By definition, incentive travel means going somewhere as a result of an incentive campaign. Otherwise it’s just group travel. But how many organisers are aware of what participants have had to do to qualify for such events and does it make any difference to the delivery of the travel experience on the ground, even if they have not actually qualified?
Normally, most industry bodies talk about incentive travel as being ‘an exceptional travel experience in return for above average performance’. So the link is certainly there with performance. But very few suppliers in the incentive travel chain are aware of what that performance may have been or even whether the participants deserve to be there.
When they are briefed that the participants are the ‘top achievers’ and so should be treated exceptionally well, it often comes as a surprise when the so-called achievers turn up on site. Many have never travelled overseas before, never experienced paying a week’s wages for a gin & tonic in a hotel bar or have ever come across bedroom curtains that only close with the deft use of an iPad.
Far from being high flyers in their home countries many incentive travel ‘winners’ have qualified under the most bizarre rules and often, they do not even work for the sponsoring organisation. How can this be?
Here are some examples of recent ‘qualifiers’ for lavish incentive events paid for by well-meaning major, global organisations.
As we all know many incentive groups include a partner who often has a decisive influence on their other half in terms of getting out of bed in the morning and working hard to qualify for the travel trip. But the partner may not be in business, may be unemployed, may be just the latest in a long line of paramours or simply be a ‘friend’ or relative. It is not unusual to be hosting the aged mother of a qualifier because the winner could not find a partner to take along.
Even if the event is for singles, on many distributor trips, the ‘winners’ may be back office people or unconnected business colleagues because the actual winner is too busy or too successful to attend.
Then there is the PA syndrome in which the sales director refuses to let his top salesman go on the event as it coincides with the important end of the month sales period and so designates his own PA to attend as ‘she has worked very hard this year.’
The ultimate insult to the sponsors is that cadre of qualifiers who do not even work for the organisation. Qualifiers are so successful that they are either on holiday themselves at that time or have already been to that specific venue so they ‘sell’ their place to a friend who then takes their place. The justification is often that the sponsor is unable to provide an equivalent of the reward in cash so if the trip is not taken, the benefit to the winner is lost.
An even worse scenario is the number of winners who have actually left the business but have qualified by dint of the previous period of sales and no-one has queried why they are there. This leads to several drunken dinners where the disaffected former employee has free rein to tell all the other poor saps how bad their organisation is while enjoying their Krug champagne and a luxury suite at their expense.
This can all be fixed with simple rules in the qualification period. All winners must be employed by the organisation at the time the award is taken up. The sponsor reserves the right to refuse attendance to anyone they deem to be unrelated to the organisation or not a ‘partner’ in the accepted sense. Winners should not have achieved their place through fraudulent means. Winners must have a validated employment contract and not on freelance terms. Unconnected relatives cannot be substituted, however valid the reasons may be.
This may all sound excessively legalistic. But the truth is the sponsor has the right to know that his per head cost is being well-spent and that the suppliers who are delivering the exceptional travel experience are dealing with bona fide winners who deserve to be rewarded.
