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When corporate meetings began to stagnate a few years back, many destinations compensated by going after a niche market they often used to overlook: religious meetings. Why? For starters, there are lots of them. Every year, members of the Indianapolis-based Religious Conference Management Association (RCMA) plan over 14,000 meetings attended by 16 million people, says Dr. DeWayne Woodring, RCMA's executive director. The largest, like the Seventh Day Adventists and the National Baptist Convention, draw stadium-worthy groups that stay in town for a week or more.

Linda de Leon, meeting planner at the Seventh Day Adventists' world headquarters in Silver Spring, MD, says she expects more than 70,000 conferees at her 2005 gathering in St. Louis. "St. Louis is ideal because of the America's Center complex," which includes the convention center and 34,000 hotel rooms, says de Leon, adding that the group last met in 2000 at the SkyDome in Toronto. Even better for the destination, the meeting lasts 11 days, and direct spending by conferees is expected to hit $50 million, according to Nancy Milton, spokesperson for the St. Louis CVC.

Cincinnati recently broke ground on a $160 million expansion of its convention center that will wrap up in 2006. Yet months before dirt began moving, the city had already booked a major piece of business: the National Baptist Convention, which will spend a week in Cincy in September 2008. Up to 25,000 conventioneers are expected to attend and spend over $20 million, says Julie Calvert, spokesperson for the Greater Cincinnati CVB.

Even more significant than the financial impact, though, is the positive effect the convention will have on Cincy's image: For a city that until recently suffered from racial upheaval, attracting the country's largest gathering of African-Americans is a genuine coup. Indeed, local African-American political and religious leaders began campaigning for the meeting more than two years ago, even launching a letter-writing campaign by prominent Cincy citizens like Procter & Gamble's CEO and the coach of the Bengals football team. The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, a 158,000-square-foot museum complex opening this August, is expected to be a major attraction for the group.

Large congresses are good, but it's small to medium-sized religious meetings that the Northern Kentucky CVB, just across the river from Cincy in Covington, KY, hopes to woo with its "Join Hands" marketing initiative. The campaign's offerings, designed with the often cost-conscious nature of religious groups in mind, include flat room rates for up to four people per room, free meeting space, special meal prices, and complimentary registration assistance. But its biggest temptation is cash—starting at $250 for groups booking at least 50 rooms. Over the next five years, Northern Kentucky hopes the initiative will generate up to 14,000 room-nights per year from the religious market, says Barbara Dozier, the CVB's vice president of sales and marketing. Newer area venues like the Freedom Center and the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum, opening in 2006 in nearby Hebron, KY, will also draw religious groups, she adds.

Spiritual gatherings are often good business because they typically take place during weekends or other "down" times. That was the case with the Union for Reform Judaism's most recent convention, which brought 5,000 attendees to the Minneapolis Convention Center for five days last November, typically a slow period for the northern city. Robin Hirsch, director of meetings and conventions for the New York City-based association, says her group enjoyed "the warmth of the people" as well as many of the city's sophisticated restaurants. In 2005, the group will head for warmer climes, meeting at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston.

Known until recently for its high-tech business, San Jose, CA, now hopes faith can lead it out of the dot-com doldrums. "We weren't diversified—eighty percent of our inventory was in the high-tech market," explains Dan Fenton, president/CEO of the San Jose CVB.

But better times are just around the corner. The RCMA is bringing 1,350 attendees to San Jose in 2006, while the 7,000-person-strong Presbyterian Church (USA) general assembly arrives in 2008. Unlike the dot-coms, notes Fenton, this niche doesn't disappear: "The Presbyterians will meet regardless of what happens in the stock market."