquisitive persons go on pilgrimages not out of devotion but out of mere curiosity and love of novelty. All they want to do is to travel through unknown lands to investigate the absurd, exaggerated stories they have heard about the east.
Thanks for the post. No commissioning authority (in terms of commercial research), it's just some academic research I am completing personally. I recall going through that site with all the European cultural routes - it really is a great initiative that these routes have been preserved and promoted. The Roman Emperors and Danube Wine Route sounds very temptingHas anyone commissioned your research? There is a lot of academic and commercial research into what has been termed 'cultural routes' - a composite term for historic travel including pilgrimages of multiple beliefs.
Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe - Homepage - Cultural Routes - www.coe.int
Cultural Routes, Council of Europe, networks, association, heritage, development, cooperationwww.coe.int
And people have been writing about pilgrimage for a long, long time. Jacques de Vitry (1170-1241)
Sorry, but I got half way through the survey and stopped. If I mark that something is very unimportant (i.e. variety of shopping outlets) on the left hand of the page, how do I answer if shopping was good or poor on the camino on the right side? A "variety of shopping outlets" had absolutely nothing to do with walking the camino, or why I walked the camino.
Completely missing is anything about religion. I'm a roman catholic and the churches and attending daily mass are very important to me.
Completely missing is the importance of getting out of cars and other fast transit and walking for days on end.
Completely missing is meeting others from all over the world and walking together (sometimes).
Completely missing is communal meals and the chance to share and care for others.
Kate
I do appreciate your attempt to answer the survey, Barbara. I think your point about some of the elements not being tightly aligned with pilgrimage destinations is a fair one, but I suppose this is a core reason why I am keen to understand the needs of pilgrims better through this research.Sorry, I tried but couldn't answer the survey sensibly. Many of the factors given are completely irrelevant for a "
Sorry, I tried but couldn't answer the survey sensibly. Many of the factors given are completely irrelevant for a "pilgrimage destination". And I couldn't get my head around "perceived comfort" at all. I hope the sound advice from others who have posted is helpful.
". And I couldn't get my head around "perceived comfort" at all. I hope the sound advice from others who have posted is helpful.
So for you, you felt that having a variety of shopping outlets available on the Camino route was very unimportant. From my own Camino experience, I would agree ie. I was only really interested in grabbing a few little Camino-themed souvenirs along the Way, so having a large variety of shopping outlets at my disposal wasn’t an important element for me. But in terms of ‘performance’, I thought that Camino as a route didn’t do too bad in terms of that element, even though it wasn’t important to me ie. I found plenty of sporting goods and outdoor equipment stores along the path to restock on socks, grab some warmer clothing or to replace broken walking poles.Sorry, but I got half way through the survey and stopped. If I mark that something is very unimportant (i.e. variety of shopping outlets) on the left hand of the page, how do I answer if shopping was good or poor on the camino on the right side? A "variety of shopping outlets" had absolutely nothing to do with walking the camino, or why I walked the camino.
Completely missing is anything about religion. I'm a roman catholic and the churches and attending daily mass are very important to me.
Completely missing is the importance of getting out of cars and other fast transit and walking for days on end.
Completely missing is meeting others from all over the world and walking together (sometimes).
Completely missing is communal meals and the chance to share and care for others.
Kate
Thanks for the comments, Peter.@AussieCamino, I've participated in a couple of surveys that have come up here on the forum, so I'm not against them.
I've had a quick look at page one of your survey and I really think you're pitching this to completely the wrong audience.
Your survey may well be appropriate to those that use tour companies, in particular those that just walk the last 100 kilometers from Saria, but you will find few such here on the forum.
Most of us here on the forum are here because we love 'The Way', most if not all of the longer term members are multi camino walkers.
So asking us how important we find: special events and festivals, breadth of activities for tourists, entertainment (theatres cinemas etc), adventure activities, bars and nightlife is frankly completely missing the point.
Yes I'm sure most of us will have an opinion on the climate, cleanliness, perceived comfort, floor and fauna, richness of culture, heritage sites and the variety of cuisine. And yes those aspects can very well affect which routes we choose, and when - but seldom whether we walk or not.
But in the scale of things none of these effect whether or not I walk the Camino.
On here we predominantly fall into three groups in terms of what is important to us:
1/ the journey
2/ the destination
3/ both
Those can of course be split further by motivation etc
The survey as it stands - based solely on the first page - is probably appropriate for a populist travel magazine, ie the sort of people that take cruise ships.
You may wish to read a little more on the forum, there's over 10 years of history on here. Spend a couple of weeks scanning through some of this and then formulate a survey that is more appropriate to the forum and I would be happy to participate.
Peter
Of course – I would be happy to post some information on the results once I have concluded my research. I am also looking to extend the research next year to cover other recognized cultural/pilgrimage routes, like the Via Francigena, which I am looking to walk next September. I have enjoy visiting Italy on many occasions, but these visits were more under the guise of ‘mass tourism’. Walking through the small villages between Tuscany and Rome will be a wonderful, authentic way to enjoy the region. And maybe the odd detour off the trail into a local wineryOur forum members tend not to be highly tolerant of surveys or polls. Just try creating a poll here on the forum asking something simple like "Do you usually walk the Camino in boots, shoes, or sandals?" Instead of giving a simple answer, it is much more fun to ask "What does 'usually' mean?" or "What if I walk exactly 50% in two of them?" or "Which Camino?" or "Define sandals."
I hope that you will come back to the forum to tell us about the results of your research. Almost every time someone does a survey, they promise to do so, but rarely follow through. Maybe you will even find the forum to be a good place to find and share information aside from your academic research.
P.S. i found the questions and my answers did not reflect the reasons I choose to walk the Camino or which route. I had trouble recognizing my own experience in my answers, and came away feeling that we weren't talking about the same thing. There were so many oddities. Was there even a mention of walking? The Camino was treated as a single static location, without recognizing either the journey or the destination. Why include the word "pilgrimage" in the topic without addressing that aspect in any way?
Leaving out questions regarding community, walking, religion, shared meals, kindness of strangers in albergues, etc., but keeping such things as shopping outlets and nightlife in, and then giving this information as a guide to people developing "caminos" leads to inherent difficulties. Leaving out the questions and resulting data, means leaving out the discussion, consideration and understanding of walking. Instead of trying to attract las vegas style or cruise style tourists to walking vacations, people trying to understand the camino should walk the camino, and volunteer at an albergue for a while. I have heard that the Office of culture is in charge of the camino until Galicia. Then in Galicia, the office of tourism takes over. (I would love to hear if this is or ever was true.) But take a look at the change on the camino once you hit Sarria.So for you, you felt that having a variety of shopping outlets available on the Camino route was very unimportant. From my own Camino experience, I would agree ie. I was only really interested in grabbing a few little Camino-themed souvenirs along the Way, so having a large variety of shopping outlets at my disposal wasn’t an important element for me. But in terms of ‘performance’, I thought that Camino as a route didn’t do too bad in terms of that element, even though it wasn’t important to me ie. I found plenty of sporting goods and outdoor equipment stores along the path to restock on socks, grab some warmer clothing or to replace broken walking poles.
I am looking forward to seeing how developed the Via Francigena is when I walk some of the Italian stages next year. I do see on blogs and FB posts from other pilgrims that accommodation offerings are quite different than the Spanish Camino, with very few ‘Albergue’ type facilities.
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