While some Barcelona residents sought to repel a tsunami of tourists with plastic water pistols, a neighbourhood association in Santiago de Compostela opted for a friendlier approach: a guide to good manners for visitors to their town, the endpoint of the Catholic world’s most famous pilgrimage.
Translated into several languages, the group posted it throughout the north western Spanish city and distributed it at its ever-growing number of hostels. It reminded tourists to keep noise down, respect traffic rules and use plastic protectors on hiking poles to avoid damaging the narrow cobblestone streets, among other things.
To little avail, it would seem. Large groups still take over the streets singing hymns, bikes ride in the wrong direction and metal pole tips clatter against the ground. Santiago’s social media is awash with photos denouncing a lack of decorum. Tourists’ greater offense, though, stems from their sheer numbers; the old town and squares surrounding the cathedral holding the reputed tomb of Saint James the Apostle — and that was the centre of town life for a millennium — today are almost exclusively the domain of outsiders, whose influx has served to expel residents. This dynamic has left Santiago emerging as the latest global destination where long-time residents have grown embittered by the over tourism transforming their community. “We do not have tourism-phobia. We have always lived in harmony with tourism, but when it gets out of hand, when the pressure goes beyond what is reasonable, that is when rejection arises,” remarked Roberto Almuíña, president of the neighbourhood association in the old town that’s a UNESCO World Heritage site. The “Camino de Santiago,” known in English as the Way of St. James, dates back to the 9th century, with pilgrims pursuing its converging trails for up to hundreds of kilometres on paths originating in Portugal and France. The modern popularity it gained with the 2010 film “The Way” starring Martin Sheen was turbocharged more recently by social media and experience-driven travel after the coronavirus pandemic.
