Towards a European Governance Framework for Pilgrimage Routes: Challenges, Opportunities and Recommendations

Beyond its religious and spiritual traits, pilgrimage is gaining momentum as a sustainable tourism practice, while contributing to several EU priorities, including cultural heritage enhancement, intercultural dialogue, and economic development, particularly in rural areas suffering from depopulation and youth drain. Yet, their potential is hindered by a lack of coordination among the stakeholders involved at interregional and transnational levels, resulting in a far from homogeneous experience along pilgrimage routes. This paper maps out the existing policies and governance frameworks related to pilgrimage in seven European countries (Hungary, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Spain), identifying gaps between regions and opportunities for cooperation. It also develops and validates a set of policy recommendations through a Delphi survey with a representative sample of stakeholders from six European historic pilgrimage routes (The Ways of Saint James; the pilgrimage routes to Rome - Via Francigena, Romea Strata and Via Romea Germanica; the Saint Olav Ways in Scandinavia, and; the Way of Mary to Şumuleu Ciuc / Csíksomlyó). Finally, we test whether these recommendations fit well into EU politics through a roundtable with EU policymakers. Initial findings suggest that a multi-level coordination framework is suitable to unlock pilgrimage potential for socio-economic development and territorial cohesion.