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May 19, 2014 / in Exotic Travel There are so many reasons why people love, crave, and clamor for a wonderful trip to an exotic destination. While most of the popular reasons for wanting to experience an exotic destination for a vacation have to do with tropical locations, beach atmosphere, fun in the sun, sun tans, or perhaps even huge accumulation of snowfall that amounts to the best powder for skiing and snowboarding, there is one reason that might be escaping your thoughts, but you surely enjoy when you get there: the food. People get a chance to experience local, cultural dishes from places all over the world that you might never find back home. Everyone loves food, and most everyone loves to try food from other places in the world that has special cultural ingredients, including herbs, vegetables, and fruits that might be hard to come by back home. Some people actually plan an entire vacation around a location only because of the type of food that can be found there. For example, this writer lives on the south, and a lot of people come to visit this city for only one specific reason, and that is to eat at a particular restaurant (which will not be named) because it offers “deep south, traditional southern soul food.” If people are willing to take their whole family to this southern city to eat fried southern food, imagine what other people who have exotic tastes would be able to experience if they got the chance to travel to a part of the world where the cultural food is considered the best in the world? For all the food lovers out there whose dream it is to be able to travel to a location somewhere in the world where you believe the food would be absolutely delightful, but might not have the resources to put the trip together on your own, perhaps it is time to take this plight up your boss. Yes, you read the last line correctly – it is time to tell your boss to look into an incentive travel company that provides information on locations all over the world, many of which have the best dining experiences of anywhere you can possibly imagine. Incentive travel companies, such as Incentive Travel Solutions, offer a method of rewarding a company’s best and most successful employees with options for travel to rewarding destinations around the world. How it works is simple: First, the company head agrees to offer incentive travel solutions to a choice number of employees who are deemed worthy to receive this one of a kind rewards service, then a company like Incentive Travel Solutions provides information of places that can be chosen as destinations. Half the fun of a vacation is definitely having the opportunity to consume food that you will most likely never find back home. Through Incentive Travel Solutions, food lovers employed by generous owners will now have the opportunity to go to those places you may have never thought would be possible, but soon, it will become a most wonderful reality. Bon appétit!

May 22, 2014 / in Workplace Wellness The growing concern for health and wellness of employees in the workplace has made the implementation of corporate wellness programs into the work environment a recent trend. The concern over a worker’s health affects businesses of all sizes, as the size of a company does not negate or influence the amount of stress an employee might have. Therefore, businesses are working towards integrating wellness strategies and programs to create an overall health enhancing work experience, along with introducing incentive programs in order to increase the participation and awareness of employees that can benefit from corporate wellness programs, but might be reluctant to do so. The pursuit for innovative ways to maintain a worker’s interest in wellness programs is now considered crucial because health and wellness of a workforce is proven to directly influence a company’s bottom line. When incorporating health and wellness plans in the workplace, the addition of an incentive trip could be the perfect supplement. Stress is a significant factor in every employee’s well-being and one of the best ways to reduce stress is to escape from your daily routine to an exotic location. Along with reducing stress, a recent internal survey showed that over ninety-three percent of responders agreed that incentive travel rewards improved their overall satisfaction with their company. The conclusions related to the surveys have led to an increase of businesses seeking out incentive travel programs through companies like Incentive Travel Solutions. It is now believed this is a certified method of improving health and wellness in the workplace, which directly leads to improved production. It is a safe bet that almost everyone reading this blog will agree that sitting behind a desk at work all day, every day, is not conducive to one’s overall health and wellness. This is why it is important to give the human body and mind a well-deserved break in order to recharge by engaging and participating in a relaxing trip to an exotic location. The introduction and continued provisioning of incentive travel trips tells a workforce that their employers are serious about concerns for the company’s overall health and wellness, and it encourages and demonstrates how taking time to get away and to de-stress is valuable part of work life, just like eating well, and exercising. In addition, business health and wellness programs have proven to directly affect the lowering of health insurance premiums for a company due to having healthier, more productive employees. Finding ways to relax and escape the daily routine are difficult for most workers. Having a company offer a trip that an employee might otherwise not afford, grants an opportunity to relax and have the experience of a lifetime. The best part for businesses, is that incentive trips are easy to plan when you have a company with the experience and expertise in group travel. The professionals at Incentive Travel Solutions can assist businesses of any size with information regarding incentive travel trips, and how these trips are a perfect idea for improving your employee’s health and wellness in the workplace.

May 27, 2014 / in Exotic Travel How to choose the best exotic location for an incentive travel program depends heavily on what a person’s personal definition of the word “exotic” is. When most people think of an exotic location, they think of tropical islands that have never been heard of. The truth of the matter is that everyone’s definition of “exotic” is subjective, meaning one person might think a tropical island is exotic, while another might think that a hard-to-reach, mountainous terrain with heavy snowfall is exotic. Choosing the best exotic location for an incentive travel program relies on the evaluation of the corporate executive responsible for putting together the program and issuing the incentive to the company’s employees. Therefore, if a company wishes to choose the most popular overall opinion of the best exotic location to send its employees deemed worthy of its benefit, they can opt to have a vote on the type of location where everyone should go. As an example, the company can have a vote to see how many more people prefer going to a warm, beach-filled destination versus traveling to a mountainous location where snowboarding and skiing is considered the best in the world. In this manner, at least the majority will be satisfied. Another way to go about choosing the best exotic location for an incentive travel program is the person in charge of putting this together for his or her business can contact an incentive travel company, such as Incentive Travel Solutions, and find out the types and availabilities of locations to where employees who are rewarded this benefit can go. This way, employees can get a specific virtual tour of each city or location, as well as what these places have to offer and what can be expected when arriving at the destination and spending time there. Contacting an incentive travel expert is a great idea because they can give you specific facts as to whether a location will be tropical alone or perhaps include a city within a country rich with culture and sights. Alone with location details, a representative from an incentive travel company such as Incentive Travel Solutions, can tell you which destinations and locations have been the most successful and rewarding, or which places are the most popular to which to travel. This way, you can avoid the back and forth that may come from providing several options to your employees, plus it will give you a solid idea of which vacations have been the most exciting, exciting, and rewarding for other businesses and employees. Incentive Travel Solutions can help your business narrow down the options available concerning the locations your employees can be sent. An abundance of information will be made available for the locations offered through the incentive travel programs, which will help whomever is putting this all together for your company pinpoint the best place that will appease the masses.

May 28, 2014 / in Exotic Travel One of the best experiences involved in traveling to an exotic location is the opportunity to taste several different local foods. If you are lucky enough for the chance to go to a French Polynesian country, those wonderful and beautiful places serve a variety of unique, one of a kind tastes and treats that will have your taste buds crying for more. French Polynesian countries, including Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, and even the Tuamotu Atolls are specific destinations that boast the absolute best in exotic foods, which you and your family (if you have one) can partake and savor. After the first bite of these island foods, you will immediately come to understand why sourcing the flavors of these island locales is one of the “must do” activities. Traveling to a location like Tahiti, may seem out of your league, but if your company offers incentive travel trips, you may just be headed there. Continue reading, and you will get an idea of what awesome sights and tastes you can expect in Tahiti on your next incentive travel trip through Incentive Travel Solutions. Seafood: A Tahitian diet staple is fresh fish, especially from such fish as tuna, mahi-mahi, and grouper. You can also taste more exotic lagoon and deep sea dishes, including parrotfish, barracuda, octopus, and sea urchin. Poisson Cru: The national dish of Tahiti, it is a South Pacific twist on ceviche. Poisson Cru consists of raw red tuna marinated in a splendid and aromatic blend of limejuice and coconut milk. Himā‘a: Almost every South Pacific culture uses an underground oven to prepare traditional feasts. In Tahiti, locals typically prepare traditional feasts on Sundays, which are cooked in baskets woven from banana leaves, over hot rocks in a big ground hole called a himā‘a. The menu will consist of Chicken Fafa with coconut milk and spinach, fish, suckling pig, shrimp, lobster, banana, breadfruit, taro, and yams. Pineapple: Tahiti is famous for its growing of sweet and juicy pineapples, which is unlike anything you can purchase from your local supermarket. Coconut: Locally known as the “tree of a hundred uses,” coconut palms are the sustenance life source of Tahiti. Tahitians use coconut for so many food preparations, food preparations, and even beauty products. You can enjoy replenishing yourself with coconut water, which is great for rehydration after being in the hot sun; experience coconut milk, which is used as a marinade; and devour coconut flesh, which can be eaten raw, or grated and cooked into coconut rice and coconut bread). Breadfruit: Known in Tahiti as “uru,” this starchy, vitamin-rich fruit is normally eaten as a side dish after being cooked in a himā‘a. Taro: Probably less familiar to most Americans reading this blog, the Taro plant is valued for both its large, arrow-shaped leaves, which is called “Callaloo” in the Caribbean, and its starchy root. In Tahiti, Taro leaves are used in soups and stews, while the root is used to make fried chips and creamy pudding, which is called po‘e.

June 27, 2014 / in Incentive Travel Program Over-water bungalows in Bora Bora, Tahiti Many corporations have already realized the benefits of incentive programs, but some are reluctant to participate, for fear the program may not be a success. Understanding how the programs work can quickly alleviate any apprehension. An incentive travel trip acts as a motivational tool to improve productivity and achieve business objectives. Such programs allow participants to earn a travel reward based on a specifically defined level of achievement set forth by the company. The following are essential elements that work together to form the core foundation of a successful travel program: The earning and selection criteria for the reward are clearly tied to business objectives. Communication about the program and the progress participants are making toward goals is clear and consistent. Detailed records are kept that both follow and prove the productivity of the earners and their contributions to the company’s financial performance. Additional components that lend to the success of an incentive travel program include the open recognition of earners, networking opportunities for top performers so they can build relationships with both colleagues and management, collaboration between top performers and management concerning best practices and business ideas, and maximizing the motivation of current and potential future earners through the promise of a future continuance of the incentive travel program. The following has been proven to be a direct result of a company’s promotion and provisioning of incentive travel programs for top earners in its respective business: the growing of a more positive organizational culture, the positive influence stemming from employee recognition throughout the business, the ability of a business to retain its top performers, rather than losing them to a competing company, and the sustaining of an employee’s drive to continuously exceed set individual and companywide objectives. One of the strongest benefits an incentive travel program has on a business is its overwhelmingly positive influence on business culture. Employees most often respond very positive to recognition and being rewarded for a job well done. In addition, incentive travel programs boost employee competition. Moreover, though some may see the following as a potentially disastrous effect, the colleague competition, as it pertains to incentive travel programs, have resulted in positive gains for a business, and most often, those colleagues competing against each other often resulted in all of the competitors maximizing quotas, achieving goals, and more people qualifying for the opportunity to experience incentive travel programs firsthand. As you can see, there are many components that make incentive travel programs successful for businesses – so many that it would be wise for your company to look into providing incentive travel programs for your employees.

August 14, 2015 / in Incentive Travel “I got a guy”… as the saying goes. At Incentive Travel Solutions we have many “guys” and ladies around the world that are critical to our success. Our key destination partnerships are vital to a flawless and memorable incentive travel program. One such partnership is extremely special. The ITS travel partnership in Italy goes back almost 25 years. The partnership has become a friendship, and we are proud to share this relationship as well as all of our travel relationships with you, our clients and their special guests. In 2014, our partners in Italy offered Incentive Travel Solutions and our clients a special event. Imagine your guests gathering for an evening out in Rome. Imagine passing by the St. Peter’s Cathedral, one of the most recognizable churches throughout the world. Then, imagine turning into St. Peter’s square with your guests as they stare out the window, anxious to take pictures of this beautiful basilica. Now imagine, a private tour of the Vatican and Sistine Chapel without the thousands of visitors. And, following the private tour, imagine a reception and dinner in the gardens of the Vatican. This dream can now be a reality thanks to the Incentive Travel Solutions planning Team and our special partnerships in Italy. An incentive trip starts with an imagination and a vision. Turning that vision into a reality takes years of experience and dedication. Incentive Travel Solutions Team looks forward to sharing our vision and experience with you and your guests.

August 19, 2015 / in Incentive Travel Destination Matters Choosing a destination requires matching a client’s goals and objectives with budgets and travelers’ expectations. The key to a successful destination search is experience and yes, more experience. The Team at Incentive Travel Solutions has operated incentive trips in 97 countries and over 200 cities around the world. Without an intimate understanding of a destination’s strengths and limitations, an incentive trip may not be successful. Irish Eyes Are Smiling In 2005, Incentive Travel Solutions had the pleasure of operating a client incentive trip for 80 of their key distributors and guests. After a lengthy destination search, Ireland was selected as the host country. With many towns and regions to choose from in Ireland, it was decided to stay three nights in Killarney, two nights in Adare and a night in Ashford Castle. The trip was a tremendous success primarily because the winners and their guests bonded so well with the local Irish people and the hotel employees. Experience with knowing the client’s personality and history, as well as their attendees for many years, help the ITS planning Team select the perfect destination year after year for this company’s President’s Club Trip.

November 1, 2015 / in Press and News Every company wants its work positions to be staffed with the best talent in the field, but motivating top talent to accept a job offer is only half the battle. Once top performers are on the payroll, you have to find a way to keep them there. There are several ways to do this, but four strategies stand out for their time-tested effectiveness at accomplishing the task. Below, we take a look at these four strategies in terms of their usefulness for keeping top talent employed. 1. Hire Talent in the Proper Work Capacity If you hire a top performing online marketing specialist as the webmaster for your company’s web pages, he or she might be able to do the job with closed eyes, but therein lies the problem. Instead of desiring “cake jobs”, top performers tend to like challenges in the workplace that let them exhibit their skills and add to the work as they go. Lack of job satisfaction among top performers is one of the main reasons why companies fail at keeping top talent employed. 2. Let Talent Lead When Appropriate Top talent is identified as such for a reason: Top performing employees are often self-starters who proactively look for ways to increase their performance. Consequently, they often have insightful ideas about improving the execution of business processes, implementing cost saving measures, and more. You may be the boss, but letting your top performers help shape the way your company does business is a great way for keeping top talent where you want it: in-house. 3. Reward Talent in Memorable Ways If an employee is already considered top talent when your company hires him or her, you know that the person is almost certainly accustomed to receiving generous bonuses and raises. The individual will expect to receive these rewards from your company, too. So, what can you do to put your organization in a unique light in the eyes of the new hire? One option is offering incentive travel trips to unique destinations that create memories that will never be forgotten. 4. Encourage Good Work Relationships When workers are under the gun to meet business goals and experience stress, encouraging good work relationships is easier said than done. Because of their high performance value, top talent often experiences this situation. Consequently, creating good relationships outside the workplace, and then bringing them back into it, is a good option. One way to do this is to send top performers on an incentive travel trip that helps them bond individually and as a team. Need Solutions for Keeping Top Talent? If your company is searching for effective ways to keep top talent in the fold, there are several options to choose from, one of which is offering incentive travel trips to top performers. In addition to strengthening your employees’ dedication to your company out of gratitude, offering great trips also fosters the benefits of better teamwork and improved workplace morale. For help planning the most rewarding incentive travel trips, give us a call today at (704) 540-1482.

January 22, 2016 / in Employee Motivation Which would you rather receive: an employer-sponsored, free trip to a beautiful destination that includes a plethora of unique, entertaining sights, or money? It would cost to send you on the trip in the form of a bonus check? If you are tempted to choose the latter, just remember that bonuses have been a part of your employment history for several years, so you might feel inclined to choose the unique trip instead. This is one reason why thriving companies offer travel trips as work incentives to employees who perform at the top of their game. Often, these employees are considered “top talent” and have reaped the benefits of that status in the form of large, performance-based bonuses. “Money talks,” as the old saying goes, but for top talent, incentive travel trips can talk more convincingly, as it were, serving as ideal work incentives for the four reasons listed below. 1. More Tangible Than Money Receiving money is exciting, but only because receiving the things that money can buy is even more exciting. For most performers, after all, there are different ways of compensating them — a reward comprised not of cash or checks, but of an incentive travel trip at a way to connect on a deeper level. That top performers might spend their generous bonuses on if they had the opportunity to do so. Due to the exceptional uniqueness of the trips, that chance seldom exists. 2. Nearly Impossible to Recreate The anatomy of an incentive travel trip is as follows: A company sends qualifying employees on an exciting journey that the company pays for. While on the trip, travelers experience unique adventures and see what are selected with the help of an incentive travel trip planner. Bonding with fellow employees while enjoying novel experiences is a highly rewarding experience on a personal level, and is typically an experience that is almost impossible to create on one’s own. 3. Improves Employee Relationships For most companies, incentive travel trips are about more than rewarding top performers with unique travel experiences. The trips also serve to strengthen relationships between employees by providing them with a shared experience. When they return, other workers see the trip’s recipients as top performers, helping to foster a team environment that exhibits bold morale. Simply stated, monetary or commission bonuses don’t present these qualitative benefits. 4. Doesn’t Replace Annual Bonuses Important clarification: Incentive travel trips seldom use them to replace annual bonuses. Due to budgetary considerations, bonuses may be smaller than they would be if trips were not offered, but top performers aren’t left wondering that they had received bonuses instead of a trip to a special destination. Most companies that offer incentive travel trips as rewards that extend beyond bonuses to further motivate a company’s most valuable performers to maintain top performance. Start Planning Your Trip Today Annual bonuses are great work incentives for rewarding employees for excellent performance, but incentive travel trips in the reward structure can deliver benefits that bonuses alone do not, particularly strong employee relationships that improve morale in the workplace. For assistance planning a trip that presents these benefits, call us today at (704) 540-1482. We look forward to providing you and your dedicated employees with a work incentive like no other!

January 26, 2016 / in Incentive Trip Some wine vineyards are like luxury cars; they promise the experience of luxury, but there isn’t much luxuriousness to be found. As wine vineyards go, Buena Vista Winery in California is the exception. Founded in 1857 by Agoston Haraszthy, and located adjacent to the San Francisco Bay, Buena Vista Winery has been one of California’s premier wineries for over a century. It is also a great destination for an incentive travel trip for your company’s hard working employees. Sprawling Vineyards The winery’s sprawling vineyards whose vines hang heavy with plump grapes are almost as pleasing to experience as the wine they produce. Impeccably maintained, the vineyards feature great weather that is both balmy and cool from the gentle winds that blow from San Francisco Bay. This makes them a great sight seeing location for wine lovers, who would like to get an up close look at how vineyards actually grow, as distinguished from fields that hold other crops. Superior Reds and Whites Some vineyards specialize in harvesting grapes for red wines that are preferred in the cool season, while other vineyards primarily emphasize growing white grapes to create summer wines. Buena Vista Winery has a holistic focus to winemaking that includes producing some of the best red wines and white wines found in California and beyond. When it is time to order libations, try glasses of the winery’s delicious Carneros Chardonnay and Carneros Pinot Noir. First Class Service Fine wine is synonymous with luxury and leisure, but some wineries fail to offer much of either. As the Sonoma area’s longest-lived, premier winery, Buena Vista Winery has over 150 years of experience in defining a first-class wine experience. Offering the best service begins with producing the best wines and extends into the wine tasting area, where customers are vigilantly attended to like they are first-class guests, because that is precisely what they are. Ready to Plan an Incentive Travel Trip? At Incentive Travel Solutions we believe that group travel award programs must inspire winners with unique and memorable destinations as well as creative itineraries. We help clients “raise the bar” year after year so their top performers will continue aspiring to achieve the highest levels of performance. We look forward to making a trip that your employees will remember for years to come, and motivates them to work harder for your company’s next incentive travel trip! Call us today at (704) 540-1482, or fill out our contact form.

February 5, 2016 / in Incentive Travel Program Companies that realize the value of human resources for achieving sales goals are naturally inclined to offer incentive programs that keep top sellers in the fold instead of letting them defect to other companies within the same market space. If your company is looking for an incentive program idea for sales for rewarding top performers on the sales team, we strongly recommend that you consider using incentive-based travel trips as a reward. Below are helpful tips for how to do it. 1. Make the Award Annual One of the most important aspects of using travel trips as an incentive program idea for sales success is to make them seem truly special, part of which involves taking the trips at long intervals, such as once a year. You could always reward your best sellers with trips based on quarterly performance, but the excursions naturally wouldn’t seem as special as if they were held annually. Furthermore, holding trips annually makes them more financially feasible. 2. Limit the Award to Few Employee oriented companies are always looking for ways to reward diligent workers for commendable performance, but it’s important to provide awards that are commensurate with the level of achievement. Due to their considerable cost and unique characteristics, using travel trips as an incentive program idea for sales success should ideally be a strategy that targets the top performers (e.g., the top 10 percent of sale closers). Offer your best sellers the best reward. 3. Focus on Unique Travels Regardless of the destination (as long as it isn’t dangerous), travel in itself can be rewarding. The mental associations that people make with scenes in their native environment — for better or worse — are gone when they set their eyes on new sights. But that isn’t what makes an inventive travel trip unique. To score high on the uniqueness scale, you need to choose a unique destination, coordinate unique activities, and offer unique travel and lodgings. 4. Use a Travel Trip Planner Using an experienced incentive travel trip planner to plan and facilitate your incentive-based trip for top sellers is similar to using a corporate attorney to negotiate business mergers: Why not trust professionals when you need them in the capacity in which they specialize? In addition to planning your entire trip based on your wants and needs, an incentive travel trip planner will send a dedicated support staff to you on your journey to ensure everything goes as planned. Contact Incentive Travel Solutions This is the level of service you receive from Incentive Travel Solutions, when you make us your trusted provider of incentive opportunities. We arrange trips that truly feel like a reward for top sales performance — from selecting the most enjoyable means of travel, to arranging luxury lodgings, to planning highly unique activities at your destination — all according to your wants and needs.

February 15, 2016 / in Press and News Business travel programs are a unique way to reward executives and workers who go above and beyond the call of everyday business. However, most companies don’t offer the trips without desiring something in return. They want trips that comprise business travel programs to motivate employees who take the trips to mirror their great performance in the coming year, with qualifying for the next travel trip serving as a primary motivator for maintaining success. Statistics for Business Travel Programs Lots of companies have anecdotes about how business travel programs motivate performance. However, before you implement a travel program, it’s a good idea not to put too much stock in another company’s story of success, and look at statistics that provide a broad view of how business travel programs work for companies at large. Below are recent statistics from the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) that point to the success of business travel programs: Providing non-cash rewards creates revenue increases three times higher than average. Companies with the best customer retention and sales growth offer travel as a reward. Travel rewards can increase sales by 18 percent and produce an ROI up to 112 percent. These statistics are only averages, but they matter a great deal considering how many companies offer incentive travel trips to reward top business performance. The IRF study referenced above also states that nearly 50 percent of U.S. businesses use incentive travel as a performance reward, and that businesses in the U.S. spend $22.5 billion a year on incentive travel trips. Creating the Best Business Travel Trips As positive as the statistics above may seem, they are underpinned by something that is essential for experiencing the success they quantify: Planning trips that are highly rewarding from beginning to end. These types of trips are typically facilitated by a company that specializes in planning and executing incentive based trips, such as Incentive Travel Solutions. With us working as your trusted travel planner, you receive the following benefits, among others: Trip planned within travel budget Travel to a unique destination Pre-arranged travel and lodging Travel itinerary of exciting activities Travel staff that help manage the trip The IRF study also found that incentive travel budgets per person now average as much as $3,440 person. That is a significant amount of money to invest in a trip that doesn’t achieve its intended effect of motivating top business performance in the coming year. That’s why we recommend that you contact us before plans for your next incentive travel trip are finalized. Contact Incentive Travel Solutions At Incentive Travel Solutions, we specialize in helping companies make the most of their business travel programs. To kick off the travel planning process, please call us today at (704) 540-1482, or use our contact form, to schedule a free consultation. We look forward to helping your company plan a trip that is unforgettable for all the right reasons and motivates your workforce to qualify for the next unforgettable trip at year’s end. Start planning today!