In a multi faith society, the rich variety of faith communities can bring a distinctive quality to local regeneration.

We are already major players in the Tourism Industry through our existing places of worship which are open to visitors and we have large numbers of volunteers, who maintain our buildings in a wide diversity of urban and rural communities.

We believe that our diverse faith communities must link and liaise closely at all levels with the Tourism Industry, relating and working together in shared dialogue and action.  This sharing approach will be of mutual benefit in attracting more visitors to our region.

We are therefore hoping that our Faith and Tourism Project in the North West will be able to offer help and support to sacred sites and faith based groups interested in welcoming visitors.

Membership of the Association is open to all who share our aims.  We welcome both individuals and organisations and include in our membership people of many different faiths, local government tourism officers, tourist guides, people from the Regional Development Agency and the North West Tourist Board, The Mersey Partnership and the private sector.

The Association meets regularly to share news, plan the development of our project and organise conferences and events.  The association is constituted as a charity

Perhaps children come from the local school, friends and relatives from afar may come for weddings, or perhaps you are in a tourist area or have exchanges with other places of worship.

You may even be involved in arranging visits or pilgrimages at home and abroad!

If so, then you are engaged in tourism and we at the North West Multi Faith Tourism Association would like to help you improve your welcome to all kinds of visitors.

The North West Multi Faith Tourist Association seeks to encourage faith communities to widen their appeal and to find ways to encourage the wider community to visit them.  With more flexible working patterns, more disposable income and greater mobility many people, not normally in the habit of visiting places of worship, are looking for alternative leisure experiences and would, if encouraged, find a visit to a sacred site an interesting and inspiring experience.

A key aim of the Association is to break down the barriers of ignorance and mistrust that some people have of our many and diverse religions.  We believe that we all have much to contribute to the cultural heritage of our region and country and we want to encourage the building up of friendship and understanding between faith communities by offering hospitality to all visitors.

The association brings people together from a wide variety of faiths to discuss all aspects of hospitality to visitors.  We are concerned to ensure that we all have the resources and facilities we need to give our visitors a warm and friendly welcome and that all may find our buildings accessible.

We are also interested in developing religious trails across the North West, so that people will know where we are.  They can then arrange to visit us and experience the peace and beauty of our sacred place and learn about what goes on inside and how our faith communities relate to our local areas.

Over the past fifty years the North West has developed a rich and diverse religious and cultural heritage, consequently, the importance of sacred sites to both the urban and rural economic, social and cultural development cannot be overestimated.