Competitiveness of pilgrimage tourism destinations

[AussieCamino]

Fellow pilgrims. As an avid walker of various Caminos, I am always fascinated in the experiences of other pilgrims/tourists, and how their planning and experience on pilgrimage was shaped. As an academic researcher, I am interested in examining the competitiveness of pilgrimage tourism destinations, to better understand what attractors are important to tourists (in terms of their decision making) when planning to visit a pilgrimage tourism destination like the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. So if you have walked or cycled the Camino de Santiago de Compostela previously (regardless of your chosen Camino route or length of pilgrimage), I would very much like to here about your experience through a short 10 minute survey, which can be found here - https://scuau.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_e9BqYT9cue96dx4. See you out on the trail!

 

[dick bird]

Can you give a bit more detail about the purpose of your research? What will the data be used for?

 

[JabbaPapa]

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 !!

 

[Peterexpatkiwi]

@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

 

[SabsP]

I could not understand the division in those two blocks in your survey. Especially the " camino performance " description.
So I left the survey.

For me a Camino is both , part pelgrimage, part normal holiday ( I am still working so a Camino can only be done for me in paid leave ).

Let us be careful here not to go into the discussion pilgrim/ turigrino.
I told it many times that I met some horrid entitled long distance footpilgrims and at the same time met some very nice pilgrims who forwarded their pack.

 

[AussieCamino]

Can you give a bit more detail about the purpose of your research? What will the data be used for?

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.

Re: the growing interest. For example, in 2016, the Italian Minister of Cultural Activities and Heritage and Tourism, approved subsidies amounting to one billion Euros to support tourism initiatives, especially of an infrastructural nature. Part of this funding included 20 million Euros being allocated to each of the following pilgrimage routes to aid in their infrastructural improvement: the Via Francigena; the Via Appia Regina Viarum; the Franciscan, Benedictine and Santa Scolastica paths.

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.

 

[AussieCamino]

I understand your point, JabbaPapa. I hope to do some of the Camino Catalan one day, with a visit to Montserrat high on the agenda.

My research is very exploratory in nature, and I felt using the Camino de Santiago as a case study (which is very ‘mature’ in terms of what it offers to pilgrims by way accommodation and other tourism services) would give me good (initial) insights into the needs and wants of pilgrims out on pilgrimage. There are quite a few countries looking to tap into this type of unique tourism experience, one example being Italy, where they have set aside a substantial amount of funding for infrastructural improvement along pilgrimage routes like the Via Francigena. I am hopeful that my research can help guide these stakeholders and decision makers in developing brand new cultural routes, or to improve existing (but underdeveloped) pilgrimage routes across the world for us all to enjoy. I am heading out to walk the Italian stages of the Via Francigena next year, so it will be interesting to see how they have developed that path.

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 !!

 

[Luka]

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.

 

[AussieCamino]

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.

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!

 

[Corned Beef]

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.

Has 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, cooperation

www.coe.int

And people have been writing about pilgrimage for a long, long time. Jacques de Vitry (1170-1241)

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.

 

[AussieCamino]

Has 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, cooperation

www.coe.int

And people have been writing about pilgrimage for a long, long time. Jacques de Vitry (1170-1241)

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 tempting

​

 

[kelleymac]

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

 

[BarbaraW]

I'll have a look at your survey when I have more time, but meanwhile the following points I made in reply to a post about overcrowding on Camino may be of some relevance:

I believe the caminos de Santiago in Iberia are the only walking pilgrimage routes in the world where, depending on route, it is possible to:

• walk less than 20k a day and sleep under a roof each night, and
• spend 40 euros a day or less for accommodation and food; and
• meet people from all over the world and have as much company as you wish; and
• have luggage transported; and
• not worry about finding the route (usually!); and
• not book ahead except for peak routes and seasons.

After their religious and historic significance those, I believe, are the factors that have made the Caminos de Santiago so popular.

 

[BarbaraW]

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.

 

[AussieCamino]

Thanks for your post, Kate. I am very cognizant of the fact that many individuals walk the Camino for religious reasons. The motivation/s of pilgrims have long been of interest to researchers, with a few recent examples being:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11089-023-01071-1
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/13/3547
https://arrow.tudublin.ie/ijrtp/vol7/iss2/3/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02508281.2023.2274156

Motivations aside, in drawing pilgrims to a pilgrimage destination (like the Camino), there are certain needs – of the pilgrim – that need to be met ie. adequate availability of accommodation, range of tourism services (like restaurants, or medical facilities). I am hopeful that through this research, stakeholders that manage pilgrimage destinations (like local tourism authorities, or Chambers of Commerce) are better able to understand the needs of pilgrims, to aid in their pilgrimage experience. I think this is critically important for those stakeholders that are promoting newer pilgrimage routes, like the Devon Pilgrim Route in the UK. This type of research helps point to what is important for pilgrims, allowing decision makers to best build out the necessary infrastructure are the like.

Buen Camino!

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

 

[AussieCamino]

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.

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.

For me personally, as as avid pilgrim, typical ‘tourism’ element things like ‘Entertainment (eg. theatres, galleries, cinemas)’; ‘Adventure activities (eg. rafting, skydiving)’, and Night life (eg. bars, clubs)’ were not important for me when choosing to walk the Camino. But interestingly enough, for some pilgrims that have already completed the survey, those things were important. This is why I included those type of elements in the survey – to not bias the survey through based on my own Camino experience; to let the data speak for itself.

It will be interesting to see what all the survey respondents think once the data collection has ended.

Buen Camino!

 

[AussieCamino]

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

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.

 

[C clearly]

Our 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?

 

[AussieCamino]

@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

Thanks for the comments, Peter.

 

[AussieCamino]

Our 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?

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 winery

 

[kelleymac]

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.

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.

 

[BarbaraW]

OP, thank you for taking the trouble to respond to points made by those who responded. That is appreciated. Couple more thoughts.
It may be too late unless you are using this audience to trial it, but the questionnaire would work better if there were "don't know" and "not applicable" options. And does "perceived comfort" mean "I'll have to stay in a narrow bunk bed with a bunch of strangers and have to wait for the shower", or "all the places to stay are far too expensive and where will I put my muddy boots and hang out my washing" ?
I assume you will be researching route difficulty (topography, distances between facilities and accommodation), and accommodation costs separately. Those are reasons why it's difficult for many people to walk routes other than the easier caminos in Iberia.

 

[AussieCamino]

Thanks for your comments, Barbara. I see from your profile you did the Ingles this year. I hope to tackle that one in future.

 

[Dani7]

I tried to do the survey but did not feel it connected with my experience…which was all about the experience of the journey vs the destination. And the use of the word “pilgrimage” did not resonate in the questions asked. There seems to be already a great deal of “tourism” type choices available now…perhaps you would have a better idea of what people seek with “tourist destinations” in spain by getting the tourism companies to ask their clients these questions.