Visit PCB hosts nearly 200 religious group travel planners

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) – Nearly 200 religious travel planners were in Panama City Beach Thursday. Visit Panama City Beach hosted the Going on Faith Conference for the first time, bringing in group travel planners from 25 different states.

The conference works with more than 3,000 religious travel groups, but those aren’t the only people who attend. Officials said it brings in a range of planners looking for new destinations to head to next.

”The people behind me here in this room organize travel for almost 40,000 people a year and they spend almost $80 million here on travel,” Charles Presley, President and Founder of Going on Faith Conference, said.

One travel planner from Calvary Baptist Church in New York said she origionally had her mind set against Panama City Beach, but after coming out and getting the grand tour, she said that’s no longer the case.

”After being here and after our wonderful, wonderful guides in Steve and Helen, I can’t wait to get this on my schedule and probably more than once. Really because I mean there’s just so much to see here,” Karen Peterson, with Calvary Baptist Church, said.

Tourism officials said they’ve already had groups tell them they’re planning to come for future beach events like the Seabreeze Jazz Festival.

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