The second part of the Santiago City Council’s “Fraxil” campaign is already underway. From last week until the end of September, ten informants will be present in key points of the city to raise awareness of the need to protect the heritage of Compostela and “change the tourism model”, as the mayor, Goretti Sanmartín, indicated last week. Equipped with a tablet, a sound level meter and a white vest – which more than one passerby has mistaken for that of an NGO – and in pairs, like the one formed by Hugo Caamaño and Patricia Parafita, they approach pilgrims and tourists, with a clear look. function: ensure coexistence between neighbors and visitors.
Since last Friday, these pairs of informants have been working from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the four entrances to the Camino and at the most visited points in the historic center. “We usually contact them,” Hugo explains, although there are also those who ask them directly for information. However, he acknowledges that Sometimes they confuse us with an NGO who wants to sell them something, but when they hear about tourism and the city council, they change their minds.” Their work begins by interviewing visitors to find out where they come from, what type of accommodation they are staying in, or whether they are travelling alone, with family or friends, for example. “Then we explain the countryside to them,” he says, they tell them “about the uncivil behaviour of pilgrims, the centralisation of tourism in the old part of the city and the opportunities that Santiago offers.” “Some information,” continues Patricia, who is usually “very grateful, because many only come to the historic centre and don’t know what else to do.”
But the work of these two 21-year-olds, both senior technicians in guiding, information and tourist assistance, It gets more complicated when it comes to addressing one of the city’s biggest complaints: large groups. At home, they say, it’s “more complicated to give them information” and “most of them don’t want to stop because they’re left behind.”
Something similar happens with noise. Equipped with a sound level meter, they can, always “in a friendly and non-reproachful manner”, tell tourists and pilgrims how much noise they generate. And the same thing happens to those who cycle where they cannot or who, in general, engage in one of those uncivil behaviors that social networks talk about so much. “After all, we are not police officers, we have no power” to tell us what to do or not to do, “we are informants,” they explain.
For their part, among those who stop to talk to them, there is a consensus: it is a “necessary and fantastic” campaign. This was stated yesterday in a conversation with ABC by two pilgrims from Valencia, after speaking with Hugo and Patricia. They are clear that everyone must try to be “a little more respectful”, especially “the pilgrim who walks a few kilometres”. According to what they say, they had already read that there were many people in the last 100 kilometres, but, they say, they could not “imagine it”: “like an avalanche”. “And you could see that, the more people there were, the more incivility, rubbish or stones on top of the markers.” Something, they add, that was noticeable “even in the shelters”, where, before Sarria, “there was silence and respect”. “From there on, the atmosphere is more festive”, they say.
For their part, the neighbors’ opinion is mixed. Some encourage them, explain the informants, who add that, among the locals, they already have a nickname: “we are the silent ones.” Others, like Roberto Almuíña, president of the Fonseca Neighborhood Association, consider that the campaign is late: “At that time, we had to prepare for the 2025 campaign.” “If the tourist season starts in April,” he says, “launching this campaign on August 20 seems out of time.” “And then there is another problem,” he adds, “which is that if there are no police on the streets, it will be difficult to solve this problem,” aware that the function of this initiative remains in information, without leading to sanctions.
“It’s all very well to redirect tourist groups, but the problem is still there,” he says, especially if at the same time “Concerts are promoted in the streets of the city center”, some already “described as affected by noise”, which concentrate an even greater volume of people. In his eyes, the “political will” is lacking: “The years go by and nothing is done”.
Local businesses have not welcomed this second part of the “Fráxil” campaign with particular enthusiasm either. From the association of Traders, Entrepreneurs and Professionals Compostela Monumental, they consider that “there are more important things” to which resources should be allocated. “From the association”, says its director, José Ángel Blanco Núñez, “we understand that it is more important to carry out tourism promotion campaigns”, “throughout the year” and to promote “our monumental environment” so that “people stay more days.” . “, and “don’t encourage tourism phobia.” And he asks, rhetorically, if what we want is a “Santiago like in the pandemic, with everything closed”: “The day when no one comes for tourism, who will want to explain to me what we are going to live on?” According to him, we must promote good, sustainable and quality tourism, and not “restrict it and try to chase it away”. On the one hand, he indicates, “the Xunta promotes Galicia and the Way”, and “here we do the opposite, giving a bad image and rejecting people”, he says.
