The organisation of Fairway, 5th Forum of the Camino de Santiago is preparing the final preparations to hold the event, which will take place from November 1 to 3 in the Palacio de Congresos y Exposiciones de Galicia. The opening session, the Open Day, will include free activities for all ages.
“After the success of last year’s Fairway, we decided to repeat the concert with Xabier Díaz en trio format,” explained Ana Trevisani, co-director of the event. The artist will thereby round off the event’s first day with a concert. Admission is free until the hall is full.
The Open Day will begin with the “I Camino” route, departing from Praza do Obradoiro at 9.30 am. This 4-hour itinerary around the different Caminos leading to Compostela (French, Portuguese, English, Vía de la Plata…) will take participants around lesser-known parts of Santiago. It will feature explanations by professional tourist guides.
Back in the Palacio de Congresos, there will be different Escape Room sessions (The mystery of the pilgrim) in the morning and afternoon, and a mindfulness workshop at 5 pm. Both the route and these other activities have a limited number of participants, so please book beforehand using the forms available on www.fairwaysantiago.com.
The day will also include the show Peregrinas do Além. Instrucións para voltar á casa quando xa morriches, starring Quico Cadaval and Sole Felloza. It is admission free.
The consolidated Gastroway, also admission free, will take place between 1.30 and 4.30 pm. It will feature a gastronomic tour of the different Caminos de Santiago by means of typical tapas from different parts of the Iberian Peninsula. The price is 4.50 euros per tapa. The tapas will be accompanied by a free tasting of Lestedo “Filloas” (Galician crepes).
During the entire day, from 10 am to 8 pm, the Fairway’s Fair will be open (admission free). It will feature the participation of more than 70 exhibiters, who will promote different tourist destinations in the Iberian Peninsula and beyond, as well as products and services linked to the Camino.
This first day will also feature the first Job Market, whose participants are increasing all the time. Fairway will facilitate job interviews with around twenty companies that are trying to cover about 30 job vacancies. These interviews will be accompanied by different workshops and round tables on employment and entrepreneurs.
Congress and Academy Sections
November 2 and 3 will focus on professionals. Apart from the Workshop, with more than 3,000 business meetings planned, there will also be the Academy and Congress sections, which already have more than 500 participants.
“One of the Fairway’s objectives, which forms part of its DNA, is serving as a debating forum for matters that are of concern to the sector. We try to do our part to help others, at least, reflect on things such as the tourist tax, the coexistence of residents and tourists, or the problem of pests in accommodation establishments (such as bed bugs), which is take place all over Europe, or the examples of other pilgrimage routes in the world,” explained Tono Mugico, one of the event’s co-directors. In this regard, the Congress section “will include the participation of representatives of public and private entities, as well as experts that can help to find a solution for these problems.”
Debates on today’s problems
On Thursday, November 2, there will be the opening conference on Circular Economy and Sustainability, with the participation of Xosé Manuel Merelles, director of the Galician Tourism Agency; Miriam Louzao, councillor for Santiago Tourism, and Antonio Leira, A Coruña Provincial Council’s Camino de Santiago representative. This will be followed by a debate on how residents and tourists can get along, in a table with the participation of: Xosé Regueira, vice-president of A Coruña Provincial Council; Miguel Cabezas, president of the French Way Federation; Áurea Domínguez and Lanzada Calatayud, president and technical assistant of the Association of Municipal Districts along the Camiño de Santiago Fisterra–Muxía, respectively; Pepe Formoso, president of APTCM; Flavia Ramil, manager of Santiago Tourism, and Monserrat Villar, president of the “A Xuntanza de San Pedro” Association.
In the afternoon, there will be a debating forum on the tourist tax. In this case, with the participation of representative of North Porto Tourism; Cesáreo Pardal, president of the Galician Tourism Cluster; Luisa Lorenzo, president of the Compostela Hotel Union, and Jorge Carregal, Communication expert in Santiago Tourism.
November 3 will begin with a round table on Routes and Caminos in the world, presenting examples such as the Kumano Kodo Trail; the Camino Saety Ireland O’Donnell, or the Maltese Camino to Compostela, apart from the different Caminos de Santiago themselves.
The Congress will end with a debate on managing health and safety along the Camino de Santiago, and specifically, the outbreak of bed bugs. This subject will be discussed by Inés Mato Naveira, sub-director general of the Health Department’s Programmes for Controlling Environmental Health Risks; José Carlos Otero, Honorary Professor at the USC and an Entomology expert; César Ballesteros, president of the Provincial Hotel and Restaurant Federation; Miguel A. Rodríguez, president of Agalber, and Iago Alonso, manager of Plagostel.
Free training imparted by renowned professionals
November 2 and 3 will also feature a dozen training initiatives by means of the Fairway Academy. “In response to the sector’s demands, this section is aimed at covering these training needs, featuring practical workshops on the latest tendencies in digital marketing and round tables with inspiring examples for professionals that want to improve their business or start out as entrepreneurs. We are bringing renowned professionals to explain how to use the new digital tools and also examples of other types of work, as well as companies that apply the circular economy in their everyday activities,” concluded Tono Mugico.
The Academy will begin on Thursday, November 2, with a workshop on SEO positioning by Iñaki Tovar, CEO of Webpositer Academy. This will be followed by a round table on Youtubers, Bloggers, Tiktokers, and Instagrammers, moderated by Andrés Romero, CEO of Asiri Marketing. It will feature the participation of the blogger Eva Abal; the Instagrammer Oliver Vegas, and the speaker and lecturer specialising in the digital field, Phil González.
The afternoon will begin with a practical workshop on artificial intelligence tools such as Chat GPT (Microsoft), Bard (Google) or Bedrock (Amazon), which can help tourist businesses in their everyday work. Jairo Rodríguez, Customer Engineer, Google Cloud at Google and lecturer of ISDI Master Data & Analytics, will impart this session.
Andrés Romero will also moderate a round table on Digital Nomads, which will bring the first Academy day to an end. It will feature the inspiring examples of Carlos Jonay (co-founder of the Remote Work School); Daniel Gómez (CEO y founder of Node Nomads); Lili Lorenzo (director of the Acto Voltaje consultancy agency), and Sergio Cazcarra (director of Growth Coliving).
On Friday, November 3, there will begin a workshop on WhatsApp Marketing and Instant Communication. This will be imparted by María Mina, sales manager for Spain with the French company Quicktext.
The keynote event of the day will be the round table on the Circular Economy (the theme of the 5th Fairway), with examples of companies and projects based on these principles and on sustainability. It will feature the participation of Anselmo Ríos, the consultant in charge of the municipality of Archena’s Metabolic Islands project; the USC’s vice-rector for Strategic Planning and Promotion, Gumersindo Feijoo; Isabel Pernas, co-founder of Creativas Galegas, and Lolo Mosteiro, chef of the “A Artesa da Moza Crecha” restaurant. The table moderated by Tono Mugico, co-director of the Fairway and CEO of Mr Turismo Marketing en Acción.
The last activity will be the workshop on TikTok as a tool for generating bookings in tourist accommodations. This session will be imparted by Hugo López, Head of Paid Media in Widitrade, Meta Ads, TikTok Ads & Google Ads Specialist, trainer and lecturer.
The organisation of Fairway, 5th Forum of the Camino de Santiago encourages the population to attend these training and debating activities. All the information about the event’s programme is available on the website www.fairwaysantiago.com. You can register for activities with limited participants by filling in the forms available at www.fairwaysantiago.com/.