Memorandum submitted by the Church Heritage
Forum
1. The Church Heritage Forum, established in
1997, brings together representatives of national and local church
interests in matters relating to the Church's built heritage.
It enables the Church to take a more proactive role in anticipating
developments in the built heritage field; ensures that heritage
concerns are fed into the Archbishops' Council; provides a mechanism
for members to reach a view on matters of common concern and a
focus for contact both within the Church and with outside bodies;
promotes a wider public awareness of the Church's work in the
built heritage area; and enables the exchange of information and
facilitates mutual support.
2. Membership comprises representatives from:
the Advisory Board for Redundant Churches, Archbishops' Council,
Association of English Cathedrals, Church Commissioners' Redundant
Churches Committee, Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England,
Churches Conservation Trust, Council for the Care of Churches,
the Ecclesiastical Judges Association, and an archdeacon. They
are assisted by several assessors including a Diocesan Secretary,
the Secretary of the Churches Main Committee, and the Secretary
of the Ecclesiastical Law Association.
3. The Officers of the Church Heritage Forum
welcome the opportunity to contribute to this significant inquiry.
We have not responded to all the headings and have instead concentrated
on those issues where we have the most contribution to make. Other
organisations including the Churches Tourism Association, the
Pilgrims' Association, the Association of English Cathedrals and
the Sacred Britain Tourism Partnership are submitting complimentary
contributions.
THE CHALLENGES
AND OPPORTUNITIES
FOR THE
DOMESTIC AND
INBOUND TOURISM
INDUSTRIES, INCLUDING
CHEAP FLIGHTS
ABROAD, AND
THEIR IMPACT
ON TRADITIONAL
TOURIST RESORTS
4. The major concern of the Church Heritage
Forum has been to draw attention to the tremendous contribution
churches make to society as a whole. In 2004, the Forum published
on behalf of the Church of England, a report entitled "Building
Faith in our Future" which set out to describe that contribution.[4]
Part of that contribution is to the area of tourism.
5. Church tourism has always been a huge interest,
but its potential is not always recognised. As a result, is not
supported and resourced to the degree which we think it deserves.
Its potential to develop and become an even greater key part of
tourism for both foreign and domestic visitors is being missed.
6. Churches and cathedrals, often the focal
point of a place whether in the countryside, market towns, or
major cities, attract visitors and thereby contribute to the financial
and economic well-being of an area. There are 16,200 Church of
England churches, covering every community in the country. They
will generally be open, attractive and historic.
7. Churches are self evidently key architectural
buildings and also contain huge amounts of important, beautiful
and unusual works of art from wall-paintings to woodwork. Cathedrals
and churches have made a major commitment to art over the centuries
and are continuing to do so in the 21st Century.
8. Church buildings and cathedrals are consistently
in the list of most visited tourist attractions. St Paul's Cathedral,
Canterbury Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey all appear in the
top 20 of most visited sites that charge an entry fee in the 2006
visitor figures published by the Association of Leading Visitor
Attractions for its members.
Five World Heritage sites in the UK specifically
include church buildings: Bath Abbey, Canterbury Cathedral, Durham
Cathedral, Fountains Abbey and Westminster Abbey.
9. But visits to places of worship go much wider
than the major set piece tourist attraction: and benefit the national
and local economy as well as enhancing the quality of life of
those visitors.
— An independent survey commissioned
by the Association of English Cathedrals and English Heritage
found that visitors to cathedrals generated £91 million for
their local cities in terms of direct spend by visitors. Adding
the effects of indirect spend and the cathedrals' own procurement
increased this to £150 million. ECOTEC 2004
— An assessment produced on behalf
of the Northwest Regional Development Agency estimated that 697,114
faith visitors and tourists to the North West Region generate
around £8.4 million per annum, supporting 263 FTE jobs. Northwest
Regional Development Agency, Faith in England's Northwest: Economic
Impact Assessment, February 2005
10. Churches also attract substantial numbers
of visitors, however, obtaining reliable data is difficult, as
aside from some cathedrals, places of worship do not charge entry
and most are not stewarded. Therefore, the benefits to local economies
of visitors to parish churches is more difficult to quantify.
11. There have been some scoping studies:
— National ORB surveys in 2001, 2003,
and 2005 found that 86% of those surveyed had been inside a church
building within the previous 12 months—with those of other
religions or of no religion also showing high figures for visiting.
Opinion Research Business (ORB), Annual Religious Survey of Affiliation
and Practice including Perceptions of the Role of Local Churches/Chapels,
on behalf of the Church of England and English Heritage, Dec 2001,
Oct 2003 and Nov 2005
— Trevor Cooper, Chairrman of the Ecclesiological
Society has estimated that at least 10 million visits, and maybe
as many as 50 million, are made to parish churches each year.
Trevor Cooper, How do we keep our Parish Churches? Ecclesiological
Society 2004
— North West Faith Tourism Scoping
Study estimated 17 million visits to 45 cathedrals and 52 places
of worship. Connor and Co, 2003
— VisitBritain Survey of Visits to
Visitor Attractions (2002) reported that 13 million visits to
places of worship in 2002 (excluding visits to most parish churches)
accounting for 21% of visits to major historic visitor attractions.
12. Making assumptions based upon a basket of
indicators, it seems that a realistic estimate would be around
35-50 million visits to churches across the country.
VisitBritian's 2006 estimate for day trip spending
is £27.70 per person. Using this as a guide, the total value
of visits to churches is probably around £300 million each
year
13. Increasingly more churches are being encouraged
and helped to open and provide an increasing interesting experience
for the visitor. There are excellent examples of regional, county
and more local church tourism initiatives around the country.
Most of these include providing best practice and guidance to
the individual churches which join these initiatives on how best
to "open up" their churches and also the much needed
infrastructure in providing links to the distributive and advertising
power of the wider tourism industry. Such initiatives based on
encouraging church tourism have been shown to increase numbers
of visitors. The North Yorkshire Church Tourism initiative which
ran for three years increased by 120% the number of visitors to
the 285 places of worship which participated—with total
visitors recorded of over 200,000 in 2004-05.
14. It has also been found that opening up the
church brings a real benefit to community cohesion. Congregations,
especially in rural areas gain in confidence through opening their
doors to visitors and move onto to provide other community activities.
15. Over the last 18 months, with the help of
a six month 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, Church of England, Civic Trust,
English Heritage, VisitBritain. The main aim is to bring together
those involved in church tourism with the tourism sector and enable
the development of a shared vision and a co-ordinated "framework
for action" on the marketing of historic churches to potential
visitors.
16. The Sacred Britain Tourism Partnership launched
its strategy document An Agenda for Action: the 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, Minister for Culture. This
strategy aims to make churches and places of worship a "must
see" part of exploring Britain's destinations. To realise
this vision, the strategy sets out priorities for action over
the next three years (2007-09). Under the project acronym "ASPIRE",
the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has recently awarded a £50,000
Project Planning Grant to enable key items on the agenda to be
taken forward. A project manager has now been appointed. The Churches
Tourism Association has also launched its new website. Go to http://www.churchestourismassociation.org.uk.
THE EFFECTIVENESS
OF DCMS AND
ITS SPONSORED
BODIES (SUCH
AS VISITBRITAIN)
IN SUPPORTING
THE INDUSTRY
17. As will be clear from the information provided
above, the church tourism sector is starting to organise itself
and build up the necessary infrastructure. Additional resources
and support are needed to help develop a national co-ordinated
"framework for action" on the marketing of historic
churches to potential visitors. There is also a need to capacity
build those at parish level who are responsible for actually opening
up these buildings and providing a satisfactory visitor experience.
Support from DCMS in helping to provide this national role would
be very welcome.
18. We welcome the growing awareness shown by
the Regional Cultural Consortia in embracing churches/cathedrals
as part of the cultural sector. Likewise the Regional Tourist
Boards are also gradually recognising the role of cathedrals and
churches in bringing visitors into an area. This is, by no means
true in all of the 9 English Regions and some of the recognition
has come about due to hard work of the cathedrals and churches
themselves submitting evidence and making the case.
19. VisitBritain has supported the formation
of the Sacred Britain Tourism Partnership by means of a six month
secondment (see above), but does not have a remit to provide direct
support to coordinate information collection, presentation and
product development for individual product sectors, of which church
and faith heritage are just one.
20. Currently churches and cathedrals do not
receive any government funding to assist with their role as tourist
attractions. Whereas the DCMS awards grants to museums to enable
free access for the public, no such grants are available to cathedrals.
In York in 2005-06, the National Railway Museum received a grant
of £5.66 million, equivalent to approximately £6.50
per visitor. York Minster, which received 895,000 visits in 2006,
received no assistance and instead charged £7.00 for an adult
visitor, a charge necessitated by the cost of keeping the building
open, safe and secure, and in good repair. Revenue grants that
would enable cathedrals to provide free access to visitors would
be very welcome and potentially extend the opportunity to less
advantaged groups to experience what cathedrals have to offer.
21. The Heritage Lottery Fund does provide some
funding for churches to improve their visitor experience. We are
also aware that there are draft proposals under discussion to
provide more funding and encouragement to churches to open up
their buildings as part of the English Heritage/Heritage Lottery
Fund Joint Repairs Grant Scheme. We would welcome this.
THE PRACTICALITY
OF PROMOTING
MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY
FRIENDLY FORMS
OF TOURISM
22. Churches are an existing resource and there
is no major development required to exploit it except for the
need to develop a national infrastructure and co-ordinated marketing
campaign as described above. Churches are also spread across the
country and apart from the major cathedrals and a few parish churches
are not "honey pot" sites. There is not normally the
negative impact caused by too many visitors. On the plus side,
visits to churches generate income in some of our remotest and
most deprived rural areas, thereby sustaining local communities.
23. In many rural areas, churches are working
with their local communities to develop sustainable tourism and
regenerate the area. The Hidden Britain Centres Scheme was set
up in 2001 after the foot and mouth crisis which severely damaged
the rural tourist trade and its dependent small businesses. The
Scheme continues to open up more Centres and to attract visitors
to lesser-known parts of the countryside through developing a
network of community owned and led tourism projects. Founded by
a former Church of England National Rural Officer, churches are
a vital part of this scheme and the schemes have often, although
not necessarily, been Church led.
24. The development of church trails highlighting
architecture, arts and crafts are all part of this. The challenge
is to encourage more of these trails to provide information on
how to visit these churches by cycling, walking and public transport.
HOW TO
DERIVE MAXIMUM
BENEFIT FOR
THE INDUSTRY
FROM THE
LONDON 2012 GAMES
25. Cathedrals and historic churches are a quintessential
feature of our landscape and they are part of the historic narrative
of our national identity which has a strong appeal for domestic
and foreign visitors alike. They are, thus, a major part of the
"historic environment" tourism brand as illustrated
by the statistics provided in the paragraphs above. We anticipate
that cathedrals and other places of worship will see increased
visitor numbers as those attracted to the UK to see the Olympics
will also spend time experiencing the country's heritage outside
London.
26. The current interest in geneology and the
tracing of ancestry is an area whichcould be promoted as part
of 2012; churches are an integral part of this. Encouraging visitors
to also take the opportunity to trace their ancestry by providing
the tools and information to do this would add greatly to the
experience of 2012 visitors to the UK. It would also encourage
these visitors to travel outside London and thus spread the benefit
of the Games. VisitBritain is supporting Churches and other places
of worship through a new initiative on ancestral tourism, in inspiring
and directing domestic and international visitors to discover
their roots in Britain through its new website: www.visitbritain.com/ancestry.
27. There would also be specific opportunities
for certain churches and cathedrals which are situated close to
sites being used for the Olympics. This would include those near
to the main East London venue, but also the off-site locations
of other activities such as sailing, and equestrian are also likely
to have historic sacred places nearby.
March 2007
4 Can be downloaded from the Church of England website
at http://www.cofe.anglican.org/about/builtheritage/buildingfaith/ Back
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