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Creating a Once in a Lifetime Incentive Trip in Cuba

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For the first time in over five decades, North Americans can legally travel to Cuba without special permission from the U.S. Government. In the roughly 50 years that have passed since the travel ban was imposed, U.S. residents have been largely cut off from one of the Caribbean’s richest spots for natural beauty and culture.

However, the extended travel ban has a silver lining in hindsight: Compared to other nations that enjoy the warm shores of the Caribbean Sea, Cuba has remained mostly un-Americanized since the 1960s and still offers a remarkably authentic tourist experience.

This is one reason why an incentive trip to Cuba is becoming more popular among companies that reward top performers with travel trips. If your organization is considering planning an incentive trip to Cuba — and you want to make it the trip of a lifetime — below are four ways we can help you create a fantastic trip that will always be remembered.

  1. Great Hotel Accommodations

Cuba may not be as Americanized as some of its neighbors, but its cultural originality comes at a price for the average tourist: Because Cuba’s hospitality industry isn’t accustomed to accommodating a steady influx of U.S. travelers, it can be hard to find a good hotel.

Using our expertise and connections in the incentive travel industry, we’ll ensure your group has tastefully appointed, comfortable lodging that only adds to the unforgettable experience.

  1. Eating at Paladares Restaurants

Paladares are restaurants operated in residential dwellings by families that specialize in serving up Cuban cuisine. But travel experts predict paladares will become increasingly commercialized — with menus geared for American tastebuds — now that the U.S. to Cuba travel is reinstated.

We can help you goup enjoy an amazing Cuban culinary experience by scheduling lunch and dinner dates at paladares that equate to five-star restaurants in terms of cuisine. Enjoy the originality of Cuba’s paladares while you can!

  1. City of Trinidad

Not to be confused with the Caribbean Island of Trinidad, the Cuban city of Trinidad is one of the nation’s most unchanged metropolises since the Elizabethan era (1558–1603). The exceptional preservation of the city’s surroundings and heritage means it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles you’d expect from a tourist spot, but many agree this is part of the city’s charm.

Huffington Post says this about Trinidad: “Don’t expect fancy accommodations — the sleepy B&Bs are family-run — but they all have rooftop seafood restaurants, local musicians playing the afternoon away, and a cool, laid-back vibe as you walk the cobblestone streets.” You may not wish to lodge in Trinidad, but the city is well worth a day trip.

  1. Top Coral Reefs

Oceanographers know Cuba as one of the world’s finest destinations for coral reef studies. Nearby Key West and Jamaica feature once impeccable reefs that have since damaged by the ravages of commercialism, but Cuba’s reefs remain comparatively unspoiled.

You can view reefs from several locations, but if it’s crystal clear water you’re after, it’s hard to beat the resort island of Cayo Coco. View a reef, snorkel and take in aquatic life, jump from low cliffs into warm water below, or just relax and enjoy the scenery. Whatever your vision of Caribbean island paradise, we’ll help make it a part of your incentive trip in Cuba.

Contact Us Today

If you’d like to reward your top performers with an incentive trip in Cuba, Incentive Travel Solutions is here to help. We’ll work with you to create unique travel experiences that aren’t a part of the average vacation or business trip — experiences that bring colleagues close together and motivate them to qualify for the next incentive trip.

To get started on planning an awesome journey, call us today at (704) 540-1482, or send us an email through our contact form. Beautiful Cuba awaits!

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Refreshing your Sales Team with an Incentive Travel Getaway

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America values hard work. In fact, our traditional five-day work week doesn’t have much tradition behind it. Until the late 1800s, we commonly worked seven days a week. And let’s be honest: some of us still do, and it isn’t always because we hold more than one job.

Sales reps often put in more than five days a week because business deals don’t conveniently stop on Friday afternoon and resume on Monday morning. Sure, most successful salespeople earn a nice salary and an annual bonus that justifies the hard work, but great financial incentives can’t cure mental exhaustion. Eventually, even the most dedicated team members need a break.

Refresh With Incentive Travel   

After putting in countless work weeks of well over 40 hours, simply relaxing at home for a few days can feel reinvigorating. But you want to reward your top sellers with more than just good pay and vacation days. You want to do something that quantifies the importance of their achievements and encourages them to keep up the great work. Taking an incentive travel getaway to an exciting destination is the perfect solution.

The Incentive Research Foundation defines incentive travel this way: “Incentive Travel Programs are a motivational tool to enhance productivity or achieve business objectives in which participants earn the reward based on a specific level of achievement set forth by management. Earners are rewarded with a trip and the program is designed to recognize earners for their achievements.”

It’s easy enough to see how an incentive travel getaway rewards great sales numbers and encourages them in the future. But what about the relaxation factor? As we all know, even leisure travel can be stressful when it comes to making travel arrangements and ensuring the trip goes off as planned.

Use an Incentive Travel Planner   

Aside of choosing relaxing activities for your trip, the key to filling an incentive travel getaway with relaxation is placing it in the hands of an experienced incentive travel planner, such as Incentive Travel Solutions.

When you use us as your incentive travel facilitator, we handle all travel arrangements, including scheduling for activities after you arrive at the destination. We even send a retinue of travel staff with you on the trip to handle anything that must be done to make the journey go as planned. The result is an incentive travel getaway that’s stress-free and mentally refreshing

Contact Incentive Travel Solutions

The seven-day work week can be traced back 4,000 years to ancient Babylon, but the five-day work week followed by a two-day “weekend” didn’t show up until the late 1800s, when Englanders started spending Saturday and Sunday visiting friends before their weekly work schedule resumed. This is the kind of work week most of us want, but holding a key position in sales often requires putting in more than five days a week.

If you’re ready to reward your top sales reps with an unforgettable travel trip for all of their hard work, call us today at (704) 540-1482, or send us an email through our contact form. We look forward to helping you plan the ultimate relaxing getaway!

 

Unique Transportation for your Next Incentive Travel Trip

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Ready to start planning your next incentive travel trip? Call us today 704-540-1482 – or click here to learn more about our experiences with Trains, Planes & Gondolas.

Ireland Newsletter

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Getting started is easy. Contact our team today at (704) 540-1482.

Ireland Travel Trips – Read More Here

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Incentive Travel Trips: 6 Benefits of Corporate Travel

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Incentive travel is an unfamiliar term to many, but specially planned incentive travel trips to amazing destinations can play an essential role in making top business performers feel adequately compensated, and motivating them to perform at a high level to qualify for the next incentive travel trip. Employees benefit from the trips for the relaxation and pleasure they offer. Employers benefit from the high level of productivity that justifies offering the exciting journeys.

Benefits for Employees and Companies

Over the past five years, studies have revealed statistics from various organizations that point to the need for incentive-based travel that provides a much needed vacation away from the workplace, but incentive travel trips have important benefits for the companies that offer them, too. Below, we look at three benefits for employers and three benefits for their employees.

  1. For Employers: An Incentive Travel Planner Handles Arrangements

When we say we handle arrangements, we mean that we literally plan and oversee all aspects of the trip, from securing airline contracts, to negotiating hotel accommodations, to ensuring that enjoyable activities occur as planned, and much more. The same detail to attention also applies to the return trip.

  1. For Employees: Employees Develop Camaraderie With Coworkers

Your employees may already enjoy a good sense of camaraderie; otherwise, they wouldn’t work together well enough to qualify for incentive travel. But incentive travel trips can bring them closer together, as they share rich, cultural experiences that promote friendship and not just a sense of professional respect.

  1. For Employers: Dedicated Travel Staff Attend the Entire Journey

When you and your top performers embark on the amazing journey, you travel with a team of sidekicks who are our very own travel staff. These staff members attend to your wants and needs during the trip and resolve any unforeseen discrepancies in the travel itinerary. On a a standard vacation, you would do this on your own. On an incentive travel trip, they are handled on your behalf.

  1. For Employees: The Trip is Anything but a Common Vacation

Because incentive travel is offered to top performers, many of whom are well-compensated enough to afford their own phonomenal vacations, the key to up the ante and provide a journey that has two key characteristics: a world class destination that involves activities that would impress an international diplomat on his or her initial trip to the appointment’s destination.

  1. For Employers: Employees Return With a Renewed Sense of Vigor

It can be a bit of a shock going from leisurely back to the daily grind, but studies have shown that incentive travel doesn’t turn employees into beach bums who don’t want to lose their tan. Rather, it helps them return to work with a renewed sense of vitality that has a positive impact on coworker relations and morale. Your next travel trip promises the same results.

  1. For Employees: The Trip is a Novel Reward Compared to Others Trips

Performance bonuses, big raises, stock options, promotions: These are common ways that companies reward top performers. While “money talks”, as the famous saying goes, incentive travel can speak even louder when it comes to rewarding workers who seemingly “have it all” in the financial department. There’s a reason we say our trips “create memories that last a lifetime.”

Ready to Add Incentive Travel to the Employee Reward Program?

If so, partnering with Incentive Travel Solutions to develop an incentive travel trip puts your interests in the hands of a company that has extensive experience creating trips whose destinations, activities, and sense of luxury are highly distinctive. Over the years, we’ve found that the trips we create with the help of our clients provide a tangible reward for business success and serve as great motivator for employees whose compensation is tied to performance.

To get started on creating an incentive-based travel plan to reward employees whose success is imperative for the success of your company, call us today at (704) 540-1482, or use our contact form. We look forward to hearing about your wants and needs that will define your travels.