[Gocamino] A few Holy Year stats

[Johnnie Walker]

Hola from the Pilgrims' Office

 

It is fascinating. For the first three days of this week for example after morning rush hour the office was relatively serene. Today the queue was waiting on opening and it has been non stop. Staff and volunteers enter the data directly onto computer and we can keep a running total but on a day like today we use extra desks and the information is recorded on paper and up loaded much later. Hence it was not know for some days that on the 24th July 2,500 or so compostelas were issued. This has broken all records. But it is also clear that there is a mountain of pilgrims walking from much nearer Santiago: Cebreiro and Sarria in particular. It feels as most of these are Spanish. We will only see the full picutre when the full profile of stats is released.

 

Best wishes

 

John 
 
www.johnniewalker-santiago.blogspot.com
 



 
> Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2010 16:52:56 +0200
> From: tim at errecaldia.com
> To: sillydoll at gmail.com
> CC: gocamino at oakapple.net; saintjames at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [Gocamino] A few Holy Year stats
> 
> Hi Sil and all,
> This is very interesting and very confusing, because here in Saint 
> Jean Pied de Port we have not seen this huge increase. In fact, up to 
> the end of June, there had been little or no increase at all. Those 
> wishing to be in Santiago for the last week in July would have had to 
> leave here by the end of June. The figures are 11,891 for 2010 and 
> 11,565 for up to the end of June 2009. My own observations for the 
> month of July don't make me think that there is any great increase for 
> July in the offing.
> So it would appear that Northern Europe is not the source of this 
> increase in numbers. I feel sorry for those who have invested in new 
> albergues in the town it must be quite heartbreaking for them. I have 
> seen no reduction in business nor any great increase but then again I 
> don't welcome pilgrims specifically and many of my 'Pilgrim' clients 
> tend to use me as a 'halfway house' a break for two or three days in a 
> private room with it's own bath and shower facilities before setting out 
> once again.
> As I say it's interesting and I await your comments.
> Tim
> 
> Sil wrote:
> > In the first seven months of the year 136 500 people , representing a fifty
> > percent increase from the last Holy Year , collected the Compostela from the
> > Pilgrim's Office. During July they issued 42 359 Compostelas and August is
> > expcted to be higher. 12 000 youth pilgrims will decend on Santiago today -
> > they are being housed at Monte de Gozo, sports halls, colleges and schools
> > and they will be issued Compostelas outside of the pilgrims office.
> > In the first seven months of the year the Civil Protection volunteers
> > attended to more than 70,000 people over eighty municipalities through which
> > the Camino passes. In a thousand kilometers of roads there are deployed a
> > thousand volunteers , nearly one in every kilometer .
> > With an average of 330 performances each day, most of the incidents
> > involving wounded or injured hikers. Fatigue , dehydration, sunburn and
> > wounds are the most common reasons that lead the pilgrims to use the Civil
> > Defence volunteers deployed along the Camino. While in most cases the
> > situation is resolved by a first-aid care on site, on 450 occasions has also
> > been necessary to move injured pilgrims to a shelter or even the nearest
> > health center .
> > Almost half of the care carried out on pilgrims - over 35 000 - was on the
> > Portuguese Way while the other 27 000 took place in one of the
> > municipalities through which flows the Galician section of the French Way .
> >
> > 
> 
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