Is there overtourism in Santiago de Compostela? Contributions for an ongoing debate

Abstract

Over the past decade, the concept of "overtourism" has been approached both theoretically and empirically. This research analyses it in the city of Santiago de Compostela (Spain). It is the destination of an international urban tourism and of The Way of St. James, the First European Cultural itinerary and one of the most important pilgrimage routes in the World. Its marketing promotion since 1993 has produced a continuous growth that is translated into an increasing number of pilgrims' arrivals. Tourism and pilgrimage data of the last years raise debates about the carrying capacity and overtourism in an historical centre of 169,9 hectares. For all that, the main aim of this work is to reflect on the contemporary evolution marked by these tourism trends and, above all, to introduce reflections and opinions of different local stakeholders to support a sustainable tourism development. From the methodological point of view, multiple approaches to contemporary tourism research are adopted and quantitative and qualitative methodologies are combined. The results introduce a new conceptual proposal based on the combination of variables (space, time and society) when dealing with the process of overtourism in Santiago de Compostela.