According to the Incentive Research Foundation, incentive travel and experiences are desired more so than cash rewards - 86% to 14% respectively.
What is incentive travel?
The Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) defines incentive travel programs as “A motivational tool to enhance productivity or achieve business objectives in which participants earn a reward based on a specific level of achievement set forth by management. The program is designed to recognize earners for their achievements." Participants can be identified as customers, dealers, employees, distributors, vendors or any group in which you are looking to enhance behaviors.
What's the benefit?
The focus of incentive travel should be aligned with your business objectives, whether that’s gaining new customers, selling more of specific items or services, or bringing additional revenue from existing clients. A properly designed and executed incentive program will show a greater return on investment and identify a goal to work towards with friendly competition amongst participants.
One of the benefits of incentive travel is that it is customized to fit your company’s individual needs, and can evolve as goals progress. Depending on your objectives, there are several different routes to maximum ROI. The focus can be short term, long term, or both used concurrently. Short term incentives are ideal when you are looking to produce results today, while long term incentives invest in tomorrow.
Another aspect is the audience: the top 20%, middle 60% and bottom 20%. While the top 20% drive business, less than 30% of growth comes from this group as they are close to capacity. They are self-motivated, high achievers but need to be challenged and rewarded regularly. The middle 60% is mostly ignored in incentive programs, but movement from this group provides the biggest impact. A 5% increase in sales from the middle 60% yields 70% more return than a 5% increase in the top 20%. Lastly, the bottom 20% need more coaching and encouragement. They typically consist of those working their way up or working their way out. Achievable, milestone goals and recognition will help push these employees into the middle 60%.
The Participant's Desire For Experiences
According to NBCNews, "traveling is not only fun and exciting, there's ample research to suggest it's highly beneficial for your physical, mental and emotional health as well”
Travel and the desire for experience can positively impact a person for a lifetime. Some of the ways an incentive trip can benefit your employee or customers are:
- Traveling can help create meaningful relationships with loved ones and colleagues.
- Traveling helps a person learn and appreciate a world outside of their own by giving them new perspectives.
- Traveling can help someone learn more about themselves by challenging what they thought they knew.
- Traveling can help develop new skills they didn't know they had by challenging them to get out of their comfort zone.
- Traveling can help refocus and relieve stress.
Entering a new era of satisfaction
The Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE), found that almost 90% of respondents believe that “the power of incentive travel made them feel appreciated”
By offering incentive travel, you're not only establishing a positive relationship, but naturally increasing company loyalty.
Rewarding incentive travel can symbiotically benefit both parties by:
- Will remember that YOU gave them a trip to "Destination x" for the rest of their lives
- Your participants' happiness with their job can increase upon return leading to higher productivity and motivation to succeed
- Creating buzz in your participants' conversations with friends & family as they're sure to credit your company with the opportunity
- Increase competitive advantage over other brands