The purpose of this study is to examine the impacts on the rural
development of historic, thematic routes. Our paper concentrates on the pilgrimage
to Santiago de Compostela. Specifically, we look at the most important of the routes
- known as “The French Way” - which traverses Northern Spain. We focus the
research on how the pilgrimage fits into rural life in 21st century Spain, on the
particular features of the journey and on how travelers, service providers and the
clergy relate to the Way. Our research is based on in-depth interviews with seven
people during the 31 days of the pilgrimage in the summer of 2014. These
interviews were conducted with two quite different groups of people - with a variety
of religious parties and with owners of restaurants, bars, shops and accommodation
as service providers. The results of both our primary and secondary research led us
to conclude that this specific thematic route includes features that contribute
positively to the rural areas and encourage the rural population to maintain and
preserve their values.