Want to avoid Europe's tourist hordes? Try getting off the beaten track

European tourism is getting a makeover to strengthen remote communities with the help of EU-funded researchers.

The monastery of San Estevo de Ribas de Sil in northwestern Spain is located within 20 kilometers of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route, but for Martín López Nores the two places felt worlds apart. And that gave him an idea.

In 2019 López Nores, a professor in the Department of Telematics Engineering of the University of Vigo in Spain, attended an event at the 800-year-old monastery with researchers and local representatives. The participants discussed how best to revitalize rural economies.

Slow down

While the Camino de Santiago has long been a popular pilgrim route to the holy site where St James the Apostle is believed to be buried, the monastery—deemed one of the most spectacular heritage spots in the Galicia region of Spain—was often overlooked by tourists.

"We were meeting in a jewel of a location—a remarkable place that goes unnoticed by thousands of pilgrims walking nearby," said López Nores. "We realized we needed to make it more visible, to draw people to it, to encourage people on the pilgrim route to get to know the area they are passing through, not just focus on getting to the next point in their guide."

He led a project that received EU funding to help spearhead a new form of tourism across Europe—a kind that moves away from the hordes of international visitors who fill countless European cities and towns for most of the year.

In doing so, López Nores took to heart a sentiment expressed by one of the 20th century's greatest wanderers, the late British writer and Philhellene Patrick Leigh Fermor. In 1966, Leigh Fermor commented on the emergence in Greece of mass tourism by writing that it "destroys the object of its love."

López Nores championed a different approach called "slow tourism," which encourages visitors to take time to immerse themselves in their surroundings.

"Mass tourism consumes places, whereas cultural tourism is about creating meaningful connections with people and places," he said. "It's a non-destructive way of tourism that gives benefits to everyone and somehow makes your mind a little bit richer, more interesting."

Spread the wealth

The many people who travel the Camino de Santiago spend considerable amounts of money—more than €300 million in 2019. But with few tourists straying from the path itself, the economic benefits are relatively narrow.

The phenomenon occurs across culturally rich Europe and inspired a group of Spanish and Portuguese researchers—including López Nores—to join forces in an effort to spread the benefits of pilgrimages. Called rurALLURE, their project ran for three years until the end of 2023.

The team's goal was to enhance the appeal of "cultural tourism" in countries ranging from Spain to Norway and ensure that tourism revenue goes beyond the main trails.

For the Camino de Santiago, the researchers created a web portal and an app to highlight cultural points of interest close to the route. These include museums, places of natural beauty and bars and restaurants with local foods and drinks such as Ribeira wines. A total of 7 362 such sites were mapped in this way by the project.

Also available are written and audio guide material, local voices and histories, as well as thematically grouped information on, for example, nature spots and regional traditions.

Other pilgrimages covered by rurALLURE included routes to Italy's capital Rome, paths known as the Saint Olav Ways leading to Trondheim in Norway and the Way of Mary, which traverses central Europe to Csíksomlyó in Romania.