Conmen of the Camino hold up pilgrims’ progress

Pilgrims are being led into temptation along the Camino de Santiago as unscrupulous bar owners switch signs and tamper with way markings to divert the walkers to their establishments.

Spanish tourism authorities say that yellow scallop signs, the symbol marking out the route, are being faked and yellow arrows have been sprayed on roads to take some of the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims off the straight and narrow and on long detours that may get them lost.

The worst place for the fake signs is in Ponferrada, in northwest Spain near the end of the route in Santiago de Compostela. At one junction on the outskirts of the city yellow arrows and fake scallop markings directed walkers into the path of bars.

Tourist authorities suspect that the owners of the establishments were responsible for changing the signs, which led to weary pilgrims having to double back.

‘‘The problem is the bad image that this gives to the pilgrimage as well as the city of Ponferrada,’’ Roger de la Cruz, president of the Friends of the Camino de Santiago, said. ‘‘The signs on the Camino are sacred and they cannot modify it for commercial or personal interests.’’

Efforts are being made by cities on the route to bring in a standard yellow symbol to stop walkers being tricked.

Every year hundreds of thousands of people walk cross northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela, where the remains of the apostle St James are said be kept.

The route has grown in popularity thanks to a publicity push by the Galician regional government and the number of participants has grown from 99,000 in 1993 to 301,000 last year.

While the tampering this year has been fairly harmless, the practice has been used recently for more sinister ends.

In 2015 a Spanish farmer lured an American tourist away from the pilgrims’ trail by painting yellow signs similar to those on the Camino route. Miguel Munoz, 41, then clubbed Denise Pikka Thiem, 40, from Arizona, to death and stole US$1132 in cash from her. He stripped her body and cut off her hands to hide his tracks.

‘‘The signs on the Camino are sacred and they cannot modify it for commercial or personal interests.’’ Roger de la Cruz, Friends of the Camino de Santiago

GETTY IMAGES The Camino de Santiago is a network of pilgrims’ ways serving pilgrimage to the shrine of the apostle Saint James in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain.