Hello, I'm Bob Walker and this is Business Daily on the BBC World Service.

Pilgrimage is enjoying a rebirth. In a year before the pandemic, more than 350,000 people walk the roads leading to San Diego de Compostela in northern Spain.

And the need for some sort of modern-day enlightenment is growing elsewhere.

Pilgrimage has always been about many things, religion, spirituality, contemplation, but also money.

The development of the pilgrim path, of course, helps farmers to have two legs to stand on,

and we have several locations of farmers

that have half of their annual income on the farm

consists of the pilgrim business.

Join me as I walk along lakeside paths and mountain tracks

in the footsteps of a Viking saint,

whose memory is breathing new life into rural communities

in Norway and Sweden.

When there are people coming in from the US, Canada, walking this route, they're kind of proud

and they want to help as well. And some of them open an accommodation, which is really easy to

have like a little stuga, a little cottage, and then it's all right. So it brings money into the region that really needs it.

So follow my journey on land and water

as I spent a few days on the world's most northern pilgrimage route

for business daily.

Struggling beneath the weight of huge rucksaxe

Two young women emerge out of the mist onto a forest track in central Norway

They're actually hiking the entire length of the country

But as they continue on their way south, my companions and I head west.

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