At Motivation Excellence, we LOVE group travel incentives! For sales incentives, whether for your internal team or channel partners, a group travel award is coveted, and thus very motivational. For the right audience, travel experiences as rewards are phenomenal ways to engage, connect and foster performance improvements from the people who mean the most to the success of your business!
Group travel is a complex beast. But, with us as your partner, your team and participants only see the shiny, fun exterior because we put in all the sweat equity behind the scenes. As with any sales incentive, it needs to be managed in just the right way so that participants are engaged and rewarded, and our clients are secure in their budget and goal attainment.
A Plethora of Goals
Group travel incentives can be defined by one or more goals. So, it’s important for businesses to really understand what they want to accomplish before designing an incentive program that culminates in a group travel award. Below are examples of five goals we routinely design travel incentive programs around:
1. Improving Performance
According to the Incentive Research Foundation, an estimated 91% of travel incentive participants find travel incentives ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ motivating. Those are some impressive numbers! With a fantastic travel program as motivation, improving performance to earn it gets some added priority. Of course, offering the right destination for the audience is a critical component. Budget also comes into play, but we have 40 years of experience helping clients fit great destinations into their budget.
2. Relationship Building
Group travel experiences are great at building relationships between the executive team and the people working so hard to improve the bottom line. Planning small group activities or dinners so leadership can interact with top performers in a relaxed setting is one way we nurture relationship building. When you see a whale breach 100 feet away together, the shared experience builds memories which create fondness and leads to loyalty. Significant others become more than acquaintances which can lead to friendships outside the business world.
3. Building Brand Loyalty
Travel awards tend to be powerful and positive experiences. For B2B channels, they’re also a great venue to add value to a business relationship through networking and training sessions. Including preferred vendors, adding small group session options and organization product demonstrations will highlight how your business is able to put all the pieces in place for easy one-stop-shopping and support.
4. Sharing Organizational Insights
Yet another opportunity group travel offers is the ability to spend time sharing organizational insights with sales teams and distribution partners. Announcing a new product, giving insight into company goals and strategies or offering best practices for continued growth or steps to the sale are all ways to connect with your internal sales team or B2B channel partners. Combine all that with being in a great location with plenty of fun activities too and you’ve captured attention and fostered engagement.
5. Building Momentum
Showing appreciation to the people who bring the most to your bottom line not only strengthens relationships and increases loyalty but if done well, it motivates them to continue to qualify year after year! And each subsequent year likely brings with it a larger goal, which means your company continues to see performance improvements long after the group travel experience is over.
Take Advantage of the Latest Trends
We advise any company considering group travel incentives to partner with a trusted incentive travel firm. It’s a niche business, but knowing you’re with a company, like Motivation Excellence, can take a lot of stress off your shoulders. We do the heavy lifting. Our years of experience add up to risk mitigation for our clients, creative ways to get the most out of a budget and global partnerships that reap rewards wherever we go!
We also know what’s hot in group travel right now and how to best motivate your target audience.
- Personalization – When participants get choices on a travel experience, they’re able to make it more personal to them and their guests. Our Inspire travel technology creates personalized itineraries, including transportation, selected activities and a daily agenda. There are other ways to make a group experience more personalized, and we use them all.
- Free Time – One of the biggest trends of the last several years is offering more free time to the daily schedule. Not only does this save some budget for our clients, but it allows their participants the opportunity to truly relax without having every minute planned. “Bleisure” (business + leisure) days offer a more balanced experience for everyone.
- Cultural Experiences – Incentive travelers like to feel immersed in their travel experience. Getting off the tourist path, and finding unique places, usually only the locals know about, offer a glimpse into the significance of cultural traditions and activities which tend to be very impactful.
- Exclusivity – We like to plan travel experiences no one could plan on their own. Travel awards should be built with a wow-factor (or multiple) to really drive home to the winners that they’ve accomplished something extraordinary and are being treated as such.
If your organization wants to plan a group travel incentive we’d love to connect with you to offer our insight into successful programs. Motivation Excellence has 40 years of experience designing, planning, and implementing group travel incentives for channel partners and sales teams. Let’s get started on yours today!
