The Camino de Santiago, a UNESCO-listed pilgrimage route, has experienced sustained growth in visitor numbers, challenging municipalities to preserve cultural integrity while ensuring service quality. This study reviews people-counting technologies and proposes a smart pilgrim management framework grounded in flux measurement systems to support data-driven and sustainable decision-making. Drawing on the smart tourism literature, the conceptual framework integrates infrared counters, mobile tracking solutions, and GPS/Wi-Fi data to generate real-time insights into pilgrim flows. A pilot simulation illustrates how these data can inform operational and strategic planning. The framework enables local authorities to monitor pedestrian movements, anticipate service demands (sanitation, accommodation, and safety), and detect overcrowding in sensitive heritage areas. By incorporating technological solutions into traditionally low-tech pilgrimage settings, municipalities can transition from reactive to proactive management approaches. The paper contributes a scalable and ethically grounded framework tailored to heritage pilgrimage routes, advancing smart tourism applications in culturally significant contexts.
Mar et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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