The Way of Saint James, tourism, and local community

Abstract

Tourism clearly conditions people’s daily lives in a double sense: certainly, because of the inputs it constitutes, via human (and other) resources it mobilizes, and the goods and expenses it generates; but also, in many communities, because of the social, spatial, temporal and/or cultural reorganization that its operation implies in the community social space. Santiago de Compostela is one of the communities most impacted by the phenomenon of the Way, which is, in turn, one of the most relevant phenomena of tourism today and which increasingly affects many other realities. The example of Compostela can serve as a privileged comparison and contrast with other social realities that are beginning to experience or are already significantly feeling the impact of this phenomenon at the cultural, social, economic and environmental dimension.