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The Group Travel Leader Going on Faith Select Traveler

Faith-based meetings by the numbers

In 2010:
• Roughly 8 million people attended religious meetings.

• Downtown hotels were the venue used most frequently (18 percent) by faith-based meetings, followed by conference centers (16.3 percent). Other popular venues were convention centers and resorts, both 11 percent, and colleges and universities, 7.5 percent.

• Sixty-nine percent of faith-based meetings used 500 or fewer sleeping rooms at their largest meeting.

• Thirty percent of faith-based meetings did not use exhibit space; 45 percent required up to 10,000 square feet. Seven percent used 50,000 square feet or more.

• About one quarter of faith-based planners held meetings throughout the U.S., up from 23.3 percent in 2009.

• In terms of services used, audio-visual and catering/meals led the way, with just over 80 percent contracting for those services. Ground transportation and tours edged up from 57 percent in the 2009 survey to 60 percent in the 2010 survey.

• Convention and conferences averaged just over four days in length, followed by retreats at just over three days.

Source: Religious Conference Management Association’s annual 
member survey