INCENTIVE TRAVEL STILL PLAYING A KEY ROLE

Incentive's 2013 Travel IQ survey names recognizing performance as a top benefit for programs

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Incentive travel programs continue to be highly influential, according to the results of Incentive's 2013 Travel IQ survey. The top benefits for 2013 range from recognizing performance (62.1%) and increasing sales (57.8%), to building morale (50%), improving employee loyalty (42.2%) and fostering teamwork (32.8%). These results mostly echo respondents' views of the draws of incentive programs in 2012. Variations include increasing sales ranking first in 2012, and retention/recruitment of employees, which was ranked among the top five last year, not making the cut for 2013.

Respondents' key resources for information on incentive travel destinations remain constant over both years, with hotel and resort websites being named the top resource for both 2013 (44%) and 2012 (47.4%). Other significant resources across both years include word-of-mouth/referrals and trade/industry magazines.

As far as the most popular domestic destinations for incentive travel programs, the top destination continues to be Florida, which 45.6% of respondents highlighted this year, compared to 48.7% in 2012. For 2013, Hawaii takes the second spot (34.1%), edging out California, which was ranked second in 2012 (41.4%), but still continues to be popular in 2013 (32.3%).

And in terms of how golf and spa availability affects incentive planners' choice of a destination, in 2013, respondents still predominantly feel that golf is somewhat important (38.4%), and that spa offerings are also somewhat influential (29.6%). A strong percentage of respondents continue to believe that those factors have no affect, followed by a solid number responding that golf and spa availability are important factors.

Several integral results are charted below.

For a complete recap of the 2013 Travel IQ Survey, click here.

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