The reunion market

American Demographics, April, 1996 by Paula Mergenhagen

The YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, Colorado, hosts almost 700 reunions a year at its two conference centers. Family reunions account for 40 percent of business at the facilities, up from 20 percent ten years ago, says Jerry Donner, director of group sales. Families especially like the horseback riding and hayrides available on the properties, he adds. Indeed, people like to keep busy at reunions. Two-thirds of family events planned by Reunions subscribers include some sort of entertainment, and almost half involve sports outings. More than one-third include tours to local attractions.

"Reunions are a very good niche for us," says Suzan Bunn, convention and sales manager with the Kissimmee-St. Cloud Convention and Visitors Bureau in Florida. The area's proximity to major attractions like Walt Disney World makes it a desirable location for families. Every year, the bureau conducts a two-day "how to" seminar for people planning reunions. Half of those who attend the seminars end up holding reunions in the area.

VISIT THE ROOTS

Aside from pictures with Mickey Mouse, family members like to have something tangible to keep reunion memories alive. T-shirts printed with the family name are popular reunion items, says Honey Lindgren of Passport International/The Perfect Shirt Company in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. "People will get together for the holidays and get nostalgic and say, `We should get the whole family together.' Shortly after the holidays, we see a rise in inquiries," she says. Personalized caps and tote bags are other keepsake items that families like to buy.

Walter's Publishing of Waseka, Minnesota, does a brisk business compiling family recipes into book form. President Wayne Dankert receives about 3,000 orders a year from families who want to trade culinary secrets. The average print run is between 50 and 100 books, often distributed at reunions or given as holiday gifts. While all races and ethnic groups hold family reunions, important cultural differences exist, says Reunions' Edith Wagner. African-American families, for example, have especially large reunions that frequently travel to different cities from one year to the next. "These are families that left the South in the 1940s and moved to places like Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit," she says.

The average African-American reunion has 150 participants, says Ione Vargus, chair of the Family Reunion Institute at Temple University in Philadelphia. "Many of these families have chapters throughout the country," she says. Since 1988, the Institute has held a yearly African-American Family Reunion Conference. The 1996 conference will be attended by an estimated 350 individuals, up from 125 the first year. Sessions explore everything from family economics to family roots.

Tracing roots is an important purpose of many family get-togethers. More than one in four respondents to the Reunions survey says that the primary purpose of family reunions is "for our children to learn about our family heritage." Many events have a strong genealogical focus. Computer programs on disk and CD-ROM have made genealogical research much easier, says Wagner.