A Dashboard to Enable New Opportunities for Rural Development by Overcoming the Dominant Segmentation of European Pilgrimage Routes

The numerous pilgrimage routes that cover the European continent entail an untapped potential to offer slow travel experiences with which to promote the development of rural areas that many people travel through, but very few take time to explore. The rurAllure Horizon 2020 project is investigating ways in which the points of cultural and historical interest in the vicinity of the routes could be connected and put on the map for pilgrims, tourists and locals. Most often, this requires investing in new hospitality services, as well as in the restoration and promotion of specific assets. This paper explains how the IT platform created in rurAllure can help in the decision-making that precedes the investments, by revealing the key locations and needs that, properly connected and catered for, would unlock leisure opportunities that cannot be realised otherwise.