Santiago de Compostela, the historic Spanish city famed as the endpoint of the Camino de Santiago and believed burial site of Saint James, is the latest European destination grappling with the effects of overtourism.
While frustrated locals in cities like Barcelona have resorted to using water pistols to deter visitors, a neighborhood group in Santiago is taking a more welcoming approach.
They’ve created a multilingual etiquette guide for tourists, now posted throughout the city and in its growing number of hostels. The guide offers polite reminders—such as keeping noise levels down, obeying traffic rules, and using rubber tips on hiking poles to protect the city’s ancient cobblestone streets.
Despite the effort, disruptive behavior remains common. Large tour groups still dominate the streets, singing loudly, cyclists often go against traffic, and the clatter of metal hiking poles continues to echo through the narrow alleys.
Local social media platforms are filled with posts criticizing the decline in visitor decorum.
But the biggest concern isn't behavior—it’s volume. The historic core, once the heart of daily life, has been overtaken by tourists, pushing residents out.
In 2024 alone, over 500,000 people registered to walk one of the official pilgrimage routes—five times the city's population and a 725-fold increase since the 1980s—plus many more arrived by other means.