Incentive travel is a global management tool that uses the experience of a trip to motivate and / or recognize the participants by high levels of performance in supporting the organization’s objectives. The main objectives of Incentive Travel are to motivate, recognize, improve productivity, increase total quality, promote relationships among participants, develop positive relationships and strong group identity, and provide a space for the exchange of ideas and concepts.
They are a means that the company employs to reward, motivate or reward offered by the company itself to its employees, clients or suppliers after achieving some marked objectives. It is a planned activity that seeks to create and stimulate the interpersonal and work relations of a work group or reward a job well done. It seeks to promote the values associated with the company, cohesion departments, promote sales or reward the objectives achieved. It is a great way to create a suitable environment for these teams to create firmer ties and develop a spirit of work that will undoubtedly benefit the company. It can also be called an aspirational journey, as the winner aims to achieve the objectives to be able to access the trip in question previously agreed and organized.
Creativity is also important when planning an incentive trip: it is important that each occasion is unique and that the same destinations and activities are not repeated in successive trips. In this sense, the organizing company can be put in the hands of a company specialized in this type of trips to help you design the incentive trip appropriate to your needs.
They can be divided into two modalities: For groups and individuals. Normally the individual incentive seeks to reward a worker for certain achievements and the incentive of groups seeks to foster links and relationships between the members of a department or work group.
- For groups: It consists of fostering links by sharing an experience while assigning the objective discussed above. With this modality, what is encouraged is the accomplishment of tasks together with the purpose of working on corporate cohesion and conveying the importance of working together.
- Individuals: The company offers a trip to enjoy with the family of the winner or with whom he/she wishes, adjusted to previously agreed parameters
Among the advantages you can find, an incentive trip can achieve the following:
- Strengthen links and establish more sincere relations between workers and improvements in labor relations between them.
- Relate a positive and pleasant memory to the company
- Generate empathy between workers and the company
- Improve teamwork, self-motivation and competence.
Nowadays with the strong competition between companies, they are looking for formulas to activate and increase the results through an attractive proposal that motivates the lucky prospects. One of the tools with the best results is incentive travel, as it has great advantages.
It does not matter if it is an event, a business incentive or a convention: organizing a trip requires careful planning and organization. Conceived as a prize, the incentive trip is a planned activity designed to motivate people to achieve predetermined goals by the company. For many years, entrepreneurs have discovered that incentive travel is a good system to retain customers, motivate sales teams, link departments and promote sales. It has the advantage of having a special appeal and attributes that make it different and unique to the motivation. It has the capacity to foster enthusiasm and enthusiasm, arousing the desires of people. The main advantage of incentive trips is that they are made to measure. Each company can choose the type of event they want to perform based on their brand values. These prizes are characterized by being: exclusive, creative, playful and attractive.
Its purpose of why to undertake an incentive trip is to stimulate a demotivated distribution network or the reward for the work well done in a certain department, getting the emotional involvement of the participant in it and creating links of great knowledge or even of friendship between the people who participate in these events.
Word of mouth, personal experiences, business relationships… All this makes it a powerful marketing tool and many departments in companies have specific budgets to face annually a series of awards or awards in the form of travel.
One of the last trends in the sector is to carry out activities related to development cooperation and social responsibility. The diversity of incentive travel offers is extensive and varied, ranging from large international trips to weekends in the region. They can be focused on sports and outdoor group activities, a perfect choice if you are looking to foster teamwork and a competitive spirit. They can also revolve around cultural themes or simply consist of a luxury trip.
Among this variety, we can highlight:
- Adventure or sports activities: They are perfect for teams, to add stimulation of group work and the spirit of competition. From classic horseback riding or golf, to the latest in adventure-controlled services.
- Outdoor group activities: Gymkhanas, safaris, routes, etc.
- Cultural topics: Visits to museums, historical ruins or cultural routes.
- The classics: They consist of a luxury trip, with stays in fantastic hotels and parallel activities.
- Religious or ethnic issues.
- Sports trips: The central nexus of this typology is the practice of some sport that usually is in team. The intention is to stimulate the spirit of competition from fellowship and respect.
- Luxury travel: These are four and five-star hotels on an all-inclusive basis with access to treatments, spa, etc. Ideal for rewarding after a year of well-done work.
- Adventure travel: Consists of activities related to nature such as safaris or mountain routes. It also includes the practice of adventure sports like rafting or climbing that help release tension and disconnect.
- Cultural trips: They emphasize the creative and formative part of the workers with the visit to museums, historical centers, art galleries…
The latest trend is to carry out development cooperation activities, with stays in poor countries and contributing to improvements in the community.
When organizing an incentive trip, the following aspects must be considered:
1. Organize well the distribution between leisure / business within the program, when selecting the destination and the right place.
2. Study the costs, not to discard international destinations, which can often offer good deals with very affordable prices (especially out of season, which is when these trips are most organized).
3. Consider the demographic characteristics of the attendees. Consider physical condition and hobbies, which can vary greatly between members of different age and sex.
4. An incentive must be different and new to get full impact: do not repeat previous trips, always look for a new, creative, etc. program.
5. Once the destination of the trip is clear, the travel agent and a company representative usually travel to the country or destination in question, to make a previous inspection visit and check the transport and services to be hired.
6. In parallel, the corresponding department of the same company or the travel agency begins to inform the fortunate, with schedules and / or itineraries, so that they get the idea and start to create pleasant expectations about the departure to Later.
7. Upon arrival, the planned and previously verified activities are carried out.
8. Once the trip is over, you should continue for a few days in contact with the participants to remember the good times and begin to prepare the ground for the next exit.
These trips are an excellent opportunity to do team building, that is, to build equipment. They are the perfect excuse to motivate employees in the pursuit of work goals or to reward them for the achievements made throughout the year. They are also positive for joining the different departments of the same company or even for customer loyalty. In short, they are perfect to bring your workers together in a relaxed environment in which to build closer ties.
When you start to organize an incentive trip, it is important to keep in mind the following points:
- Differentiation and originality: try not to repeat destinations or organize the same activities. In the surprise is the success.
- Match the balance between business and leisure: even if it is a business event, do not forget that it has a recreation point that should also be reflected in the program.
- Age range of attendees: both the age and sex of the participants must be considered, since the tastes can differ greatly according to the demographic characteristics.
- Search for new destinations: Domestic destinations are often thought of as cheaper when there are international options that are much more affordable and attractive to the attendees.
For incentive trips and team building Barcelona offers a wide variety of possibilities. Barcelona is nowadays a popular destination for group trips, commercial or private. Top-notch modern hotels, gastronomy and tapas bars, excellent congress centers and extravagant locations make Barcelona a perfect place for meetings, incentive trips and events.
Incentive trips are means that the tools are putting them in gear for the welfare of their jobs. The main reasons why they are included are:
1. Because they are more than just group trips. In an incentive trip the level of exigency is much higher, it is a trip where you take care of all the details and usually includes special activities that very rarely would be done in a standard group trip. Beyond the category of the hotel or the displacement, we try to create an experience that will last in the memory of the participants as a unique moment, an unforgettable memory. Usually include special team-building activities, which help to achieve the initial goal, which can be return on sales, loyalty, productivity, etc.
2. Because they motivate the team. Incentive travel is a good way to motivate the workforce towards certain business objectives, as they are a great way to reward the work done throughout the year.
3. Why cohesion departments. The team will live for a few days, doing activities side by side during the trip. In this way, team members will be better able to know each other and connect, which will result in a more relaxed and even supportive work environment with the positive consequences this can have for the company’s economic results.
4. Because they create corporate culture. An excellent incentive generates the idea of an excellent company in the imaginary of our employees. In addition, by encouraging the team we will ensure that our employees are happy with their work and their company, so they are likely to speak better of the company and become excellent ambassadors of our own brand. The advantages of converting workers into ambassadors of our own brand are innumerable: increased productivity, creativity and involvement, fundamental factors that revert to the degree of customer satisfaction and results.
5. Because they are loyal to customers. Incentive tourism can also be a good way to reward the best clients of the company, who will feel gratified.
6. Because they are a powerful weapon of marketing. Whether it is business tourism or an incentive trip for employees, you will have many people talking about the trip with which your company has awarded them.
Traditionally, incentive travel has been one of the best ways to reward a company’s employees for doing well in the performance of their duties. They are a kind of non-economic incentive that help to reward all the effort that employees put every day in doing their work in the most professional and efficient way.
Let’s see what are the advantages of this type of rewards in the form of travel for workers:
- Motivates workers: When employees know that the reward for their work can be an incentive trip, they are motivated and work harder in the development of their tasks to achieve the desired reward.
- Better peer relationships: There are times when the company gives this type of non-economic incentives to several employees in a group to encourage team work within the company. In this way, in addition to increasing productivity and teamwork, you will also substantially improve the relationship between your peers.
- Power the feeling of belonging to a group: Very related to the previous point, thanks to this type of non-economic rewards from the companies to their workers to carry out the work in team, it enhances the feeling of belonging to a group by Part of the employees themselves, improving the relationship between colleagues and the environment in the workplace.
- Power business productivity: When employees know that their work can be rewarded by an incentive trip, will increase their efforts and therefore the productivity of the company itself, so that the benefits of this type of awards will be reflected in both the Employees as in the company itself.
- Recognition of work done: One of the best feelings that an employee can experience at his job is to feel recognition from his superiors. Letting a worker know that he is doing his job well is a way to increase his self-esteem, and therefore, to make him happy in his job and to continue his efforts.
- Reduction of stress in the workplace: Thanks to incentive travel, workers will have the opportunity to enjoy a few days off and disconnect from work, reducing work stress.
- Equality of opportunity: the non-economic rewards of this kind offered to the workers and the good performance of their functions mean that there is a greater equality of opportunity within the company, since this type of awards will be granted by the Own company to the workers that greater commitment, effort and result has contributed in a determined period.
- Improved labor relations: Travel incentives, as well as any kind of reward of this kind, improves labor relations by fostering contacts and relationship outside the scope and the job post.
- Form of promotion and advertising for the company: When a company awards these types of rewards to an employee, the employee will begin to talk about that reward, in a way that will serve as a way of promoting the business brand.
- Take care of the rest and the happiness of the employees: When a company offers trips of incentives to its employees it gives them greater security and greater happiness, motivating them to work to obtain its objective.
Some of the aspects that you should keep in mind when planning your incentive trip are to find a balance between leisure activities and those related to the business, and selecting the destination is key to the development of activities.
It is necessary to consider the demographic characteristics of the assistants and to adapt the activities to their needs. It must always be new and attractive. The idea is to reward and promote the participation of the attendees, so you must capture their attention and never have done so.
E&TB Group can help you create your perfect trip!
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