Pilgrims convert spains Santiago de Compostela into the world's latest flash

Santiago de Compelela, Spain (AP) – while some Barcelona residents have tried to ward off a tsunami of tourists with plastic water pistols, a neighborhood association in Santiago de Compostela chose a friendlier approach: a guide for good ways for visitors to their city, the end of the Catholic world. The group, translated into different languages, placed it in the northwest of Spanish city and spread it on its ever -growing number of residences. It reminded tourists to keep noise, respect traffic rules and use plastic protectors on walks to damage the narrow paved streets, among other things. Until little, it seems like it. Large groups still take over the streets and sing hymns, bikes ride in the wrong direction and metal pole points clap to the ground. Santiago’s social media is full of photos that defend a lack of décor. However, tourists’ greater offense stems from their mere numbers; The old city and squares around the cathedral holding the famous tomb of Saint James, the apostle – and it was the center of city life for a millennium – is almost exclusively the domain of outsiders today, whose influx of residents expelled. This dynamics raised Santiago as the latest global destination where long -standing residents have become embittered by the over -tourism transforming their community. “We don’t have tourism phobia. We have always lived in harmony with tourism, but if it goes out of hand, if the pressure goes beyond what is reasonable, it is when rejection arises,” says Roberto Almuíña, president of the neighborhood association in the old city that is a UNESCO World Heritage Heritage. The ‘Camino de Santiago’, known in English as the way of St. James, dates back to the 9th century, with pilgrims to his converging routes for up to hundreds of kilometers on paths that originated in Portugal and France. The modern popularity it got with the 2010 movie “The Way” with Martin Sheen has been turbocharged through social media and experienced journey after the Coronavirus pandemic. Last year, a record half-million people entered to draw one of the approved routes to the cathedral-equated five times the city’s resident, and had been an increase of 725 times for the past four decades. Ordinary tourists who do not arrive by rail were added to the masses. The distribution of short -term rentals increased by annual rental prices from 2018 to 2023 by 44%, according to a study instructed by the City Council to the Fundación Universidade da Coruña. As a result, in May, municipal authorities requested to request the regional government to classify the area as a high -pressure zone, such as Barcelona or San Sebastian, which would help limit rental increases. In November last year, the Santiago City Council performed a ban on tourist accommodation in Airbnb style in the historic center, with the argument in a statement that it was “a necessity arising from the significant growth, which has a clear effect on the number of residential units for residents and on their price.” Sihara Pérez, a researcher at the University of Santiago, described that he was anywhere in the city as “mission impossible”, while Antonio Jeremías, 27, told The Associated Press that he was considering moving back with his mother because his salary was working full -time at a warehouse. Andrea Baptazo, 32, tried to move out of her parents’ home in a fully 5 kilometer neighborhood of the city center. But her desire to continue living in the place where she grew up and community ties were strong was useless, and she had to take something in a city outside Santiago. “The only people who could stay in the neighborhoods are those who were happy – or unfortunately – enough to inherit an apartment of their grandparents, uncles or parents,” says Baptazo, who works in human resources. Across Spain, there were large street protests against unaffordable housing, with many connecting the house button to tourists coming up short -term rentals. In the old city, tourists in small hotels in former homes or large residences can remain from former seminars, which are not subject to the ban. But in the bustle of cashing in, there are apparently some short -term rentals using the restriction, which appears from tenants who collected keys from lockboxes that were hung out of buildings. “Some follow the rules and others don’t, but it’s the model that really limits the residential housing,” said Montse Vilar of another neighborhood group, Xuntanza. Santiago City Hall said in a statement to The Associated Press that it “is doing everything in its power to enforce the regulations” and that it acts when it finds a matter of an illegal tourists for apartments. Between 2000 and 2020, the historic center lost about half of its permanent population, which has now been reduced to just 3,000 residents who “resist the Gallians” behind the thick stone facades of buildings, Almuíña said. There are no hardware stores or kiosks left, and just one bakery. A few grocery stores exist with cafes, ice cream parlors and souvenir stores. “The city has emptied. You just have to go to see that all we have is closed, deserted buildings that fall apart,” Almuíña added. This year, the number of pilgrims reaching Santiago is on track to set another record. The boom is souring the residents of Santiago on their city’s tourism centric economic model; Half of them have already rejected it from 2023, from just a quarter of an end a decade earlier, according to a study focused by Reason Galabra, a research group focused on cultural studies at the University of Santiago. Even some of the pilgrims note a shift, such as Spaniards álvaro Castaño and Ale Osteso who met on the route four years ago and have returned every year since. “The Camino is becoming more and more famous, many more people are coming,” Osteso said one recent morning at the end of their trek, under tour groups in pilgrims in bright, color-coordinated outfits and families making photos. “Spirituality seems to have been a little lost at times.”