Innovation

Hike the Way has introduced an innovative mobile app designed to enhance the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage experience by providing step-by-step navigation, cultural insights, and recommendations for local services along the route. Developed by a team inspired by their personal connections to the Camino, the app was created to replace traditional paper maps, which often led to confusion, waste, and environmental concerns. The app not only offers clear directions to help travelers avoid getting lost, but also highlights local points of interest, cultural information, and businesses in Camino villages, thereby enriching the journey and supporting the local economy.

This innovation aligns closely with UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, particularly target 12b, which promotes sustainable tourism that benefits local communities and minimizes environmental impact. By switching from printed maps to a digital solution, Hike the Way reduces paper waste on the Camino trails, lowering the environmental footprint of its travelers. Additionally, by featuring local businesses, the app encourages responsible consumption, as travelers are guided to eco-friendly services and unique local products, fostering economic benefits for the regions they visit.

The impact of this innovation is profound on multiple levels. For pilgrims, the app provides a seamless, enriched experience, ensuring safety and convenience while allowing them to focus on the transformative journey itself. For local communities, the app’s recommendations drive tourism revenue, sustaining local businesses. Environmentally, the reduction in paper waste preserves the Camino trails, making this pilgrimage more sustainable and aligned with global goals for a more responsible and impactful travel experience. 

Inspiration

The leader of Hike the Way was deeply inspired by her own transformative experiences walking the Camino de Santiago. Driven by the desire to create a meaningful impact, she and her husband founded the company “to do something that could change the world and affect other people in a special way.” This vision was born from the spiritual connection she felt during her pilgrimages, where she often found herself reconnecting with her faith and feeling a sense of purpose. She reflects on the high point of receiving daily feedback from clients, or “pilgrims,” who share how the Camino has “changed their lives,” an experience that brings her immense joy and affirms her work’s impact.

The inspiration behind Hike the Way’s innovative app also grew from her observations of the challenges travelers faced navigating the Camino. With years of experience in Spain and numerous walks along the route herself, she saw “a gap in the market for people who needed help” finding their way, especially in a foreign country where language barriers and physical maps often led to confusion and waste. Motivated by her commitment to sustainable tourism and customer experience, she and her team developed an app that not only aids in navigation but also highlights local businesses along the route. This dual focus on providing a seamless experience and fostering economic growth for Camino communities captures the leader’s dedication to a mission that is as spiritually rewarding as it is socially impactful. 

Overall impact

The innovation’s impact is rooted in the amount of money saved by the company itself, the amount of unnecessary ink and paper used, and most importantly, the positive reviews it has generated.

The innovation has been implemented for only a year now, and the company has already received multiple reviews recognizing its positive impact, one being:

“The itinerary and the provided map app were very helpful in locating the next destination, distances and elevations” (Hike The Way - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024))

Reviews like these reveal that Hike the Way’s travelers find this innovation useful and helpful, encouraging the company to continue to implement the app rather than going back to printing maps.  

Business benefit

As mentioned in the interview, the CEO highlighted how rewarding it is to receive positive feedback from the pilgrims that walk with her company. Receiving such feedback encourages Hike the Way to continue working towards their goal of providing the best experiences for their pilgrims and helps spread awareness of the company through the reviews posted on websites such as Tripadvisor.

Economically, the business has saved lots of money as a result of this innovation. In the last year, the company found a way to make the amount of paper printed per traveler decrease from fifty to three pages (only the personalized itinerary is printed now), by offering the same and additional information that the maps provided into a single mobile app. Thanks to this innovation, the company saves on shipping costs (having to ship the maps to the travelers) and printing costs. Furthermore, much less colored ink is used, reducing the overall amount spent on supplies.  

Social and environmental benefit

Overall, the innovation decreases the company’s inventory costs. By using less ink and paper, the company saves lots of money, which can then be invested into other departments? With the following printing calculator, while taking into account ink and paper costs, it is estimated that each printed page would cost about $0.21 (Printing Cost Per Page Calculator | PrintiePie). By multiplying that number by 47 (fifty pages used to be printed before the innovation and now only three are printed) and then multiplying by the number of travelers per year (about 300), we can estimate that the company now saves at least $2,961 per year. As a travel company that is relatively new, reducing costs as much as possible is a priority. This innovation has helped the company as well as the environment by reducing the amount of paper printed and including the information on an app which can easily be used by travelers, is weather-friendly (maps can get damaged in the rain, are prone to get dirty...), and ensures the cleanliness of the Camino’s paths.  

Interview

Jackie Dumoit, Co-founder and CEO