Wouldn’t you like to find a way to strengthen your relationships with the most important people in your business? These can be your channel partners, clients, suppliers, or even your own employees. With the impact of current economic factors facing Australia and New Zealand, the relationship between your business and your lifelines has never been more important.
That’s where we come in – has your business considered trying a travel incentive program? Creating a once-in-a-lifetime travel experience to exciting locations, educational opportunities or motivational conferences can be the step towards positioning your brand or company as front-of-mind when they come to the next time they need to think which brand to turn to.
Creating a B2B travel incentive program is a great way to offer your loyal customers, channel partners or employees the opportunity for an all-expenses-paid trip for meeting or exceeding performance goals, such as sales targets or meeting organisational benchmarks. Your rewards programs might be exactly what’s needed to motivate employees, boost employee morale, hit the next stage of sales growth, or boost your B2B retention strategies and brand engagement.
In this article, we’ll lay out some important areas to plan out when creating an incentive travel program. The aim of corporate incentive travel programs is to excite and connect like no other reward. It’s why we’ll share some of our tips – after all, we’ve been the leading B2B travel incentive program provider across Australia and New Zealand since 1996 – we know what we’re talking about!
Sure, there are lots of logistics to work out when it comes to program design but leave that to us! For your company, travel incentives should be more about the travel than the incentive design. So, where should you start when planning it out?
One of the benefits that an incentive travel program has over simpler rewards such as cash rewards is the ability to build and strengthen relationships with the most important people in your business. By providing unforgettable experiences that you share with them, you can turn those who joined you into brand advocates – after all, who wouldn’t want to tell everyone who would listen about a free trip to a luxury hotel they just got? This can boost your retention of both loyal customers and employees such as the sales team.
Your brand may be apprehensive about the cost of inviting so many along to your new compelling incentive trip, with plane tickets, gala dinners, leisure travel, and so on – which is understandable! However, we can design travel incentive programs that are entirely self-funded from the expected growth you’ll see – meaning you won’t pay anything until your organisation meets the targets, usually business objectives. This includes all travel and other perks such as destination management, so provided you’re open about what you want to achieve, we can ensure you won’t be out at all on your rewards program. Talk about a return on investment!
There are many benefits to implementing a travel incentive program for your business. Some of the most common benefits include:
• Increased employee morale: Travel incentive programs are a great way to show your employees that you appreciate their hard work. When employees know that they can earn a trip for their efforts, they are more likely to be motivated and engaged in their work.
• Increased sales: Incentive travel programs can be a great way to boost sales. By offering employees the opportunity to earn a trip for meeting or exceeding sales goals, you can create a sense of urgency and competition that can lead to increased sales.
• Improved company culture: Travel incentive programs can also help to improve company culture. When employees are rewarded for their hard work with a travel prize, they feel valued and appreciated. This can lead to a more positive and productive work environment.
• Increased return on investment (ROI): Travel incentive programs can be a very effective way to improve your ROI. A study conducted by the Incentive Research Foundation found that companies that offer travel incentive programs typically see a 200% ROI.
Now that you’re convinced of how valuable creating a corporate incentive travel program is, you’re probably wondering how to create your own incentive trips! These can be quite complex, which is why we’d always recommend enlisting professionals to assist.
Due to the complexities of planning memorable experiences, managing onsite logistics, and ensuring that you’re spending enough quality time with the people you brought there to ensure successful relationship building, it’s important to enlist the assistance of a destination management company.
They’ll be sure to balance engaging activities with enough free time to ensure that the incentive will leave a lasting impression while also demonstrating how your organisation is showing appreciation for their assistance and contribution to your recent success. They’ll also have greater access to a wider range of events than you may be aware of when planning your incentive trips!
If you’re thinking about creating an incentive travel program for your business, there are a few things you need to keep in mind:
• Set clear goals and objectives. What do you want to achieve with your travel incentive program? Do you want to increase employee morale, boost sales, or improve company culture? Once you know your goals, you can start to develop a program that will help you achieve them.
• Choose the right rewards. The rewards you offer will be the most important factor in determining the success of your travel incentive program. Make sure to choose rewards that are both desirable and achievable for your employees.
• Budget wisely. Travel incentive programs can be expensive, so it’s important to budget wisely. Consider the cost of the travel prize, as well as the cost of administering the program.
• Promote your program effectively. Once you’ve created your travel incentive program, you need to make sure that your employees know about it. Promote the program through your company’s intranet, email, and other channels.
Another important factor to consider when planning your incentive travel programs is the evolving area of – sustainability! Environmental impacts and sustainable travel are a deciding factor for many younger audiences, it may be beneficial to address this in your travel rewards design.
Our 212F group initiative KoruGreen, which we include with all our travel programs to any destination, includes one entirely sustainable option. In this, we guarantee a net zero carbon footprint for all of your guests for the entire trip, as well as sustainable activities set to excite the participants while educating them about the top incentive travel destinations you’ve selected and their culture.
Travel incentive programs typically work by setting specific performance goals for your channel partners or employees to achieve. Once these goals are met, participants who meet the targets are eligible for the travel incentive. These can be performance metrics or business objectives like sales targets for your top performers, a way to increase productivity or even a thank you for working with you through challenging times.
If you’re unsure about anything, reach out to us – travel reward programs Australia and New Zealand-wide have been in our blood since 1996, so let us work with you to nail down the strategy and ensure your objectives are achieved with as little stress as possible. We don’t only do travel incentives – we also work with businesses on their B2B loyalty program benefits and merchandise. Leave the planning to us – we know what we’re doing!
Incentive trips represent a great return on investment in many ways. They can be used as an incentive to motivate your channel partners, employees or even motivate sales teams to contribute additional effort. This will then proceed to lead to more money for the company! Beyond directly improving revenue, corporate incentive travel programs can be considered fantastic employee rewards for meeting sales targets or increasing revenue, which can then improve company morale. This can be considered a return on investment by reducing the turnover of employees. This will save your company money and ensure consistent revenue flow. Additionally, as mentioned above, we can assist with creating an incentive program that is entirely self-funded by the growth required to meet the targets, so all these benefits can almost be considered free!
It’s important to include a wide range of travel rewards in your travel program. Ensuring that there is a balance of events that will let your guests build new skills, relax, and spend quality time with your representatives. After all, what good is a trip to Northern Europe if you’re just talking business the whole time? Balanced experience planning is important – use professionals to ensure you get the balance right!
Beyond a simple return on investment, your incentive travel program can do important work in boosting the market share of your associated companies. By using your incentive trips to build lasting relationships with your most valuable channel partners, you create a bond that will last for years to come. If you had to purchase a product, and the choice was between someone who provided you with an unforgettable experience and someone who hadn’t, which would you choose? Any companies associated with your travel incentive program will give you their loyalty in future purchases, assisting with boosting your market share.
