Executive Travel : The Carrot Approach to Meeting Goals

Mention the term incentive travel to most executives and they may recall some scheme to “sell the most cars in January and win a trip to Hawaii!” In truth, incentives have come a long way from the sleazy scenarios depicted in movies and plays in which aggressive managers pitted sales associates against each other to win enticing--but often irrelevant--travel prizes.

These days, companies are finding that incentive trips are a meaningful alternative to bonuses and that travel can boost morale and promote team building in a way cash can’t.

“When you get cash, you’ll pay your American Express bill,” said Jennifer Juergens, editor of Incentive magazine. “It’s not something you’ll remember. . . . Companies that use incentive travel know that trips are something that will be remembered forever.”

There are two types of incentive travel: group and individual. They are used to reward not only high sales, but productivity, service, attendance, accident reduction and just about any other measurable goal.

Group incentive trips can be awarded to an entire qualifying set of employees, or a combination of top-performing members of the sales force, or even the best customers. Top management often goes along.

“It’s probably the greatest motivator,” Juergens said, “because you’re rubbing elbows with the CEO that you never see.”

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Scott Klein, vice president of operations for Prime Source, an Irvine-based distributor of building products, plans a major trip every other year for top customers as a marketing tool, plus a smaller trip each year for his sales staff.

“We’ve tried to carve out the niche in our industry” by building a reputation of offering “the trip that everyone wants to go on,” Klein said. He has sponsored travel for hundreds of customers to Nassau in the Bahamas and Cancun, Mexico.

Some companies prefer the ease and convenience of offering travel vouchers.

“One of the biggest booms we’re seeing is individual incentive travel, where you are given a certificate so you can go anywhere you want in the U.S. and you can bring your spouse,” Juergens said. While individual incentive trips don’t provide opportunities for corporate team building, they are appreciated by employees who often prefer to spend their time away from home with their families.

The Society of Incentive Travel Executives estimates that incentive travel is a $5-billion-a-year industry. In 1993, food product companies were the biggest users of such travel, spending more than $2 billion, according to Incentive magazine. Other big spenders on incentives are toiletries, cosmetics, auto parts, insurance and electronics firms.

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Renee Rut, operations manager for the meetings and incentives division of QST Travel Group, said that now that budgets are opening up, so are companies’ appetites for more elaborate trips. For instance, she recently planned an eight-night Kenyan safari for 50 employees of Golden West Homes and has arranged incentive cruises on luxury yachts and Mississippi riverboats.

Dallas-based Sports Fantasy Tours specializes in incentive trips that combine travel with the popularity of professional athletics.

“For example,” President Ron Baron said, “we can arrange for your employees to be taken to a baseball spring training facility, meet with professional players and compete in a softball home-run-hitting contest with a $100,000 prize.”

But incentive travel need not be expensive to be effective. “It doesn’t have to be a five-star hotel every time. In fact, some people are intimidated by five-star properties,” said Bob Vitagliano, executive vice president and chief executive of SITE.

The important thing, Vitagliano said, is that the awards be relevant to the recipients.

“You need to understand the level of sophistication of the audience you’re trying to motivate, their income, age--all the demographic considerations,” he said.

“I once planned an incentive trip for a bank in Orange County, where we covered hotel accommodations in Palm Springs for a weekend, as well as meals and some extras like hot air ballooning. The employees were responsible for their own transportation, but they loved it, because it was something they wouldn’t have done on their own.”