Motivations of pilgrims on the Portuguese Inner Way to Santiago de Compostela

Undertaking the way to Santiago today is characterised by being multi-motivational, not only attending to religious motivations (Amaro et al., 2018; Lois-González and Santos, 2014). In fact, the differences between the pilgrim and the tourist are increasingly smaller, because both travellers are motivated by the experience of realising the way and are looking for the same type of services (Amaro et al., 2018; Collins-Kreiner in Lois-González and Santos, 2014). The objective of this study is to make a comparison between the motivations of the Portuguese touripilgrims (Pereiro, 2017) and the foreign touripilgrims on the Portuguese Inner Way of Santiago de Compostela (PIWSC) and other pilgrims on other ways to Santiago. As was indicated by Amaro et al. (2018), there are differences between the motivations of pilgrims according to their nationality, but in our work, other variables include social action like the option for a less travelled way; an experience closer to traditional pilgrimages; an option based only on religious motivations or on tourist motivations; or landscape variables (mentioned repeatedly in interviews). The PIWSC crosses the portuguese municipalities of Viseu, Castro Daire, Lamego, Peso da Régua, Santa Marta de Penaguião, Vila Real, Vila Pouca de Aguiar and Chaves. As a methodological strategy, anthropological field work was chosen – with the use of participant observation – as a central research strategy, complemented with open and structured interviews, as well as audio-visual research, net-ethnography and documentary analysis. This conjugation of research techniques, as well as the use of field diary, audio recorder and photography - as instruments of registration, provided an understanding of the object of study. With the results obtained, it was realised that there is a constant dialogue and tension between heritage, tourist and religious interests. There is also evidence of a motivation for less mass-pilgrimage ways (Pereiro, 2017) - as is the case of PIWSC. So, it was possible to assess a set of communication strategies to be directed to the different profiles of touripilgrims according to nationality, given the lack of promotional strategies existing in the PIWSC, as evidenced in other less-travelled / primitive ways (as noted by Martín, 2014).