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ABSTRACT
The aim of this article is to establish whether fostering rural tourism by reuse and promotion of heritage has been able to mitigate the demographic decline in a depopulating area of Spain. Two types of route-based tourism in the north-west of Castile are compared, namely the millenary pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela and the nineteenth-century Castile Canal. For three decades, public authorities have actively stimulated tourism along these routes in order to retain the population. The findings reveal that public-sector investments and promotion have contributed to the growth of tourism along both routes but have not stopped demographic decline. The lack of revitalisation of the countryside is the result of the preceding rural exodus that has destroyed village communities.
Acknowledgements
We owe many thanks to Lía Fernández Sagrado for making the maps. The hospitality and generosity of the people we interviewed in the study area enabled us to broaden our perspective beyond statistics and policy documents. We are very grateful to them. Finally, we would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Luis Alfonso Hortelano Mínguez
Luis Alfonso Hortelano Mínguez is Senior lecturer and programme director of the Master in Evaluation and Management of Cultural Heritage at Geography Department of the University of Salamanca (Spain).
Jan Mansvelt Beck
Jan Mansvelt Beck is a retired lecturer of human geography and social sciences of the University of Amsterdam with Spain as a regional specialisation. Former European Socrates Teaching Fellow at the University of Salamanca.