Accessible territories development: Hostels and religious architecture on Portuguese way to Santiago

Abstract

Tourism is a very common and widespread way of accessing culture and heritage. The growing importance of the religious tourism as an economic activity and a crowd mover, especially in destinations like Santiago de Compostela, has called the attention of researchers and stakeholders. The number of pilgrims is steadily growing and has come to include travellers who may be interested not only in the spirituality of the Way but in the cultural landscapes and itineraries. The Way increasingly marks the tourist reality of the counties it goes through. The evolution of lodging has been a reality as evidenced by the number of official and, above all, private hostels that have grown in number, creating several impacts on the populations. Sharing good practices and benchmarking the Galicia model, can be reinforced by efficient and continuous information about accessibility. Communication helps to ensure that the goal is set, and the needs are known by all stakeholders. The present research is based on the idea of a sustainable and accessible management of the Ways to Santiago de Compostela, the religious architectural heritage and the associated pilgrim hostels. The rehabilitation of various civil architectural heritage and its transformation into hostels for pilgrims, namely public, changing functionalities, maintains and projects in the future memories of the past, also allowing the maintenance and management of several heritage, creating new impacts on the development of the territory. The historical and theoretical framework was based on a critical review of the few existing literature on religious and cultural tourism, highlighting the accessible tourism. The pioneer study in Portugal, the statistical and the analytical characterization of the distinct types of accessibility allowed a reflection on the existing one and the necessary transformations of the associated cultural equipment and hostels so that the accessible religious tourism for all is a reality.