incentivetravel

Experiencing Culture – An Overlooked Benefit of an Incentive Travel Trip

When provided a splendid opportunity to travel to a far away exotic location, most people probably focus solely on the opportunity to get away, relax, unwind, and have fun. While all of the mentioned reasons for being excited about a vacation are completely understandable and within good reason, as business culture is very taxing on an employee’s mind and body, do not underestimate another additional feature to traveling to an exotic location – immersing oneself in a totally new and foreign culture. Many people who have experienced incentive travel destinations that took them to unique locales were usually, before the traveling had commenced, simply excited for the chance to hang out in a new place and get away from the doldrums of corporate culture. However, on returning from these unique cultural destinations, when asked, those who were fortunate enough to take part in these worldly excursions mentioned “educational” as one of the best parts of the trip experience. The opportunity to see, and to immerse oneself into a completely different culture can be quite educational, enjoyable, rewarding, and even life changing. There are so many aspects to a native country’s culture that is different from our own, and to view first hand how other people live within their environment can be very awe inspiring.

For corporations or businesses contemplating an incentive travel trip, this cultural escape is often an overlooked benefit. While most people do not comment on this kind of an opportunity before embarking on their incentive travel trip, it is typically one of the first things mentioned on returning from their glorious vacation. The opportunity to experience culture that is unlike your own is simply yet another added benefit to using incentive travel trips as a motivational tool to get employees to work that much better in order to earn what can quite literally become the opportunity of a lifetime. A native experience in a foreign country will truly open your eyes to the idea of a vast world that, in many places is much different than your own. It can have so much meaning and can positively influence your own life.

With so much to gain from booking incentive travel trips, it is a wonder why more companies have not subscribed to the idea. The good news is, because of the overwhelmingly positive feedback from those who have been fortunate enough to have been a part of an incentive travel trip, more and more businesses are recognizing the value both in reaching goals and rewarding employees in a long lasting way. Companies such as Incentive Travel Solutions can show your company how incentive travel trips work, what can be gained from these trips, and what to expect from some of the places to which you are able to travel. With so much to gain and experience from visiting a foreign location with culture much different than your own, you will quickly realize why those who have been a part of incentive travel trips do not hesitate to choose this over monetary bonuses, when given the option.

incentivetravel

Does Experiencing Different Cultures Enhance Creativity?

The Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic

The Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic

 

You are probably aware of the benefits of incentive travel programs, such as relaxing and reenergizing employees and workers who have earned the right to acquire the incentive travel based on hard work, performance, and output. Recent research also indicates that additional benefits are provided when awarding employees with incentive travel as it relates to traveling to a destination with a different culture to one’s own. You see, when traveling to another country with a completely different culture than what you have at home, it actually enhances creativity in the workplace. A study now shows that creativity can be enhanced by experiencing cultures that are different from your own – this is according to a recent study provided by the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

Additional studies concerning travel to different cultures and its relation to enhancing creativity involved students enrolled at institutions of higher learning, and compared those who had studied abroad and those who remained domestically during their enrollment period. These students were then tested on different aspects of creativity. Relative to a control group of students who had not experienced a different culture, participants in the different culture group provided way more evidence of creativity in various standard tests. The conclusive results suggested that multicultural learning can be a critical component to the adaptation process of different cultural influences, which, in turn, acts as a creativity catalyst.

Those conducting the research concluded that the key to the enhanced creativity was related to the students’ open-minded approach in adapting to the new culture.

Thus, the definitive conclusion to the study is that in a global world, where more people are given the opportunity to acquire multicultural experiences, more so now than ever before, students who choose to live abroad benefit from enhanced creativity.

The evidence provided by studies performed on students attending institutions of higher learning can be applied to those already in the workplace. Creativity is an obvious necessity to practically every business and type of industry, therefore, it should be deemed highly advantageous to send top performing employees on incentive travels, so not only can they rest, relax, and recuperate from the stress of work, they can also expand their minds and become more creative. If traveling to different locations with different cultures can truly expand the minds of workers, like these studies suggest, perhaps it would be prudent for business owners and company executives to offer incentive travel to even more employees, as the benefits to traveling to a new country has a multitude of advantages.

For more information regarding how incentive travel works, and the type of locales that are available, it would be wise to consult with a business known and well regarded in the industry – Incentive Travel Solutions.