Last year 7,548 people from Ireland completed the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela; and in 2018 the Irish comprised the seventh-largest foreign nationality making the journey.

March conference at the Waterford Institute of Technology is the first of its kind in Ireland and will discuss the potential for growth in sustainable spiritual tourism.

From a historical point of view it is the route that Irish pilgrims would have taken from the 1200s to the 1500s. The Mayor of Waterford walked the Camino twice in 1483 and 1493 and his tomb has the Camino shell sculptured into it.

"We have a product but we need a big marketing effort by the likes of Fáilte Ireland to really get this off the ground.”

The sixth century saint is remembered as one of the greatest of the Irish missionary monks and revered across parts of Europe.