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Church tourism – moving forward

Over the last two years, with the help of a secondment from VisitBritain, the key organisations that have an interest in church tourism have come together to form the Sacred Britain Tourism Partnership: the Churches Conservation Trust, the Churches Tourism Association, the Cathedral and Church Buildings Division of the Church of England, Civic Trust, English Heritage, and VisitBritain.

The Partnership is building strong links with The Pilgrims' Association, Churches Tourism Network Wales, Scotland's Churches Scheme, Sacred Sussex and the Yorkshire Churches Regional Commission and other church tourism initiatives across the UK.

Steps are being taken to include other faith groups as in a multicultural Britain the opportunity to visit the sacred places of different faiths is a unique and emerging visitor experience.

The main aim is to provide an effective mechanism for the development of strategy and a shared vision to enable the promotion and development of tourism involving places of worship and sacred places.

The Sacred Britain Tourism Partnership launched its strategy document An Agenda for Action: Sacred Britain: Places of Worship and the Tourism Destination Experience at the Churches Tourism Association's annual national convention in November 2006 in the presence of David Lammy MP, the then Minister of Culture.

This strategy aims to make churches and places of worship a 'must see' part of exploring Britain's destinations.