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The Camino breaks its own records by receiving 301,036 pilgrims in 2017
El Camino breaks records by counting 301,036 pilgrims for the past 2017
The Portuguese Way by the Coast and the wheelchairs are the two new data that have been added as part of the annual reports of the Pilgrim's Office
Santiago de Compostela, January the 29th, 2018. -The Pilgrim's Office of the Camino de Santiago closes 2017 with a total of 301,036 pilgrims, a number proof of the increasing relevance of events such as Fairway, Forum of the Camino de Santiago.
The Camino broke records once again when it registered more than 300,000 pilgrims for the first time. It was the past December the 13th, when the visitor number 300,000, a young American aged 22, signed up in the offices of Carretas Street. This volume of pilgrims is even more impressive when we consider that 2017 is not even the Holy Year or the Xacobeo Year, which increase the expectations for 2021 (next Xacobeo). 2017 has also been a year to see that the percentage of women (49.12%) and men (50.88%) keep the tendence to equality.
The wheelchairs and the Portuguese Way by the Coast are added
As a new addition, the Office has accounted for the first time the number of pilgrims that come to to Santiago in a wheelchair, which although only meant the 0.01% of the total, they were 43 people who had the courage and enthusiasm to start living this experience. At the same time, coming by one self's feet to Santiago is still the preference of the majority, which is the 93%, compared to the 7.29% of people who pedaled on their bicycle and 0.14% who has ridden a horse to reach Santiago. This reflects a tendency of decrease of bycicles that kept on going the last three years, which is compensated with a growing amount of people who come by foot.
Another new inclusion to the report of the Pilgrim's Office is that this 2017 has been the first year in which the pilgrims who have followed the Portuguese Way along the Coast have been counted. It is a route that departs from Oporto and that borders the Galician coast passing through Mougás, Ramallosa, Vigo, Redondela, Pontevedra, Caldas and finally Santiago de Compostela. This path has been taken by 7,327 pilgrims, although it does not reach the hegemonic volume of the French Way (180,738), it does challenge the Winter Way (555) and other secondary ones, with 537 pilgrims.
Foreign pilgrims reaffirm the international dimension of the Camino
Every year we see the number of nationalities coming to Santiago growing and they are more and more than those that come from other regions of Spain. In fact, foreigners outnumber nationals by around 10%, a figure that demonstrates the international and universal dimension of the Camino. As usual, the three most abundant nationalities are Italy (27,073 visitors), Germany (23,227 visitors) and the United States (17,522 visitors). However, the wealth of foreign pilgrims is made up of 38% of various nationalities. Thus, in the national territory most of the pilgrims come from Andalusia (20.74%), as it happened in 2016, and surpassing the people from Madrid (18.86%), who make up the second place since then.
As usual, from those more than 300,000 pilgrims 55% are middle-aged, between 30 and 60 years, followed by those under 30, which adds 27.92% and seniors remain in the 17%, although it has seen its figure increase from 49,241 pilgrims in 2016 to 52,347 in 2017. In addition, the number of jubilees has increased in the last two years to reach almost 38,000, a figure that shows the attractiveness of the Camino for this age group.
Fairway II Forum of the Camino de Santiago, an initiative from the private sector
Fairway, Forum of the Camino de Santiago, was born from the private initiative. It is promoted by the wholesale-retailer Viajes Viloria; the marketing agency Mr Turismo; and Trevisani, a company that organizes events, protocol and public relations, and communication.
Account with the main sponsorship of Correos; the institutional collaboration of the Deputation of A Coruña and the City Council of Santiago; and the support of Paradores, Cathedral of Santiago, Cluster of Tourism of Galicia and of different sponsoring entities and collaborators.
All information about this event is on the web portal www.fairwaysantiago.com