Conference of the League of Historical Cities of the World

HERITAGE AND TOURISM MANAGEMENT: THE CASE OF SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA

Rubén C. LOIS GONZÁLEZ (1,2)Román RODRÍGUEZ GONZÁLEZ (1) Miguel PAZOS OTÓN (1)

(1) Department of Geography and IDEGA. Universidade de Santiago de Compostela(2) Xunta de Galicia, Head of the Department of Tourism

INTRODUCTION• Santiago de Compostela, a unique city in

Europe (WHS)

• EUROPE was built by pilgrimations to Santiago (Goethe)

• The Pilgrimation Way of Santiago, First European Cultural Route by the Council of Europe (WHS)

• Santiago and the outside promotion of Galicia

• Historical power of the Church. The figure of the Archbishops

INTRODUCTION• Good state of preservation of building and

monuments

• Inside the walls: the role played by University and the Church

• Emblematic buildings

• The Old Town and the Ensanche

• The public administrations: a coordinated policy in order to promote and manage the city

The promotion of a territory taking its capital as a point of reference

• The marginalisation in the provincial division (19th century)

• Lack of bourgeois tradition in the city

• Exceptional industrial initiatives

• Traditional and static society until 1960

The promotion of a territory taking its capital as a point of reference

•1960-85: boom in the city

•Big transformation in the appearance of the city

• From 3,000 to 35,000 universitary students

•The power of the Galician Administration

•Also, agrarian market, touristic and medical city

• From 50,000 inh (1960) to 82,000 (1981)

The promotion of a territory taking its capital as a point of reference

•1981: Santiago, the capital city of Galicia

•The formation of an urban area > 150.000 inh

•1981-nowadays: also big changes, suburbanization processes

The promotion of a territory taking its capital as a point of reference

• Urban structure of Santiago: from the Old City (WHS by UNESCO) to the outskirts

• 1. The Old City

• 2. The “Ensanche”

• 3. The Campuses

• 4. Neihbourhoods: San Pedro, Vite, Pontepedriña, etc

• 5. Expansion of Compostela in the perifery: Ames, Brión, Teo

The promotion of a territory taking its capital as a point of reference

• The Galician context

• Santiago in the middle of the Urban Atlantic Corridor

• Santiago as a hub and as a node

Heritage and tourism

management •Context: Santiago, the capital of Galicia (>

1981)

•Santiago, object of a great campaign of advertising to the outside world

•Always linking SANTIAGO + THE PILGRIMS WAY

•Xacobeo 93, Galicia Calidade

•Institutional co-operation: Madrid Government, Xunta, Municipality, with agreements: University and Church

Heritage and tourism

management •Effort to attract millions of tourists

•Unconventional way (foot, bike, horse)

•Restoration of façades

•Renovation in the center of Santiago

•Hostels for pilgrims + signposting

•Planning of large installations in the city of Santiago

Heritage and tourism

management •Santiago as the “jewel of the Crown”

•Attraction of visitors, and then to another parts of Galicia (mainly Rías Baixas and A Coruña, but also the interior - Ribeira Sacra, e.g.)

•The continuation of the promotion: intensification of advertising campaigns in Holy Years

Heritage and tourism

management •Holy Years 1999, 2004

•Next: 2010

•Willingness to magnify any event able to attract visitors: 500 years of USC

•Installations and equipements: taking adventage of being the capital of Galicia

•European Capital of Culture (year 2000)

Town planning and the external promotion of Santiago de

Compostela

• 1970: Change in the strategies of planning in the cities

• Selling the city, promoting the city

• Strategy: strenghten a specific strategy as a city within the urban market

• Santiago´s role: Galicia´s main focus of culture, heritage and tourism

Town planning and the external promotion of Santiago de

Compostela

• The Campaigns: advertising in TV, radio, press, etc

• The PELEGRÍN

• Exceptional responde from “customers”

• 7 million visitors in 1993

• 1 million “Compostelas” (certificate of pilgrimation)

• Musical and artisitc perfomances, scientific conferences

City planning model and tourism strategies

•Promoting the city to the outside as a first class focus for culture, heritage and tourism

•Specialised regional center with great public sector and high-value private sector

•2 key issues: the Consorcio and the PGOU

City planning model and tourism strategies

• City planning: development project based in the situation and comparative advanteges of Santiago in the market of locations

• The drawing up of the P.G.O.U. was accompanied by a Special Plan for the Protection and Restoration of the Historic City directed by Josef Paul Kleihues

• Both of them comply with the framework for town- planning which fixes the strategy for Santiago’s promotion

• They intimately linked due to the fact that they were drawn up by the same technical team

City planning model and tourism strategies

•Also, the PGOU proposes the general structure of communications, the location of large infrastructures, the prediction of growth areas, the design of public facilities and traffic planning

•Reiforcement of the Old Town (centrality), which remain pedestrianized

Aims of the Special Plan of the Historic Centre

• To maintain and recuperate residential use by way of a programme of subsidies for the restoration of family homes, preserving the existing architectural typology and plots of land.

Aims of the Special Plan of the Historic Centre

• To strengthen the principal traditional functions by offering support to commercial renovation and the restoration of buildings of symbolic and emblematic value to fulfil an institutional role. The objective is to give the impression of a town with a “lively” character, going beyond a passive contemplative vision.

Aims of the Special Plan of the Historic Centre

• To strengthen the pedestrian infrastructure, taking into account the fact that pedestrian movement enriches the urban life of the Old Town and enriches the experiences of local people and visitors alike

Aims of the Special Plan of the Historic Centre

• To protect the heritage of the buildings and the urban environment, maintaining the architectural typologies and establishing a scale of architectural value for the buildings

From the 1990s• Special role to image and promotion: TURGALICIA and INCOLSA

• Santiago de Compostela joined the Strategic Plan of Tourism Marketing (2002-2005), within the Plan of Tourist Excellence (PET) 2001-2005

• This plan allowed the co-operation of public (Ministery of Tourism, Galician Department of Tourism, local Department of Tourism) and private sector (Commerce Chambers, Association of Hotels and Restaurants), in order to promote sustainable tourism in Santiago.

• Santiago is nowadays an mature urban cultural tourism destination

• Since 2005, there is a change in the Galician Government, and thus in the Tourism policies

New policies for Tourism in Santiago and Galicia

• Enhancement of cultural tourism

• Creation and promotion of new products

• Improvement of the accessibility, mainly by air

• Increase in the number and quality of the hotels

• Santiago as a first class cultural and urban tourism destination

• Research, networking and partnerships