I read a few minutes ago that "Pierre", the owner of the pilgrim shop in SJPP (Boutique du Pelèrin) has retired and sold his shop to a new owner. I wanted to google it a bit and found an article with different content but interesting (to me) nevertheless.
It is in French, published in 2019, and it is about the Impact of the Pilgrimage to Santiago on Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. It is a short history, spanning a mere 25 years. It does not answer the question of why SJPP has become a de facto starting point but when: at the beginning of this century, around the year 2000. Today seems
a far cry from the time when the lonely pilgrims who crossed the streets of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port on their way to Santiago de Compostela aroused mistrust, to the point that some inhabitants called the police, thinking that these strange backpackers were marauders with unlaudable intentions.
Everything changed in the early 2000s, when this small town became the world rallying point for those who want to start an increasingly fashionable journey.
These pilgrims, who arrive by the hundreds every day (up to 500 pilgrims daily in May and September), spend, sleep one night and, in the early morning, take the road to Roncesvalles.
Numerous inhabitants have renovated and transformed all or part of their house into a gîte d'étape, albergue or dormitory. Within a decade, about twenty places of this type had opened. Not to mention the dozens of guest rooms that have been created. SJPP has now at least 470 beds for pilgrims passing through.
The number of businesses is a reflection of this abundant activity. SJPP, whose population does not exceed 1,800 inhabitants, has 140 shops, 25 restaurants (including one Michelin-starred) and bars, spread over the three main streets. The rise of pilgrimage has even inspired former Camino walkers. Thus, ten years ago, Pierre created the Boutique du pèlerin, the first store entirely dedicated to those who walk the Caminos. The company Express Bourricot was born at the same time. [...] many others also live from the pilgrimage. The activity is such that some seasonal workers no longer even need to go elsewhere in winter to earn a living.
There is also a remark about
les voyageurs haut de gamme. Elsewhere, for example in Barcelona and Santiago, they are called
higher quality travellers. No matter how this is defined: From my own limited personal experience and people I know personally, the demographic has certainly shifted during these recent decades. Those who walked or rode on horseback to Santiago in the 1990s and 1980s or earlier were young - between 20 and 30 - or middle aged with an interest in medieval history and medieval art. Before the 1990s they (those that I know of) started from somewhere in France or even the Benelux countries. Nowadays those that I know personally and who walked in more recent years were all in the 40 to 60+ age range when they embarked for the first time on the way to Santiago. And they often did start in SJPP and they were certainly not students with limited financial means.
Les 70 000 pèlerins annuels des chemins de Saint-Jacques rapportent 3 millions d'euros de retombées directes et indirectes à l'économie de cette ville-étape.
www.lepoint.fr