During this Holy Year the Pilgrim Passport or Credential, the leaflet that attests your pilgrim status, goes digital to guarantee the safety of walkers and hospitaleros in 2021 and 2022!
Do you know what is the Pilgrim Passport or Credential for the Camino de Santiago?
Did you know that to officially join the pilgrim to Santiago de Compostela you need to have your own Pilgrim Passport or Credential? This consists in a leaflet, a personal and non-transferable that gives complete access to the experience, a sort of guide, helping in finding accommodation and proving the distance you walked by the type and number of stamps that you present. This document goes back to the Middle Ages, when every pilgrim was given a letter of safe passage that allowed them to travel freely and without risks.
A digital Pilgrim Passport or Credential developed to encounter modern needs!
The Cathedral of Santiago and the Xunta de Galicia presented the digital Pilgrim Passport or Credential, the new functionality which they intend to adapt to the new times. The digital Pilgrim Passport or Credential, which will be managed through a mobile application, seeks to provide greater comfort to the pilgrim, in addition to guaranteeing a safe Camino de Santiago, avoiding contact between hospitaleros and walkers, obtaining their stamps through the capture of QR codes..
How will the digital Pilgrim Passport or Credential work?
The digital Pilgrim Passport or Credential is coming into force with Holy Year 2021-2022 or Xacobeo 2021, a very special year on the Camino de Santiago after eleven years without celebrating it. The pilgrim can download a mobile application, which will be available for iOS and Android platforms in eight languages. Through this app, you can get the two daily stamps necessary to prove your pilgrimage to Santiago. These stamps, also digital, can be obtained through the QR codes available at the different points of the Camino de Santiago.
An official website for the digital Pilgrim Passport or Credential!
The project will also have an official website where establishments with a seal can register and digitize their image. Thus, they will obtain the necessary QR code so that the pilgrim can scan it with their mobile and incorporate it into their digital Pilgrim Passport or Credential. The mobile application in which the digital Pilgrim Passport or Credential can be managed will have information on the different Camino Routes and, in addition to making it possible to capture the stamps through the QR, will allow the integration of the data in the Pilgrim Registry necessary to achieve the Compostela.
The application to generate digital stamps is launched!
As a step prior to the implementation of the Digital Pilgrim Passport or Credential, the Cathedral of Santiago de compostela launched in January of the Holy Year 2021-2022 the digital tool with which the different points of the Camino can generate their stamps. From that moment you can access this online tool from the websites of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela and the Pilgrim Reception Office.
Seal for the Pilgrim Passport or Credential!
Hostels, Associations of Friends of the Way, parishes and other points of the sealing of the Pilgrim Passport or Credential can already register and register their stamp, previously digitized, or create a predetermined one, in the case of not having it in digital format. Once the seal has been validated, a QR code will be downloaded that can be made available to pilgrims so that they can incorporate it into their digital Pilgrim Passport or Credential throughout the different stages in Holy Year 2021.
What about the Pilgrim Passport or Credential on paper?
The incorporation of this digital certificate will not mean the disappearance of the Pilgrim Passport or Credential in Holy Year 2021 on paper. In fact, any pilgrim who wishes can continue to use the traditional Credential and collect the stamps that certify their passage through the different stages of the Camino. Both the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela and the Xunta have ensured that the stamps obtained virtually will be the same as the Pilgrim Passport or Credential on paper, avoiding differences between one and the other. However, both entities have pointed out that the digital modality will offer greater comfort for the pilgrim in Holy Year 2021, in addition to increasing health security, one of the priorities in these months.
Register of Pilgrims and “digital queue” for Compostela
The launch of the digital Pilgrim Passport or Credential in Holy Year 2021 is one more example of the commitment to the implementation of new technologies in the Jacobean Routes. A process that has been accelerated by the crisis caused by Covid-19, after which it is more necessary than ever to guarantee a safe Camino de Santiago. Among the digital advances in recent months, it is worth highlighting the reservation platform for public hostels in Galicia, which will soon be joined by a new one for private accommodation.
Pilgrims office at the cathedral of Santiago De Compostela
The Cathedral of Santiago has also advanced in the digitization of the Camino de Santiago with the incorporation of the Pilgrim Registry and the “digital queue”, two key steps to obtain the Compostela at the Pilgrim’s Office. From this summer, pilgrims must enter their data in the Registry so that their Compostela is ready upon arrival in Santiago. The new system for obtaining the Compostela also includes an online appointment system.
QR Code
Thus, when you arrive at the Pilgrim’s Office with your Pilgrim Passport or Credential in Holy Year 2021, you will get a QR code with the approximate time you can pick up the Pilgrim Passport or Credential. With this code it is also possible to consult the progress of the queue in real time. With this measure, the Cathedral wanted to solve the long queues that occurred during some months of the year, especially in summer.To offer greater facilities to pilgrims, the mobile app of the digital pilgrim Credential will in Holy Year 2021 allow interaction with other web tools, such as the Pilgrim Registry. In addition, it will allow those responsible for the Office to know the approximate volume of pilgrims who will arrive in Santiago in the near future, in order to adapt the necessary resources.
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