10 Tips for Creating a Successful Incentive Travel Program

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Incentive travel is a wonderful way to entice employees or distributors to increase their effectiveness and your company’s position in the market place. The motivation a potential trip can provide has the ability to augment revenue as well as work place morale. Incentive travel can be focused on either a sales force or a distribution network, the trip can be national or international. Regardless, the perfect incentive travel program starts with careful planning.

Below are the ten most important tips for creating a successful incentive travel program which fits your company’s size, budget and culture:

  • Establish your corporate incentive program objectives. What would you like your incentive travel program to achieve? These objectives can range from increased revenue of sales, increased productivity and office morale, decrease in flawed business practices, or to simply reward your employees for their continued hard work. No matter the goal, it is important to provide a specific value to the improvement such as a sales quota which must be met, a specific dollar amount of revenue which must be attained, or any other method of evaluating the performance of your employees.
  •  Decide on the target recipient. In essence, who is eligible to participate in the incentive travel program? This could be sales persons, general employees, the management team, or even customers.
  • Learn what the preferences, interests, and values are of your target recipient in order to create a trip tailored to your specific needs based on your available budget.
  • Study the behavior and performance of your employees in order to ascertain practical tasks for your targeted recipients.
  • Be sure you have a clear system in place to track the performance level of your employees.
  • Think of any obstacles which may exist affecting the success of the program. This could be market conditions, current work place morale, or structural organization.
  • Determine whether the program will be planned and managed internally or outsourced to a company which specializes in incentive travel.
  • Recognize and become familiar with applicable tax implications. Often, under particular circumstances, travel can be taxable so it is important to understand certain tax forms which may be required.
  • Before selecting an incentive travel partner, be sure that the company agrees to satisfy the full extent of your contract, especially what is promised pertaining to your budget. Also, be fully aware of all cancellation polices.
  • At the conclusion of your program, evaluate both those who won and those that did not win to determine whether the program was effective in accomplishing your established objectives.

In conclusion, incentive travel is a good tool in establishing any set company goal. Be sure to set clear and concise goals, decide on a budget, determine what your target audience wants, and base your decision on options which cater to each. Even companies with smaller budgets can greatly benefit from incentive travel.

For more specific details on incentive travel trips, contact us online, or call us today – 704-540-1482.