Urgent message to meeting & event planners: If you think cutting back on incentive travel will benefit your business, think again! A new joint study conducted by Corporate Meetings & Incentives and the Incentive Research Foundation proves that scaled-back incentive travel programs may result in reduced sales, plummeting morale and diminished top performer retention.

The results of the study are eye-opening (but not surprising): lower-quality incentive trips produce dissatisfied attendees. Here’s what Barbara Scofidio from Corporate Meetings & Incentives reported:

Incentive Travel Cuts Hurt Sales, Morale, and Retention
Jan 4, 2010 2:13 PM, By Barbara Scofidio

This survey—a joint effort between Corporate Meetings & Incentives and the Incentive Research Foundation—found that there has been a cumulative effect from the continuous incentive travel reductions of the past years. In some cases, as many as one-quarter of the winners walk away unhappy with some aspect of the trip. The first year that a company cuts the standard of its incentive trip, there’s a corresponding strong negative impact on morale; the consequence of repeating these cuts year after year could be that companies will lose their top performers.”

Read the full article: www.meetingsnet

Doing More with Less: 61% of planners surveyed said that staying within their budgets posed the biggest challenge in 2009. We want to remind you that a cruise incentive is a viable cost-savings solution – with built-in activities for all ages, team-building opportunities, top-notch entertainment, and gourmet dining included in your cruise, no one will feel shortchanged. It’s a no-brainer. As for the second biggest challenge – generating excitement among potential qualifiers (45%) – there’s nothing more motivating than the chance to sail on a spectacular cruise ship to a “bucket list” destination or …having a ship chartered just for you and your group.

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