The organizations that make up the Promotion of the Camino de Europa project presented this Thursday, at the headquarters of the European Commission Representation in Spain, the technological platform with which the initiative offers a new way to contribute to the socio-cultural and economic development of the El Camino.
The event was attended by representatives of both the European Commission and the Camino de Europa itself, as well as the mayors of the Association of Galician Municipalities of the El Camino. At the event, the results of the proof of concept carried out in Sarria (Lugo) were presented, in which the WAYS Journeys mobile application was tested, which allows pilgrims to discover and interact directly with local producers, thus promoting a model of regenerative tourism.
The event began with the intervention of Anna Armengol, economic advisor to the European Commission, and in her first words she made it clear what the goal of this application is: Proximity. Armengol referred to the importance of the El Camino for the culture and the people and told an anecdote about walking the El Camino on her honeymoon with her Norwegian husband and discovering the closeness and everything that the El Camino entails.
The Camino de Europa is a project that aims to transform the cultural experience of pilgrims and reactivate the economies of the towns that make up the French Way, which crosses the regions of Aragón, Navarra, La Rioja, Castilla y León and Galicia. To this end, it is based on four pillars: Incentivizing local development, promoting cultural immersion, fostering inclusive innovation and promoting sustainable and regenerative tourism. In this way, it provides a window into the cultural and natural heritage of rural regions and enables an approach that promotes the preservation of the environment and the well-being of local communities.
For Olga Iglesias, President of the Mancomunidad de municipios del Camino de Santiago, this project represents the third evolution of the Camino. “We are in a time of generational change and this project adapts to these changes to ensure that the spirit of what the Camino represents remains alive.” This is where the 'Souls of the Camino' and the 'Legacies of the Camino' emerge, which, as Tono Martínez, writer and essayist, told us, “serve to revive the tradition” through photos, videos and short interviews, all of which are collected on a special website.
Connecting pilgrims
This project, financed by NextGenerationEU funds, aims to, as María Velasco, advisor to the Secretary of State for Tourism, reminded us, “do new things” “ combining "green transition and digital transition”.
Velasco wanted to emphasize how important it is that “tourism actions are based on experiences and not on selling products” because, as she said, “in a restaurant you do not sell food, you sell an experience, and that is the Way”. Both Ways and Mancomunidad agreed on one point: “The tourist must be at the center”.
To achieve this, WAYS Journeys will connect the community in different ways, always through technology and culture, the two pillars of this project:
On the one hand, it allows small producers to offer their products and experiences directly to hikers on an international online marketplace that allows purchases to be sent directly to their homes in the European Community or to pick up the whole package in Santiago for those coming from outside the European Community.
On the other hand, thanks to the possibilities offered by blockchain technology, pilgrim tokens have been created to promote positive activities such as walking and getting to know the culture, rewarding hospitality and generosity on the Camino.
For WAYS, this was the biggest challenge, the 'tokenization' of the Camino, because for the company the biggest difficulty was “convincing producers, institutions and pilgrims of the importance of the project”. “At first there was a lot of competition, until they understood that this 'token economy' serves to create a network, because it serves to sell products, to be recommended, to be known,” says María Parga, one of the founders of WAYS.
The technological challenge was not so great, says Parga, despite the difficulties of integrating AI with the recommendations, with the sustainability project, with e-commerce... “Because the main challenge was to listen to the pilgrim, whether this is good for him and makes his life easier, and to listen to the merchants and producers, whether this helps them”.
WAYS Journeys is presented as the most important technological tool. It gives pilgrims access to up-to-date information about the Camino, allows them to plan their journey and view an extensive directory of local producers and service providers along the individual stages. Pilgrims can interact intuitively and quickly with local businesses, gain experience and shop directly.
Last week, a team from Camino de Europa was tasked with introducing the app to the hundreds of pilgrims who pass through the towns of Lugo every day at this time of year before Sarria, one of the Camino's strategic points. Through a technical proof of concept, they had the opportunity to get to know the mobile solution, test it and validate their model in a real context.
A “very satisfying” proof of concept, as Parga said, because it was “three weeks of onboarding, with 55 establishments, 11 municipalities and 125 pilgrims” who “made the project their own”. An app that is “focused on the time before, during and after the Camino”, because the pilgrim can continue to buy products after their time and an app “that is constantly growing to add all kinds of contributions”, said Jesús Castaño, also founder of WAYS.
The fair
Likewise, the event has promoted the contents of the Camino de Europa Fair, which will take place on the 3rd and 4th in Carrión de los Condes (Palencia), where various activities will be held to celebrate the artisanal richness of the Camino, as well as to discuss tradition, technology, regenerative tourism and, ultimately, the sustainable future of Europe's most important cultural route.
The event will include a fair with tastings and the sale of artisan products with designation of origin from all the communities of the Camino, as well as gastronomic tastings and leisure and cultural activities in which all visitors can participate. The Camino de Europa Days are a central element of the fair. Various meetings of experts and personalities linked to the Camino will be held there, who will talk about regenerative tourism on the cultural routes, the influence of technology and the past, present and future of this route.
