People generally attend the Conservative Political Action Conference to see popular Republican politicians speak and to meet other like-minded people at the annual gathering of those representing the most right-wing of American politics.

But CPAC attendees this year appear to have had another thing in mind: hooking up with fellow conference-goers. Use of the hook-up application called Tinder was up 202 per cent in the National Harbour area of Maryland during CPAC last week, compared to the previous week, Tinder said.

Tinder users are presented photos and profiles of people in their area – the app uses GPS – and are able to decide if they are interested in that person. If both parties are interested – shown by swiping to the right on the screen of a smart phone – they are able to chat.

From there, the two people are able to set up a future meeting, be it either a date or a sexual encounter. While Tinder does not explicitly market itself as a hook-up app, it certainly has gained that reputation.