Travel and Tourism in Santiago De Compostela

Santiago De
Compostela

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Overview......................................................................................................................................3
Description of Tourists................................................................................................................4
Product portfolio..........................................................................................................................4
Accessibility and Supporting products........................................................................................5
Description of image....................................................................................................................6
Consortium of Santiago De Compostela......................................................................................7
Positive impacts of Tourism industry on City.............................................................................7
Negative impacts of Tourism industry on City............................................................................8
Suggestions..................................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
Books and Journals....................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Travel and Tourism is one of the most dynamic and rapidly growing industry in the
world. For, some of the countries the industry is backbone of their economy, and it is being well
encouraged in other countries as well, those are very desperate to make it their integral part of
economy. This industry not only helpful in economic terms but it also connect one nation with
the entire globe, in terms of history, geography, tradition, culture and values. In this light, the
travel and tourism industry of Europe is well known to the world (Bermúdez, S., 2018). The
industry is significant to range of countries there, that are home to one of the oldest cultural and
religious civilisations of the world. At the same time, their excellent management and
preservation attracts millions of people every year from entire globe. The report shall be
discussing one the important tourism and pilgrim centre of the Europe, that has centuries back
historical and cultural importance, Santiago De Compostela, and try to comprehend its nature,
importance, growth, opportunities and negative impacts along with all other aspects of travel and
tourism in the city.
MAIN BODY
Overview
Santiago De Compostela is the capital city of autonomous community of Galicia in
North-Western Spain. The city is established on the confluence of Sar and Sarela rivers, that
makes the climate in the city mild, humid and temperate in nature (that much can be attributed to
its latitudinal position). The city has a population of around 96000 as of 2019 and including the
metropolitan area the number goes around 178000. Also, the foreign population living in the city
represents 4.3% of the population. Most spoken language in the city Galician followed by
Spanish. The city of Santiago de Compostela has a well known historical background too, having
its origin in Roman cemetery that goes by 4th century, was later transferred to Subei kingdom and
a history of several raids by Arabs. The city is majorly famous for Cathedral of Santiago De
Compostela (shrine of Saint James the Great). This is also the leading Catholic pilgrimage route
since 9th century (Calvo-López and et.al., 2018). The shrine is visited by hundreds of thousands
of pilgrimages every year, especially in Holy years, that will come after 11 years. This makes
Tourism the main support of its economy, along with public administration and higher education
institutes.

Description of Tourists
The city is one of the major pilgrim for Catholics. It attracts hundreds of thousands of
pilgrimages every year to the Cathedral of Santiago De Compostela. The Tourists that visits the
shrine comes across the globe. And, the numbers are steadily rising every year. This evident
from the fact that, they were more than 216000 in year 2013, more than 238000 in 2014, 262000
plus in 2015 and exceeded 278000 in 2016. These figures are the emotions and faiths of people,
and are not just numbers. The city's beauty is further enhanced by confluence of Sar and Sarela
rivers. The number of tourist rises at the time of Holy year. The holy year in the city will come
after 11 years when Saint James feast day will fall on Sunday. Last Holy year in 2010, the year
saw more than 272000 pilgrimage visiting the shrine, however numbers are still considerable
outside the Holy years (Cebreiro Ares, F., 1770-1805). The success of this tourism is mainly
attributed to the significant investments by Xunta of Galicia (regional Government of Galicia)
and the successful campaign in Holy year of 1993. This is further supported by The Way of St.
James (Camino De Santiago), a network that connects several pilgrim with the Cathedral of
Santiago De Compostela.
Besides, pilgrimages the city is also visited by lots of learners from every corner of the
world. University of Santiago De Compostela is one of the oldest universities in the world that is
still under continuous operation. Learners from the fields of literature, science, philosophy etc.
visits the place to get themselves familiar with the old culture of Galicians. They learn about
their language, literature, history, flags, musics etc. Learners of art and architecture are also seen
in the city. The city is home to Centro Gallego de Arte Contemporaneo, that comprise of
Galician contemporary art. All these facts marks the variety of Tourists that visits the city, some
of them are motivated by their inner feelings, emotions and faith, whereas, some has a specific
purpose. Some of them has psychological impulse and others has material reasons. But the city
accommodate the needs of them.
Product portfolio
The city of Santiago De Compostela is remarkable in the Christian culture of not only
Spain, but entire Christianity (Garton, T., 2018). This marks the struggle of Christianity against
Islam. The city was completely rebuilt in following centuries after it was destroyed by Arabs in
the 10th century. Therefore, it contains sentimental values of Christians around the globe, that is
more clear from the number of figures of Tourists and Pilgrimages that visits the city every year.