Go further with incentive travel

Travel rewards are miracle motivators for salespeople? *mind blown*

Okay, in all seriousness, it didn’t take a large-scale, comprehensive research study to confirm what most of us already know: Salespeople like travel rewards. And they’ll work really hard to earn them.

But we did the study anyway. Why? Because not all travel reward programs are equally motivating for your audience. We wanted to uncover the specific preferences and insights that make some programs more successful than others.

Here are the six factors to keep in mind when designing your next incentive travel program: 

1. Individual travel wins in most - but not all - cases. When given the choice between an individual or group travel reward, 90% of salespeople are more highly motivated by individual.

Generationally, Millennials and Gen-Xers are more highly motivated than Baby Boomers by individual travel.

2. It's bigger than the trip. 93% of salespeople are motivated by incentive travel because it makes them feel recognized by their company and peers.

91% of salespeople find motivation in their family and friends recognizing that earning a travel award is a testament to their hard work and strong sales performance. 

3. Timing matters. Salespeople prefer group travel to be 3-4 days long and individual travel to be 5 days or more. 

4. Let 'em unplug. When it comes to describing their best possible vacation experience, "unplugging" is favored 4x more than any other activity choice. (Yes, even more than spa days, front row concert tickets and heli-skiing or zip-lining.)

5. Choice is critical. Salespeople say choice in destination (93%), timeframe (88%), activity (87%) and duration of trip (87%) are all huge reasons they are motivated by travel rewards.

6. If you offer a group travel award, keep business out of it. 84% of salespeople are motivated by group travel that only includes social and leisure activities.

Interest in group travel declines noticeably from 60% when the agenda includes one business meeting to 40% when it includes two or more.