Remote rural areas
Good practice case study
Project SENDA, Galicia, Spain
The SENDA project was initially funded by the Community Initiative ADAPT during 1995-1997 and brought together a range of local and regional actors to develop and promote the regional tourism industry. It used the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela as a unique selling point for its activities and brought together a network of regional craft businesses and rural hotels and hostels into a support network. Through the network the project provided training for SMEs, increased the use of ICT in the sector (e.g. online hotel reservation) and created a regional marketing strategy.
The project has brought many small hostels into the formal economy for the first time, making them eligible to receive state support. It has an online craft shop selling traditional products from the region Web site and established a honey production and testing centre for small regional producers to collectively improve and market their product.
Key lessons:
- Exploitation of a key local asset, St James’ pilgrim route, has added value to the complementary local businesses – action at regional level has given the activity sufficient scale to create an integrated regional network
Case study
Project SENDA [pdf, en, 17kb]
Further information
Artega: Tienda de Artesanía y Productos Agroalimentarios en los Caminos de Santiago
