In short, incentives drive you.

Many organisations today use incentives to both motivate and reward employees. With incentive programs, they endeavour to boost revenue, innovation, productivity, and/or morale, or reinforce their brand value and company culture.

Incentive travel firms take the idea of incentives and put a wonderful twist on it.

For a long time, incentive programs were curated only for uniquely exceptional employees, but as company cultures have evolved, many more high-performing employees have attractive incentives within reach. As incentive programs shift their focus from exclusivity to reach, the prospect of personal or family leisure travel isn’t the only way you might be incentivised. Group corporate travel has become a fairly common reward – a reward that incentive travel companies help bring to fruition.

Incentive travel programs are by no means the only form of reward and recognition. Cash bonuses, gift cards, extended time off, trophies, merchandise, and opportunities for professional development are all part of the bouquet of offerings available to companies and their human resources teams.

But there’s just something about travel that does the trick better than anything else…

Why businesses invest in incentive travel programs

A 2016 study estimated that organisations in the United States spent over $100 billion annually on rewards like gift cards, watches, trophies and of course, incentive travel programs. $100 billion is a massive amount, but it is well worth the investment.

A meta-analysis of relevant studies revealed an average 22% increase in performance for companies that offered reward programs. When such programs were in place for over 6 months, that number shot up to 44% and 48% for individual and group rewards, respectively.

Another series of studies has noted that appropriate rewards could lead to employees feeling more intrinsically motivated at work.

It is beyond doubt that well-considered incentives of all kinds can benefit companies in numerous ways. However, incentive travel programs are a class apart from other types of rewards, both tangible and intangible. Additionally, partnering with reputed modern incentive travel firms to execute such programs lends them added value – not only in terms of cost but also expertise, quality and customisation.

Let us explore how.

How incentive travel companies can create unmatched value for you

If there’s one thing we’re sure of, it’s that incentive travel agencies or MICE companies like ours create far more value for incentive travel programs than your internal teams or generic travel agents can.

Value for your business. Value for your corporate travellers. Value for money.

This isn’t because your internal teams or generic travel agencies aren’t capable – they just don’t have the targeted experience and skills or the time and energy that specialised incentive travel companies have to devote to the complexities of MICE travel.

What’s more, modern incentive travel firms like DestinationNXT offer bespoke itineraries, people-centred experiences, and comprehensive services including itinerary design, travel logistics, venue logistics, and experiences like team-building activities and guided tours. Our specialised focus and tailored approach mean that each of your corporate travellers will feel like the trip was planned especially for them! What more can you ask for, eh?

If you’re still looking for reasons to justify partnering with incentive travel firms, here are a few. They’re sure to convince the greatest of skeptics that incentive travel agencies can positively impact your revenue, reputation and ultimately, your bottom line, leaving an immeasurable influence on your entire organisation.

Increase revenue and productivity. Who doesn’t want an all-expenses-paid trip to majestic Jaipur or a holiday to the Finnish capital of Helsinki? As the studies mentioned above show clearly, incentives work. And what better than the prospect of a well-curated trip to motivate employees to achieve certain business goals? A study has shown that for every dollar invested in business travel, companies earn incremental revenues of $12.50.

Reinforce your company culture. In today’s day and age, when employee well-being is a central concern for all organisations, you can use incentive travel programs to reinforce your human-centred culture. This is because MICE travel can help employees bond, open meaningful dialogue between employees and management, and show employees that their organisation listens to them and cares for their comfort and well-being.

Foster employee loyalty. Closely linked to company culture is employee loyalty. Incentive travel firms can help you to enhance both.

You see, incentive travel is a tangible reward. While cash bonuses can feel transactional, tangible awards like holidays can feel more personal and consequently, more valuable. This helps you build an emotional relationship with your employees – they will certainly value and appreciate the company that makes unique travel experiences possible for them.

When incentive travel companies tailor MICE trips to guest interests and preferences, the trip is likely to occupy more of their mental space well after the trip. Essentially, the sense of appreciation they feel towards the company will persist long after the actual trip. This is key for already well-paid employees – cash rewards will certainly not have the same impact on them as once-in-a-lifetime experiences!

Increase your brand value and your value proposition as an employer. When employees earn a trip to Malaysia, Dubai or Singapore, what’s the first thing you expect? We don’t know about you, but we sure expect to see social media posts! Of the Kuala Lumpur tower. Of Dubai’s Gold Souk and Ferrari World. Maybe of Universal Studios or the Jurong Bird Park in Singapore.

That’s the thing about incentive travel – it’s tangible, visible. Your high-performing employees aren’t likely to brag about how big a cash incentive they got, but they sure will share the meaningful experiences they had in exotic locales.

In any good organisation, your employees should be your biggest cheerleaders and advocates. So when they speak to others, in person and on social media, about how you’ve created value for them, that says amazing things about your company. This also makes you more attractive to other top talent in your industry. Talk about the value of incentive travel agencies!

Less work, but more benefits! The best part about partnering up with incentive travel firms is that your teams get an unparalleled experience without you having to do all the work! Outsourcing the design, logistics, and management of your incentive trips to incentive travel agencies takes a significant burden off your HR team’s shoulders. Your organisation doesn’t have to handle visa paperwork, flight bookings, local transportation, or research about the destination. Imagine that!

The expertise, local contacts, and focused attention of specialised incentive travel agencies like DestinationNXT put them several rungs above your busy HR or another generic travel agency in handling your MICE travel.

Pick a trusted MICE partner and it’s all smooth sailing from there! At DestinationNXT, we understand that even though we’re responsible for planning your corporate travel, it’s your reputation that’s on the line. That’s not a responsibility we take lightly.

Above and beyond all the wonderful experiences we’ll curate for your teams, we always promise one thing – we’ll make you look good.

Book five-star hotel rooms.

Reserve the fanciest, most high-tech conference room on the property.

You’ve ticked all the boxes on your meeting and incentive travel planning list, but something is still amiss. The prospect of these incentive trips for your employees doesn’t seem to be sparking any joy in them. Your meeting and incentive travel ideas haven’t generated half as much enthusiasm as you expected them to. What’s going wrong?

Meeting and incentive travel is an important form of reward and recognition for your hard-working, high-performing teams. You could just reward them with bonuses or higher commissions, but there’s something different about incentive travel, isn’t there? Unique experiences in exotic locales, an opportunity to bond with team members outside office walls, and the development of an emotional connection with the organisation that made it all possible for them.

If the prospect of travel is to be an effective incentive for employees, the travel experience itself should be something that they desire. That’s why cookie-cutter meeting and incentive travel no longer do the trick. Customisation to suit your organisation’s objectives, your employees’ interests, and the locales you choose makes all the difference when it comes to incentive trips for employees.

How to customise meeting and incentive trips for employees?

Meeting and incentive travel companies offer myriad options in terms of location, itinerary, on-site events, and conference setup. From their experience running MICE trips and events, they generally know how to curate a well-planned and immersive experience. But they don’t know what your goals are. They don’t know what works for your audience.

A meeting and incentive travel experience that showed phenomenal results for a pharma sales team may fall flat when organised for a marketing team in the cement industry. This is an important sign for incentive travel companies: out with the old and in with customised meeting and incentive trips for employees.

Corporate travel should be customised based on who will be going on the trip. Incentive travel companies should consider not only their designations and demographic information but also their personal interests. A growing trend is to allow corporate travellers some degree of autonomy in the activities they engage in to create a more personalised experience.

Meeting and incentive travel should be customised based on where the group is travelling to. Why fly your team all the way to gorgeous Istanbul if they’re going to spend all their time in conference rooms? What is a trip to Istanbul without dropping by Taksim Square, taking a tour of Hagia Sophia, and picking up trinkets at the Grand Bazaar? The leading incentive travel companies today ensure that their guests discover hidden gems and immerse themselves in the local culture of their destination – the ingredients of a trip that will be talked about long after it’s over.

Finally, meeting and incentive travel should be tailored based on your “why”. If a trip is organised to help team members bond, your itinerary will be different from that of an incentive trip promised to a leading sales representative. Similarly, corporate travel itineraries should vary based on whether they are conceived to be a reward, to boost your value proposition as an employer, or to enhance sales or productivity.

A step-by-step guide to creating tailored meeting and incentive travel experiences

Unsurprisingly, most of the work that goes into making the most memorable corporate travel happens before the trip and behind the scenes. Failing to prepare is the shortest route to an unfulfilling travel experience. With careful and creative planning, however, you can make your next conference or incentive trip for your employees a cherished experience that will occupy their minds before, during, and well after the trip.

Step 1: Hire a meeting and incentive travel company.

Incentive travel companies, also called MICE companies, aren’t difficult to find. What is difficult is finding a MICE company that will make you look so good that you can’t resist working with them again. The best ones out there recognise that they are human, working to create meaningful connections and shared experiences for other humans. We won’t hesitate to boast that DestinationNXT is human first we keep your guests at the centre of the whole meeting and incentive travel experience. 

Step 2: Outline your objectives.

Once you have a partner onboard, your next step is to clearly outline your objectives for organising a particular corporate travel experience. Your objectives should specify not only your target audience (for instance, your sales staff, your marketing team, etc.) but also the impact you desire to achieve (for example, retaining top sales talent, better employee engagement, etc.).

Incentive trips are often designed with goals like increasing sales, increasing productivity, enhancing customer service, or reducing employee turnover or absenteeism. Other types of MICE travel may also be planned with goals like building a stronger relationship between employees and management or enhancing brand value. These latter goals are increasingly becoming more common as companies focus on culture to build thriving organisations with employees motivated by the prospect of personal growth and experiences rather than just remuneration.

Whatever your specific objective may be for meeting and incentive travel, it must be clear and specific because it will guide you as you create internal qualification guidelines. It will also influence the rest of your planning stages.

Step 3: Decide on a budget and estimated ROI.

Once you’ve outlined your objectives, you can quantify the financial returns that you expect from them. Do sales teams need to hit a certain sales figure to win an experience? Having that number spelt out will help you come up with a budget for incentive trips for employees and guarantee a return on your investment.

A report has indicated that companies earn incremental revenues of $12.50 for every dollar that they invest in business travel. Nonetheless, meeting and incentive travel need not always have a direct return in terms of revenue. You may also measure ROI in terms of employee satisfaction, client satisfaction, post-event surveys, and overall team morale. Whatever measure you choose, make sure it is specific and measurable so that you can evaluate the impact of the initiative and maximise it going forward.

Step 4: Design your custom itinerary!

Now that you know the who and why of your meeting and incentive travel, it’s time to get down to the where, what, and how.

Beyond budgets and metrics, the experience should align with the expectations, interests, and values of your target audience. You can gather essential information to plan your trip via discussions, surveys, and interviews (with the help of your MICE partner, of course).

It is important to remember that different people are motivated by different incentives. You should choose a destination that sparks enthusiasm in your target employees. After all, the prospect of visiting this location should motivate them to work harder and feel like the reward is worth the effort.

Trips to high-end locales for top performers not only encourage other teams to work harder but they also generate positive publicity for your organisation through word-of-mouth and social media posts, all for no additional investment. So each guest on an incentive trip must have an equally meaningful experience. With every additional happy employee, you will notice a greater ripple effect in your organisation and the larger job market.

At the end of the day, people want to know that they are being heard. An itinerary that feels like “Hey, this was made just for me!” does exactly that – it reminds your employees that you are an active listener, concerned about what they want and need.

Step 5: Create hype using internal communications.

Once your plans are outlined, it’s time to put things into action! Before the meeting and incentive travel experience itself, you must drive your teams to work towards the specified benchmarks, if any. This may include a grand unveiling of the qualification requirements and the incentive trips for employees on the other side of achieving them. It may also include a regular schedule of internal communications to keep the buzz alive.

Step 6: The experience itself!

If you and the incentive travel companies you’re working with have planned the experience well, the actual meeting and incentive travel will be a breeze. On-ground partners will handle the logistics and group experiences as per plan, while you can sit back and relax, knowing that you’ve sent your team on the adventure of a lifetime.

At DestinationNXT, we know that corporate travel is for people. And all people are different. Unique. Quirky. That’s why we have real, unique, and quirky people behind the scenes as well, toiling hard to make your MICE travel an experience you’ll never forget.

No more one-size-fits-all; there’s a better way to do things. And we make you look good while you do it.

Get in touch now, especially if the question on your mind is, “Where next?”

A church mouse on-the-go ($)

In case you are traveling for any reason other than leisure, the chances of being down to the last penny are high. And with all the indulgences of the duty-free zone, it might feel like money is the only key to a bearable long layover. Luckily, that’s far from the truth.

Without any monetary-based distractions, you can focus on the most interesting thing in your life—you. This means finally getting enough time to read the book you’ve been putting off for ages, rewatching a favorite classic, journaling, and meditating.

And if you’ve got company, such as family or friends, make sure to pack a compact board game, such as Uno, travel chess, or even Twister. No space for extras? Try the old-time favorites such as I Spy, Alphabet, or In My Bag.

A middle in the middle ($$)

Got a little more dough to your name? Then, your long layover options get a bit wider, in the commercial sense. The very first thing to consider is booking a transit hotel and getting on with all the quintessential home-away-from-home activities, such as bath soaking, trashy TV watching, junk food devouring, and so on.

But if you don’t feel like being a couch potato for hours, stay in the airport and take it as an opportunity to experiment. For example, find a restaurant that serves local cuisine or a shop with native clothing and accessories. Not your cup of tea? By all means, take it further and commence a scavenger hunt for the weirdest souvenir you can buy at the airport.

Finally, pay the Internet fee for a couple of hours, and use that time to video-call friends and family from the distant parts of the world. And when you are done, find a pampering station to get a shave/shoe polish/manicure so that you can arrive at your destination minty-fresh.

A silver spoon holder ($$$)

Money isn’t the answer to everything, but it sure opens many fun doors. From staying in the VIP lounge and relaxing at the spa to taking a private city tour—well-off travelers will have access to it all.

The same goes for enjoying fine-dining spots and luxury shopping. Some top-tier chefs and designers have limited edition offers for airports, and it would be a shame to let those pass by.

To cap it all off, you can hire a long layover time planner to assist you with organizing your schedule and finding activities tailored to your taste.

Long layover for the win

As you can see, a long layover isn’t the end of the world, especially when you commit to making the most out of it and do a bit of thinking ahead. Want to learn more about surviving a long layover? Reach out to us for a bespoke travel plan that will wow you to the bone.

By Daryna Putintseva

darynawrites.com

I was reminded of the above incident after the recent fake news about locust swarm in Mumbai. Oh yes! I fell for it again. I was quick to shut all the windows in the house as well as those on the lift landing.

How often do we receive misinformation or worse still, disinformation? But wait. What is misinformation and disinformation? Do they mean the same thing? In a nutshell, the key difference between the two words lies in the “intent”. O.K. Let me explain. 

Misinformation is ‘false information that is spread regardless of intent to mislead’. In simple words, spreading information that is wrong but you don’t know it is wrong. For example, the locust swarms buzzing on social media. So much so that authorities had to clarify there was no such activity in the city (source). Receiving old/outdated information too can be a form of misinformation. 

Disinformation is ‘false or misleading information that is spread deliberately to deceive’. Needless to say, it is very powerful, destructive, and divisive, and is very often a tool of espionage. ][The case of the migrant workers chaos at Mumbai’s Bandra station in mid-April is credited to a viral video of a certain aspirant politician who instigated the mass exodus during the lockdown (source). A lot of news channels have been credited with being a pro-political party which questions the very fundamental basis of journalism – telling the truth as it is, just like a mirror. Is this disinformation? I will let you decide.

Soroush Vosoughi at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab and colleagues followed the spread of 126,000 stories on Twitter only to conclude that fake news travels six times faster than the truth on Twitter and that humans, not bots, are primarily responsible for the spread of misleading information (source). With the onset of COVID-19, the amount of misinformation (and at times possibly disinformation) has risen exponentially. A large extent is courtesy unregulated social media platforms. It has become another virus that has plagued mankind. Governments around the world have been grappling with the question of how to stop the spread.

I don’t have the answer but I know that I would like to see more truth than distorted information. So the next time I want to hit the share/forward button, I will stop and think about the fake trail I could possibly be encouraging.

We had planned a holiday to East Europe which clearly evaporated in the summer heat. I was following up on the refund status of our tickets when I slipped into a contemplative mood.

Heat. Mosquitoes. Power cuts. Sunburn. Sweat. Water cuts. A typical Indian summer but who cares! Summer vacations have eternally been a source of everything good and exciting regardless of age, gender or strata of society.

Back in the 80s & 90s, summer vacations for most meant visiting one’s native place, which in most cases was a village/town. To be frank, there wasn’t much choice. The middle class then didn’t have the disposal income or credit like today’s generation. I was no different. Most of my childhood summer vacations were spent in Dapoli climbing trees, chasing away stray bulls and occasionally troops of monkeys, long walks, days out at the beach, guzzling mangoes, jackfruits and cashew apples. It also encompassed at least one visit to the doctor with a vow to be more careful.

Gradually, however, in the past couple of decades, the whole ethos of summer vacation has been upgraded. Overnight bus and train journeys replaced by short/long haul flights, suitcases by strollers, tiffin boxes by pre-booked meals, card and board games by in-flight entertainment. Economic boom made what was once considered luxury affordable and aggrandised every aspect of our vacation travel. The monotony of the destination was no longer limited to the boundaries of our country. Swiss even credit the Indian film industry for the exodus of Indian tourists with life size cutouts of Bollywood movie stars at key locations. The onset of any holiday season is announced with full page ads of package tours to destinations across the globe by tour operators. Ladies special, senior citizens exclusive, ethnic tours, you name the classification, there is a unique group tour available for you in the product line of most agents making you feel at home with ‘Ghar ka Khanna’ regardless of the country you are visiting. Some operators take it to the extreme when the photo of the bavarchee (Indian chef who travels with the group) is taller than the image of Eiffel Tower or Tower of Pisa in the ads. Long queues, fanny packs, overloaded trolleys with kids on top, groups wearing caps revealing the tour operators, tour managers with company flags are all warm reminders for other travellers at airports that summer holidays have started.

My vacations are a stark contrast to the ones I promote and sell. For one, I prefer to take the off beaten path. I enjoy looking for hidden gems. I also like to take things slow, spending enough time in each place to take in the sights and sounds. Favourite destination? It’s hard to compare as each city / country has its own quirks and charm. Usually the unique experiences are most memorable like hiking at Verdon Gorge, cooking lunch on a catamaran in the Mediterranean Sea, staying and helping out in a French vineyard, spending a birthday drifting around Tioman Island, a farm stay in Ratnagiri and descending the nine circles of hell in the Initiation Well of Quinta da Regaleira. Regardless of the location, serve me a sumptuous local dish and an indigenous beverage and I am sorted. I am happy to park all my thoughts, reservations and mild aversion to meat in order to soak up the local culture one morsel at a time.

This article was originally posted on Linkedin Pulse

A line from the epic monologue by Brad Pitt’s character in the movie ‘Fight Club’. I sincerely ate it up when I first saw the movie because let’s be honest, our generation has had the best life has to offer. The stories of struggle or the lack of opportunities told by parents or grandparents seemed unrelatable. Yet, here we are experiencing what the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has coined as ‘The Great Lockdown’. No longer the middle children of history, are we?

We are in the middle of Lockdown 3.0. What started out as a Sunday in the house has definitely stretched like a soap opera. From clapping to pay homage for our frontline warriors, to lighting of diyas to show our solidarity, our Prime Minister has made every effort to make this limbo tolerable for the middle class. Woefully, in the travel space layoffs, pay-cuts, leave without pay and credit shells instead of refunds to customers have been the highlights of the lockdown so far. From pursers in the air to porters at airports and stations, everyone is grounded. The worst affected would be guides, drivers, bellboys, waiters etc. for whom a sizable chunk of earnings are through tips and commissions. Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) estimates 4-5 crore job losses directly or indirectly related to tourism with a loss of 1.58 lakh crore in the organized sector alone (source). World Economic Forum (WEF) has pegged 50 million jobs at risk in the global travel & tourism sector with a majority chunk of the number being in Asia alone (source).

So where is the silver lining in all of this which would compel my peers in the industry to be patient, persevere and take up the current crisis as a challenge? What would make the common man trust the airline / taxi driver/ hotel / agent in order to compel him to venture out again? I was personally grappling with such questions for the past month, only to find the answer in the most unlikely place. It was the perplexing sight on the news channels of people bursting crackers and queuing up not for a miracle vaccine but for alcohol. It reminded me that mankind has the ability to learn and move on. We Indians are amply blessed with both qualities, a realization I had when I walked to the hotel I worked at a day after the 26/11 attacks. In 2014 to fly Malaysian Airlines was considered a taboo by many corporates (source). A year later all was forgotten. Taj Mahal Palace hotel has not only withstood the 26/11 terrorist attack but also wars, recessions, the partition and national emergencies. Regardless of the ups and downs of the past three decades, Kashmir remains one of the top tourist destination for a leisure traveler.

The present situation may feel unreal, the future murky but remember this too shall pass and when it does we can proudly tell the future generations: ‘We had the Great Lockdown in our life time. We are not the middle children of history, you are’.

The above article was originally posted on Linkenin Pulse