From permitting beer drinking in the workplace to allowing employees to work from home, employee-friendly CEOs have tried about everything to make work feel less like work and more like fun. While most employees are gracious enough to accept whatever concessions a CEO throws their way, the fact remains: Some types of rewards are more effective than others at combining work and fun in a manner in which the latter doesn’t detract from the former.
Incentive-Based Trips Are a Great Option
Incentive-based trips are exactly what they sound like: travel opportunities that employees receive when they meet the requirements to receive them. At most companies, incentive-based trips are based on financial objectives. For example, a CEO might offer an incentive-based golf trip to his or her sales team if they exceed last year’s sales goals by 20 percent, or offer the same trip to members of management if they reduce annual operating costs by a similar margin.
Unlike wacky types of fun that could decrease business productivity, such as permitting drinking in the workplace, offering employees an incentive-based trip makes perfect sense from a business perspective, both for employees and the company for which they work. If you are a CEO who is looking for a way to deliver a winning combination of work and fun that improves workplace morale, below are four important reasons to consider offering an incentive-based trip.
- The Reward is Tangible
As a reward for hard work, there is nothing subjective about an incentive-based trip. Employees know that, if they meet the stated goal, they will be golfing in Ireland, snorkeling in Key West, soaking up spa treatments in Malibu, or enjoying a similarly fun type of trip. As they work toward the goal, they can continually envision the reward to help them stay motivated to succeed.
- Employees Know What to Expect
Employees at thriving companies know they’ll receive raises and bonuses for working hard. However, exactly what those raises and bonuses amount to is often unknown, until employees see it at year’s end on paper. An incentive-based trip doesn’t involve any guesswork. Employees know what they will receive, which can make them more motivated to receive it.
- Encourages Business Productivity
One of the problems of combining work activities and fun activities in the same environment is that the spirit of fun can usurp the commitment to productivity. Often, it is a better idea to make “fun” a reward for hard work instead of combining fun activities with work processes. Ultimately, the goal is to boost productivity in a capacity that increases the bottom line. Making an incentive-based trip the light at the end of the yearly work tunnel helps promote productivity.
- Can be Highly Cost Effective
Incentive-based trips can be a cost effective way to reward employees. For example, say you have a sales team of 25 people that would receive raises and bonuses totaling $1 million at year’s end based on their current performance. Now, imagine offering a group trip that would cost $250,000 and reducing raises and bonuses by a total of $350,000. That’s an easy way to add six figures to your company’s bottom line by using a trip as a performance-based reward.
Contact Us Today
If you are a CEO who would like to add more fun to the work environment, offering employees an incentive-based trip is a good option for the reasons above. However, to make the trip a success, you may need some assistance from a professional facilitator of incentive-based trips. If so, the experienced specialists at Incentive Travel Solutions are here to help.
We have assisted many businesses and organizations with planning captivating trips to desirable destinations worldwide. From helping you choose a destination, to negotiating the best travel prices, to handling web-based registration processes, we can facilitate almost any aspect of an incentive-based trip. Simply put, we handle the legwork while you focus on business.
For more information about our services, call us today at (704) 540-1482, or fill out our contact form. We look forward to helping you plan an amazing trip to remember!
Trains, Planes and Gondolas – Creative Incentive Travel Trips
/in Incentive TravelIncentive Travel Solutions operates 75% of its client’s annual trips internationally in Europe and around the world. Read on to discover how remarkable we make incentive travel trips for your team.
Traveling Abroad
When traveling abroad the ITS planning team incorporates many different modes of transportation. Touring in a motor coach day after day can be monotonous, boring and not very creative. The ITS Team, for example, incorporates train transfers throughout Europe whenever possible. The trains are affordable, efficient, clean and unique for many American travelers. During the train experience we include magazines, and many times upgrade the meals and snacks on board. In addition to trains, the ITS Team utilizes boats, vintage cars, trams, trollies, limousines, rail cars, and many other unique transfer methods.
Vienna, Austria
In 2012, ITS operated a client incentive trip in Vienna, Austria. The final night black tie gala dinner was being hosted at the Schonbrunn Palace, the Summer home of the Austrian Royal Family. With a group of 350, it is sometimes difficult to transfer guests through major European cities without a motor coach. Yet, with creative planning, a first class travel team, and years of logistical expertise anything is possible. The ITS planning and on-site Team was able to transfer all 350 guests to their formal dinner in horse and buggies…AND with a glass of champagne along the way. The client’s winners and their guests loved the evening open air transfer and the event was a great success.
The Wow Factor
Creating special memories during incentive trips does not always have to increase our client’s budget. The Team at Incentive Travel Solutions takes pride in making recommendations that give a wow factor experience and keep costs in line.
Mountains & Mozart – Splendor in Banff, Canada
/in Press and NewsIt is the goal of everyone at Incentive Travel Solutions to exceed expectations. Our destination partners are very important to our success and we welcome their suggestions, experience and local relationships. However, even the best destination suppliers can get into a habit of presenting the same concepts over and over. Therefore, we take pride in custom designing every function, tour and group activity that we present our clients.
In 2014, Incentive Travel Solutions had the honor of creating a client incentive trip for their 180 winners and guests to Banff, Canada. During a site visit, we toured a local ranch that could be used for horseback riding during the day or host groups for a traditional western style dinner show in the evening. The venue was fantastic and the setting was beautiful. However, the Incentive Travel Solutions Team was looking for a real wow, something that the guests would remember for a lifetime.
In speaking with one of the ranch hands, he mentioned a field atop the mountain that he would take the horses to run. He offered to show us the location. There was only one way to visit the area, so the ITS Team mounted horses and began the journey. Upon arriving, it was clear that the scenery from this mile-high location was unique. The 360-degree view across the Canadian Rockies was spectacular. The field however, was a bit raw and would require quite a bit of grooming. The ranch hand was proud of his secret location and was anxious to help us in any way.
So the day arrived. This was to be a signature event and everyone at the ranch was excited to witness the occasion first hand. The client’s winners and guests arrived and were greeted by the ranchers and local artisans. Outfitted in western attire, the group traveled by horses and wagons. Accompanied by cowboys, and a riding western trio, the group blazed a trail into the mountains. Soon, the group entered the clearing atop the mountain. The setting was breathtaking. Before their eyes, was the amazing view of the Canadian Rockies. At the end of the summit was a marquee tent adorned with summer flower centerpieces, crystal stemware, and servers in black tuxedos to greet the group. Outside the tent, an orchestra performed tunes from the Sound of Music. The client, his top performers and their guests were speechless. They were wow’ed that all of this was created just for them. White and red wine was being poured and the first ever white glove western bar-b que was underway.
An incentive trip must be memorable and inspiring. Taking something ordinary and turning it into a once in a lifetime memory is what the team at Incentive Travel Solutions challenges themselves with each and every day. Contact Us today to get started.
Work & Fun: How Can a CEO Deliver This Winning Combination?
/in Press and NewsFrom permitting beer drinking in the workplace to allowing employees to work from home, employee-friendly CEOs have tried about everything to make work feel less like work and more like fun. While most employees are gracious enough to accept whatever concessions a CEO throws their way, the fact remains: Some types of rewards are more effective than others at combining work and fun in a manner in which the latter doesn’t detract from the former.
Incentive-Based Trips Are a Great Option
Incentive-based trips are exactly what they sound like: travel opportunities that employees receive when they meet the requirements to receive them. At most companies, incentive-based trips are based on financial objectives. For example, a CEO might offer an incentive-based golf trip to his or her sales team if they exceed last year’s sales goals by 20 percent, or offer the same trip to members of management if they reduce annual operating costs by a similar margin.
Unlike wacky types of fun that could decrease business productivity, such as permitting drinking in the workplace, offering employees an incentive-based trip makes perfect sense from a business perspective, both for employees and the company for which they work. If you are a CEO who is looking for a way to deliver a winning combination of work and fun that improves workplace morale, below are four important reasons to consider offering an incentive-based trip.
As a reward for hard work, there is nothing subjective about an incentive-based trip. Employees know that, if they meet the stated goal, they will be golfing in Ireland, snorkeling in Key West, soaking up spa treatments in Malibu, or enjoying a similarly fun type of trip. As they work toward the goal, they can continually envision the reward to help them stay motivated to succeed.
Employees at thriving companies know they’ll receive raises and bonuses for working hard. However, exactly what those raises and bonuses amount to is often unknown, until employees see it at year’s end on paper. An incentive-based trip doesn’t involve any guesswork. Employees know what they will receive, which can make them more motivated to receive it.
One of the problems of combining work activities and fun activities in the same environment is that the spirit of fun can usurp the commitment to productivity. Often, it is a better idea to make “fun” a reward for hard work instead of combining fun activities with work processes. Ultimately, the goal is to boost productivity in a capacity that increases the bottom line. Making an incentive-based trip the light at the end of the yearly work tunnel helps promote productivity.
Incentive-based trips can be a cost effective way to reward employees. For example, say you have a sales team of 25 people that would receive raises and bonuses totaling $1 million at year’s end based on their current performance. Now, imagine offering a group trip that would cost $250,000 and reducing raises and bonuses by a total of $350,000. That’s an easy way to add six figures to your company’s bottom line by using a trip as a performance-based reward.
Contact Us Today
If you are a CEO who would like to add more fun to the work environment, offering employees an incentive-based trip is a good option for the reasons above. However, to make the trip a success, you may need some assistance from a professional facilitator of incentive-based trips. If so, the experienced specialists at Incentive Travel Solutions are here to help.
We have assisted many businesses and organizations with planning captivating trips to desirable destinations worldwide. From helping you choose a destination, to negotiating the best travel prices, to handling web-based registration processes, we can facilitate almost any aspect of an incentive-based trip. Simply put, we handle the legwork while you focus on business.
For more information about our services, call us today at (704) 540-1482, or fill out our contact form. We look forward to helping you plan an amazing trip to remember!
A Simple Idea Every CEO Should Consider to Boost Sales
/in Employee Motivation, Press and NewsExperienced CEOs know that business productivity is inevitably tied to how well employees are compensated, especially when it comes to sales. Companies naturally seek out the best talent for their sales teams, but having all the talent in the world means nothing unless you can motivate it to perform at the highest level. One way that CEOs can inspire their carefully selected sales teams to increase productivity and boost sales is offering an incentive-based trip.
Incentive-Based Trips: What Are They?
Incentive-based trips are rewards that thriving companies offer to employees who meet or exceed a preset business goal. In sales, the goal may involve such things as nurturing a certain percentage of leads into clients, retaining a certain percentage of existing customers, and exceeding last year’s revenue goal by a certain percentage. The business goal is yours to choose, and so is the type of trip that employees take after they achieve the goal.
A Unique Look at Cost Effectiveness
At first glance, an incentive-based trip can seem like an expensive way to motivate and reward sales professionals. After all, the trips often involve a high level of novelty and luxury in terms of destination, planned activities, and lodging. However, it is the novelty of the trips that can make them a cost effective way to deliver a meaningful, performance-based reward to employees.
For example, for many people, the novelty of playing golf on a beautiful, seaside course in Ireland is worth far more in experiential value than it is in monetary value. For the trip’s provider, this phenomenon can create a great amount of financial flexibility when planning the trip, especially when the provider works with a professional trip planner to secure the best prices.
Facilitating an Incentive-Based Trip
Because they often involve multiple travelers, incentive-based trips can present logistical and financial obstacles that the average vacation would not, such as airline contract negotiations, hotel contract negotiations, and web registration processes. The good news is that a professional planner of incentive based trips, such as Incentive Travel Solutions can help you move past these obstacles with ease. You can focus on work while we solidify your travel plans.
Contact Us Today
As long as they have established the performance-based goal that triggers the reward, it is never too early for CEOs to start planning an incentive-based trip for their sales team. The more time that we have to make arrangements for your travels, the more flexibility we have to get you the best possible prices for traveling to your destination, inhabiting it in style, and having a fabulous time enjoying fun filled, leisurely activities while you are there.
To get started on planning an incentive-based trip for your company’s hard working sales team, call Incentive Travel Solutions today at (704) 540-1482, or fill out our contact form. We look forward to helping you create a trip that your sales team will remember forever and work hard to qualify for in the meantime by boosting sales numbers to new heights!
Incentive Travel Programs: Get in the Game
/in Incentive Travel Program, Incentive TripMark Twain once said that “golf is a good walk spoiled.” For many companies, nothing could be further from the truth. We’ve all heard about lucrative business deals being secured while playing 18 holes of golf, but the game of golf can be more than just a catalyst for business transactions. In the form of a performance-based golf trip, it can also serve as a major incentive for a company’s workers to perform at the highest level, but let’s not put the cart before the horse.
Before you offer an incentive-based trip, you need to know how much it would cost based on the type of experience you want to offer. Once you know this, you can set accurate business goals in terms of who qualifies to take the trip. You also need to know that your travel plans are secure, and will transpire as expected. Otherwise, you risk offering a trip that doesn’t live up to employees’ expectations and dampens the thought of taking incentive-based trips in the future.
Let Us Get You in the Game
At Incentive Travel Solutions, we specialize in helping companies and organizations plan incentive-based trips that encourage workers to bump up productivity in order to receive what could be called a reward: a relaxing trip to a wonderful location, where they can leave the work world behind for a while and bask in a reward that they helped to create. If you would like to plan an incentive-based golf trip, we can make it a reality by offering the following services.
? Destination selection
? Airline contract negotiation
? Assistance from professional and experienced onsite travel staff
? Hotel contract negotiation
? Web-based registration
For decision makers at many companies, planning an incentive-based golf trip is a stressful, time consuming affair that takes them away from performing core business functions, and thus diminishes productivity. At Incentive Travel Solutions, we take the stress out of planning a golf trip by performing the services above to ensure that you plan a trip that is enjoyable for all, and doesn’t stretch your company’s travel budget out of shape for the remainder of the year.
In all of our dealings on your behalf, minimizing costs while creating an unforgettable trip is the primary goal. Although working with us does involve payment for services, many decision makers find that using our experience and expertise in planning incentive-based trips is ultimately more cost effective than handling the process on their own. In addition to getting you the best prices, we help you remain highly productive while the trip is in the planning phase.
Contact Us Today
Are you a CEO or a decision-making executive who wants to plan an incentive-based golf trip for your diligent workers? If so, Incentive Travel Solutions will help you create the perfect trip, from selecting a great destination to handling the web-based registration process for flights and hotel lodging. With us working as your trusted provider of premier travel services, your golf trip will be one to remember, one that will make your workers employees look forward to similar trips in the future.
For more information about our services, call us today at (704) 540-1482, or contact us here. We look forward to helping you create an awesome golf trip that would change Mark Twain’s mind about the game of golf being “a good walk spoiled”!