Faith tourism, faith in tourism

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Faith tourism, faith in tourism - Professor Maddy Gray

In recent years, heritage tourism has been one of the few growth areas in the Welsh economy – and a lot of it revolves round the heritage of religion and belief. From Neolithic burial mounds to nineteenth-century chapels, faith tourism is part of the stock in trade. The Welsh Government recognised this back in 2013 when the Faith Tourism Action Plan was launched. Unfortunately – as so often happens – once we had the strategic planning document in place, it all went a bit quiet. The plan was (and I quote from the document) that

'By 2020 Faith Tourism is recognised as an integral component of the visitor experience in Wales, adding significant value to the destination offer, contributing to the well-being of the visitor and host community and enhancing local, regional and national ‘Sense of Place’

Has this happened? – well, not really. That is not to say that we haven’t had a huge number of heritage projects that are all or in part about faith tourism – the North Wales Pilgrim’s Way, the Ancient Connections project working on links between SW Wales and SE Ireland, the Marian Way trying to conserve the ruined church at Chapel Hill, the Village Alive Trust in north Monmouthshire, my own Cistercian Way, and many many more. But there hasn’t been any sense of co-ordination, and sometimes different projects are working on the same stories but not aware of each other’s existence. There is also a need to widen the scope of faith tourism to include all faiths: we aren’t just interested in medieval churches and abbeys.

Chris Catling, Secretary of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, also chairs the Welsh Historic Places of Worship Forum. He has been increasingly aware of this need for connection and co-operation. Working with John Winton, who used to head the Churches Tourism Network for Wales, and with some crucial financial support from the University of South Wales, we were planning to establish a network, to be launched with a big symposium on – wait for it – 6 April. We had international keynote speakers, Visit Wales talking about resources, examples of successful projects from Wales and elsewhere, work-shopping sessions ...  we had well over 100 delegates booked in, from a range of faith communities ...

Well, that didn’t happen. What we are doing now is to use the delegates’ list to try to establish a network online so that we can share ideas. We plan to rearrange the symposium, possibly in the autumn, and we hope that by then we will be better informed and able to develop the network further.
The elephant in the room is, of course, the future of the whole tourist industry. Even if we could ever get back to travelling as freely as we used to, is this something we should do? Knowing as we do how much damage travel does to the environment, should we be encouraging people to fly to Wales and drive around when they get here? Faith tourism, though, can be part of ‘slow tourism’. Properly done, it encourages people to engage with local communities and their history. Walking and backpacking holidays are particularly good for the local economy. If you are on foot or on a bike, you have to shop locally, and you will probably stay in locally owned accommodation. Walking pilgrimages are not for everyone, but walking just a bit of a pilgrimage route can be a moving and rewarding experience. Most churches are nowadays wheelchair accessible and there are accessible sections of a lot of the pilgrimage routes. We know there is a lot more to do in this. We do feel, though, that this is the kind of tourism we need to be encouraging in the future.

You can see some of the projects we are working with on our blog - https://faithtourismwales.wordpress.com/blog-2/ . We are also tweeting news of projects in Wales and elsewhere from @faithtourism1 . If your project is already on our radar and we haven’t had a blog post from you, do consider writing one. And if you haven’t been in touch already, do email us at madeleine.gray@southwales.ac.uk or naomi.preston@southwales.ac.uk .

Professor Maddy Gray

Editor's comment
I had not heard of Faith Tourism and I am glad that Maddy has brought it to our attention. We have unconsciously been following it in our events programs and so I attach a few pictures of events which can be termed Faith Tourism. Some relate to faith in former cultural times. We will certainly refer to Faith Tourism on future visits.
The Church of St Jerome, Llangwm Uchaf, We visited with Maddy


The Roman Temple at Lydney with Dr Mark Lewis


St Woolos Cathedral with Jeremy Knight

A visit to Newport Museum and Art Gallery. This Celtic head was found at Caerwent and may have already been very old in the 4th century. The asymmetrical left eye (deliberately less well carved) is a phenomena noted in Bronze Age and Iron Age wooden figures.
Keith Underwood dressed as a Cistercian monk our guide at Tintern Abbey

This model in the 'Wales Is' Gallery at St Fagans which we visited with Dr Elizabeth Walker' is based on the molar and milk teeth of an 8 year old boy and were discovered at Pontnewydd Cave north Wales.


The tombstone of Tadia Vallaunius in the National Roman Legion Museum


The importance of music in faith. The organ in National Museum Wales, Cardiff

Professor Maddy Gray probably walking the Cistercian Way
For her latest post from her own blog see below
https://www.heritagetortoise.co.uk/2020/04/lost-farms-lost-settlements/

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