The chosen destination is the biggest factor in making an incentive trip a success, according to St. Louis-based Maritz Travel. The company last month released new research gathered from its Travel Insight tool, an employee-polling and data-analysis tool designed to measure the effectiveness of corporate incentive travel programs. An expanded version of the tool also was unveiled.
The tool first was offered one year ago
(Meetings Today, Oct. 17, 2005). The new version evaluates an expanded number of travel experience elements, including hotel quality and brand, cruise brand if applicable, destination type and specific destinations, according to a company release. The tool also helps companies determine whether one annual trip or several smaller trips best motivate their staff.
"There are three main incentive travel program problems companies face: how to keep participants engaged year after year, how to develop a program that motivates middle as well as the usual top performers and get more bang for the buck," said Christine Duffy, CEO of Maritz Travel, in the release.
Maritz unveiled the expanded tool at the 2006 Motivation Show, held last month in Chicago, which attracted an expected 5,000 attendees and gave incentive travel vendors an opportunity to showcase new programs and promotions.
Insight customer Cingular Wireless, based in Atlanta, uses the tool to maximize the effectiveness for its incentives, said Karen Bennett, Cingular vice president of sales strategy and support, in the release.
"Without full engagement—from the top producers on down—the motivational value of the incentive is limited. If you're going to make this kind of investment, you want to make sure that you've got the engagement and motivation and that it is clearly linked to your business drivers so that you can get the maximum value," Bennett said.
Maritz also released trends it has identified through use of the tool in the incentive travel industry. According to Maritz, the most important attribute of an incentive was destination type, with cruises (36 percent), and beach/sun/water locations (31 percent) the most motivational. Guest policy was ranked the second most important attribute. Fifty-three percent of respondents said they were most motivated by trips that allow them to bring guests.
The third most important attribute for an incentive trip was the luxury level of the hotel, according to the survey. However, hotel brand preferences depended on age. Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons were among the top four brands chosen by all age groups, but Starwood's W hotels and Park Hyatt were a hit with people under 30 and Meridian ranked much higher for those 40 and above, according to Maritz.
Not surprisingly, Disney-brand cruises were a top-three choice for employees with children, and respondents with higher incomes chose Seabourne or SilverSea in their top three cruise picks. Royal Caribbean and Radisson Seven Seas were the top two cruise lines for all respondent groups, according to the release.
"The program identifies the trade-offs associated with different combinations of program elements. For example, will the trip be more motivational for your participants if it includes a luxury hotel, or does holding it in a more exotic location have a bigger impact?" said Chris Gaia, vice president of marketing for Maritz.
According to the survey, all income levels ranked Hawaii and Italy in their top four destinations. Employees earning more than $250,000 per year included Las Vegas and Cabo San Lucas in their top four preferred destinations, while their lesser-paid coworkers, those earning less than $25,000 per year, preferred Cancun.
Only three Maritz clients currently use the research tool, the same number as when it debuted in 2005. At that time, Gaia said the tool would be most applicable for companies that stage incentive programs of 1,000 or more people.
Maritz Travel Insight is based on a three-part questionnaire: program attributes, trip activities and participant details. Using the data, Maritz staffers then separate and quantify the value and impact of program attributes and then produce a report for the company. The analysis tool can be used multiple times, but survey results wouldn't change much unless there are many staff changes at the company.