Boyd To Take SITE's Reins

With demand for domestic and international incentive travel steadily increasing and membership in the Society of Incentive & Travel Executives on the rise, the association's incoming president plans to strengthen its educational programs, increase the networking opportunities it offers and aggressively promote membership as a powerful and essential tool for all industry professionals, from veteran practitioners to newcomers.

Bill Boyd, president and CEO of Sunbelt Motivation & Travel in Irving, Texas, and a past president of Meeting Professionals International, will become SITE's leader for a one-year term during its annual conference, to be held Nov. 4-7 in Merida, Mexico. He sees a promising future for the industry, as the economy improves and fears of travel abate.

"The incentive travel industry is rebounding after two years of slight growth. Demand for incentive travel has steadily increased throughout 2004, especially for international trips," Boyd said. "As the economy in the United States continues to improve, incentive travel will continue to be the leading choice for organizations looking to effectively motivate their employee and customer bases. Return on investment studies that prove the benefits exceed the costs by huge multiples will help fuel this growth and further position incentive travel as a business tool."

Without question, Boyd said, international incentive travel in recent years suffered from the terrorist attacks of 2001, the subsequent severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak and the war in Iraq. "These developments generated plenty of misperceptions regarding safety and stability, which had a direct impact on the destinations selected for many programs," he said. "As it rebounded, travel suffered another setback with the Madrid bombing in March."

Those global events, coupled with the weak U.S. economy, created a larger demand for domestic travel, Boyd said. "The recent calming of those fears has led to greater normalization in demand for international travel," he said. "Clients once again are exploring the opportunities for international travel and the savings associated with some foreign destinations. For example, the buying power of the U.S. dollar against the Canadian dollar and the Mexican peso remains strong."

With increased domestic travel, many resorts in the United States "have enjoyed relative prosperity over the past two years," Boyd said. Yet, even with a rebounding economy, there has been no change in the negotiating climate.

"Properties have been very cooperative with incentive houses, especially those major hotel chains that experienced a decline in overseas bookings," Boyd explained. "Now that international bookings are increasing, domestic bookings could experience a decline. This leveling out of bookings and increasing demand for incentive travel could force hotels to become tighter during negotiations, but there has been no indication of this to date. The prevailing attitude is one of teamwork."

Boyd is a strong believer in the use of travel over other types of incentives, particularly to promote teamwork, improve productivity and generate employee loyalty. Travel offers much more person-to-person interaction between management and employees, has greater perceived value than a cash bonus and serves as a "vehicle for bragging rights," he said.

"Relatives, neighbors, friends all find out about a trip won by an employee. Cash incentives merely go into the family budget never to be talked about again," Boyd said.

As president, Boyd plans to implement initiatives to expand the benefits of SITE membership, thereby solidifying the association's leadership role. "My goals include strengthening the educational opportunities for all members and, therefore, improving the value SITE provides, increasing networking opportunities through meaningful forums that allow members to conduct business with other members and spreading the word throughout the incentive industry that SITE is the association for the incentive practitioner and is relevant for career-minded professionals."

Membership in the association is on the rise, and retention is at "the highest level in years," Boyd said. Particularly encouraging, he said, is an influx of younger members turning to SITE for networking opportunities and to be their "primary source" for training.

Among the new initiatives generating interest is SITE's Executive Summit program, a traveling seminar in which instructors and industry experts offer up-to-date training. The inaugural event took place earlier this year in Dubai. The 2005 location soon will be named.

The challenges that lie ahead for SITE, Boyd said, are the same as those facing the entire incentive travel industry, including "providing methods to measure ROI for incentive users, educating the corporate world about the benefits of incentive travel, taking advantage of those forums that allow the incentive world to exchange ideas, security issues within the U.S. and abroad and negative perceptions of certain geographic regions."