Ways of Saint James in the Interior North of Portugal: An Analysis of Touristic Routes

The Ways of Saint James are ancient routes of pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela travelled from the 9th century and which in recent years have seen a profound revitalisation of tourism, based on the conversion of these routes into tourist-cultural routes, which in turn allows these routes to be valued and the existing heritage assets to be articulated. This study has as main goals to identify and analyse the transformation of the existing Ways of Saint James in the interior north of Portugal into tourist-cultural routes. At the same time, it is intended to demonstrate how these tourist routes allow dynamising and conferring a new role to these routes, through a process of transformation and recovery. In methodological terms, a quali-quantitative approach was employed, based on interviews with tourism agents, but it also involved the analysis of statistical indicators. This triangulation of data facilitated an understanding of measures and perceptions resulting from the revitalisation process of these Ways. The results obtained allow us to demonstrate that the conversion of the paths results essentially in three vectors: their recovery; the adoption of a continuous process of dynamisation in tourist terms and above all; a process of heritagisation and valorisation of the route itineraries.