A Review of the State of Recent Santiago de Compostela Tourism Research (2016–2020)

Abstract

As the issue of tourism is fundamentally connected with the modern incarnation of the pilgrimage routes to Santiago, this meta-analysis of research studies addressing pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela utilizes Cohen's typology of tourism (as adapted by Uriely, Yonay and Simchai). This survey of recent research (published between 2016 and 2020) suggests that this phenomenon is still much under-researched. Few studies have been published recently and even fewer that have generated recent data. Earlier it was thought that this phenomenon was taken as a sign of resurging religiosity and more recently as an illustration of spiritual Bauman-style "post-secularist" pilgrimage. This review suggests that pilgrimage travel to Santiago might well yield richer research data if probed from a less dichotomous perspective, focusing more on the variety of the populations on the multiple routes to Santiago and from additional research angles, as religious tourism, as therapy and as recreation.