One yardstick for measuring the effectiveness of an incentive travel program is the buzz that is generated when the program is announced. An exciting destination gets the salespeople picturing themselves lounging poolside, which motivates them to make an extra sales call or work doubly hard to upsell an existing client.
If you’re the program sponsor, everything is working as planned. Until it’s not.
One company found itself in a precarious position last fall after it had launched an incentive program that would send top performers to Cabo San Lucas in June 2015. But then Hurricane Odile hit a largely unprepared Cabo San Lucas in September, causing major damage to the city, the resorts and the infrastructure of much of the Baja peninsula. By some estimates, Odile caused nearly $1 billion in economic damage.
Within weeks, however, businesses were bouncing back. Resorts had repaired what they could and restaurants were reopening. Locals said they had never seen Cabo so clean.
While Cabo rebounded, the company that was bringing a group of top salespeople to Cabo in June 2015 faced a problem. The No. 2 sales rep had seen TV reports showing flooded streets and locals looting grocery stores after the hurricane struck and wrote a letter to his supervisors voicing concerns about going to a destination that may not have adequate infrastructure and could not maintain control after tragedy struck.
“One person can start a firestorm,” says Mary Craig, director of meeting and events solutions for Balboa Travel Management, the San Diego-based company that was putting the trip together. They met the client at the Cabo property they had booked so they could see for themselves that security was sufficient and the resort itself was ready to host their group of 180 people. “The media can overplay things,” Craig says. “Sometimes first-hand knowledge goes a long way to resolve perception problems.”
Third-party protections
Incentive travel professionals report that international group travel is booming after sharp declines during the recession. Along with the rebound, however, is increased discussion about travel safety and risk management. Increased political unrest outside of the usual hot spots, threats of terrorism in Europe, the Ebola outbreak and even incidents like the Malaysian airliner that was shot down by a missile in Ukraine last summer has forced travel managers to focus more intensely on legal and ethical responsibilities for managing travel risk.
Bruce Schiemo, division vice president of event solutions purchasing at BI WORLDWIDE, a global engagement agency that develops corporate incentive travel programs, says companies greatly increase their preparedness and risk management just by working with an experienced third-party provider like BIW. “There are a number of things we do as a matter of course that our customers appreciate. We go through a lot of steps,” Schiemo says.
That includes subscribing to services that provide up-to-the-minute reports on security concerns or travel warnings worldwide. “Certain airports in Europe are known for going on strike. We know destinations pretty well and we’re brutally honest with clients if they suggest a destination that raises a red flag,” he says.
A good third-party travel provider also has the kind of connections that prove to be priceless when a crisis strikes. Schiemo says BIW associates also swung into action following Hurricane Odile. It had clients who were bringing large groups to Cabo in spring 2015 and BIW needed to be certain that the properties would be ready to host them. The hurricane hit some resorts harder than others, and BIW executives were not convinced the properties it had booked would be ready to host their clients. But finding a block of 600 rooms isn’t easy, even when you are several months out.
“That’s when relationships come into play,” says Schiemo, who has worked at BIW for 30 years and was in the hotel industry before that. They relocated the programs to Cancun. “In this case, relationships helped us tremendously, not only in finding the destinations, but also negotiating pricing that maintained the budget the customer had.”
Working with DMCs
Establishing key contacts at destination management companies (DMCs) before a trip is essential. “The people at the DMC are going to pull the strings for you. If there is a medical emergency or a national disaster, you definitely want to have that local person who knows how to get things done on their end — even if it’s something as simple as a participant in a program getting arrested, which we’ve had before” says Craig. (Another story for another time, she says.)
Not surprisingly, say Schiemo and Craig, once-popular destinations like Egypt and Turkey have dropped off clients’ wish lists. Other out-of-favor destinations for political reasons include Russia and Thailand, although the latter is safe and a great value right now, Schiemo says. The Ebola outbreak has taken South Africa and Africa off many companies’ list of options.
Of course, the same concerns that impact travel abroad can come to the U.S. Kathleen Bidwill, an account executive at travel management company Creative Group, Inc., worked with a client who was bringing 400 salespeople to Dallas last October, about the time that a man who had traveled from Liberia to Dallas died from Ebola.
Bidwill was in constant contact with the client as the event dates approached. Ultimately, the client was reassured that it would be safe to bring their employees to the Dallas venue. The company gave participants the option to stay home if they were concerned about the risk. Eighteen of the 400 participants chose not to attend.
