Revista Galega de Economía 2021, 30 (3), 7938 ISSN-e 2255-5951 1 © 2021 universidad de Santiago de Compostela. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonComercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) License. PRESENTATION OPEN ACCESS The socio-economic impact of cultural itineraries: The Way of Saint James and other pilgramage routes Rubén Camilo Lois González a / John Eade b / Adolfo Carballo-Penela c (Eds.) * a Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Departamento de Xeografía, Área Análise Xeográfica Rexional, Praza da Universi- dade 1, 15703 Santiago de Compostela, España b University of Roehampton, Department of Social Sciences, London SW15 5SL, UK c Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Departamento de Organización de Empresas e Comercialización, Campus Norte, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, España Economic, social and territorial thinking has notably evolved to turn the pilgrimages and cultural trips that follow an itinerary into new subjects of analysis and reflection. Pilgrimage was initially a classic concept linked to a specific religious practice and a traditional set of beliefs but it now attracts and mobilises tens of thousands of people around the world who have a wide range of attitudes towards pilgrimage (Coleman and Eade, 2004; Lois González, 2013). It can involve groups of men and women who, regardless of their beliefs, political or ideological positions, decide to start a journey to reconnect with nature, the landscape and enjoy new life experiences. All this can involve slow and patterned mobility, where people take their time to travel (Greenia, 2014). This particular mobility benefits some industries, such as those related to sports and trekking activities, increasing sales of clothing and footwear, driving the demand for high energy food in addition to the physical preparation. In fact, it represents a new form of collective behaviour rooted in contemporary societies, which seeks to break with the stressful urban everyday life and daily routine, in favour of resting and reconnecting with sensory experiences as well as having time for reflection (Lois González, Castro and Lopez, 2016; Urry, 2000). The sociological notion of the tourist gaze reaches its full dimension here. Furthermore, cultural itineraries favour local development processes in populations located along a line, an axis that must be travelled slowly (Pileri and Moscarelli, 2020; Urry and Larsen, 2011). As a result, they benefit many peripheral and declining rural territories, promoting their economic diversification, and generating employment and wealth. The concepts of ‘pilgrimage’ and ‘pilgrim’ have changed completely in recent times. An old road or route to a city or a sanctuary, or a network of localities linked by tradition, history or an important cultural product, can be the main reason to walk, cycle or travel quietly through a territory that is not very crowded (Lois González, Castro and Lopez, 2016; Morinis, 1992). Reinterpreted cultural itineraries and pilgrimage present an opportunity for spaces that have suffered urbanisation and economic concentration processes to become attractive, and the attractions of the places can be immediately translated into profitability (Fernández, Fernández Méndez and Riveiro, 2021). For their part, contemporary pilgrims are mostly urban, professional and relatively educated. By walking they seek to disconnect from their daily lives, reconnecting with the world of experiences, rest and peaceful pleasure. They are no longer sinners in need of forgiveness but hedonistic people who try to break with the stress and pace of today’s world (Collins-Kreiner, 2010; Eade and Sallnow, 1991). As in the past, the pilgrimage route is a metaphor for life, and the completion of the itinerary or the Way implies liminality, a rite of * rubencamilo.lois@usc.es; j.eade@roehampton.ac.uk; adolfo.carballo@usc.es