Discover the huge benefits of incentive travel and corporate trips for your company.

Incentive travel is a tool to stimulate employees with an activity designed and planned to motivate and to reward people who have achieved certain goals in the company. Its purpose is to strengthen the team and create a special atmosphere to help increase its performance and that of the company.

Choosing the right incentive trips can determine your success. At present, three of the main factors that influence the choice of these incentive trips are security, digitization, and content.

In this sense, the programs that will be most successful in the coming years will be programs focused on content, which use a lot of stories and immersion in the local culture to create a personalized additional value to the significant experience of the participants.

On the other hand, safety is fundamental and has become the most relevant factor in the choice of activities. Last but not least, digitization is finding its way into the #MICE business (Meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions).

There are more and more startups who, already established in individual leisure trips, focus on the provision of intermediation services for the MICE sector, such as the opening of the market for private properties similar to Airbnb. Basics of technology, such as connectivity, are becoming a basic requirement for attendees and participants, who are increasingly using mobile applications.

Knowing the trends of this sector for the next few years you are sure to ask yourself: What are the benefits of incentive travel?

Should I devote a portion of the budget to this type of activities for my team?
Is there really an added value to improve the work environment and increase long-term income? We believe so.

Attract talent

As a company, it is important that you do not let the talent of your team escape and therefore it is imperative to remember each team member. Incentive travel has proven to be effective in many businesses and the truth is that Americans are one step ahead in developing and implementing staff retention strategies through perks, incentives and all kinds of employee benefits.

According to a report prepared by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) and Travelport, Asian countries lead the list of countries that grow the most in this specific sector of business travel. Growing countries like China continue to grow steadily on business travel.

The United States is a leader in “spending” for business travel (including incentive travel) followed by China, the UK, and Germany.

Motivation

Incentive travel is a motivational tool, something different that helps employees on their way to success, and the success of the company. An incentive trip has that certain advantage of impacting the employee, that special attraction, that detail that makes the experience a unique motivation for the team.

If an incentive travel program is well planned it has the ability to inspire and encourage each of the participants. It is important that incentive travel is unique, attractive and creative. Companies have to make every effort to find these activities, events or destinations that offer new experiences and the different essence that we seek to achieve our goal.

From PenguinEvents, experts in events for 30 years in the UK, tell us that monetary retribution is not usually a good incentive, but that a single trip is never forgotten, rightfully so.

Unique Experiences

According IncentiveMag, a blog dedicated to incentive travel, it is very valuable to incorporate experiences that can connect with a specific destination or location, so that you create exclusive experiences, such as “hear a Lion’s roar during a Safari In South Africa “,” enjoy an afternoon getting to know Maori culture in New Zealand “or” tour the Monaco Grand Prix circuit “- Wow! These are experiences that would create a connection and unique memories among the people who enjoy them … But perhaps we can think of some ideas something closer to our market, that fits better to the budget of small and big companies, within the European context.

For your next incentive trip to Madrid or Barcelona, you could include a Gastronomic Segway Tour as a special experience and go on a whole tourist route through the city. Many of the participants have never used a Segway and the Tour includes an introduction to the Segway, a guide and local culinary specialties.

Iceland, Croatia, Singapore, Mexico, and Canada are among the top destinations, according to C&IT’s Incentive Travel Report. At the European level, Iceland, Italy, and Spain are the top destinations chosen for incentive trips, followed by Croatia and Monaco. For security reasons, interest in travel to Morocco and Turkey has decreased.

Are you interested? Do you want to download the Travel Incentive Report from C&IT for 2017? Click the link here.

Learning

“It is about finding experiences and not amenities”. Groups tend to be attracted to programs that span learning and unique experiences.

There is a growing demand for incentive travel based on experiences and learning in the United States. Companies are increasingly looking for these unique and special experiences that truly allow a total immersion of the participant and that encourage learning. We believe that in Europe we will follow this trend and companies will have to work harder to attract and retain talent. It is expected that “The business travel sector will grow 3.7% per year until 2027“.

Happiness

The goal must be for the employees to be the ambassadors of your company. A happy employee is much more productive, shares more hours with happier colleagues and helps to foster the good atmosphere between your teams. Incentive travel will enhance collaboration between teams and exclusive experiences will be shared in the office if they have been successful.

There are many theories about how incentive trips impact employee happiness and what the tangible and intangible effects are. The benefit of the company is no longer the only objective in this type of business activities.

Have you been interested in the article? Want to know more about incentive travel? We recommend these books so you can know the topic in more depth:

Incentive travel from Gugg Friedrich

Happiness Economics and Incentive Travel from Thilo Ketschau