This is a part of the story. The New Era of Work TravelThe editors of Condé Nast Traveler The following are some examples of how to get started: WIRED You can use this guide to navigate the benefits and pitfalls associated with a modern business trip.
Business travel does not always conjure the most glamorous images. Working group sessions in overlit meeting rooms, awkward meals with coworkers in unmemorable chains restaurants. For some employees, a subset of business travel is not only something they look forward to, but also something that they fight for.
Mark*, a former sales director at Linkedin, is a frequent flyer in the world of corporate incentive travel, wherein companies motivate employees to crush their sales goals with the promise of all-expenses-paid stays at luxury hotels and bucket-list sightseeing experiences. He qualified for at least seven or eight of the trips that were given to the top performers in the company, including the Four Seasons Resort Peninsula Papagayo in Costa Rica Another to the Apurva Kempinski in Bali. He said, “It has kind of ruined my travels with my wife. We’ve been on so much of these trips now that we know they exist.”
His company typically buys out the entire hotel—often a Four Seasons—for thousands of top performers, who are each invited to bring along the one person they feel has most contributed to their success. Mark, who is a very intelligent man, usually brings his wife. Mark was initially sceptical about a “white” party on the Costa Rican beach, but it turned out to be a massive rave with everyone covered in neon paint, dancing into the early hours. “It’s probably the most fun party I’ve attended,” he says.
Corporate incentive or reward travel is used as a motivational tool by sales-focused companies, especially in the auto, finance, insurance, and pharmaceutical industries. (MLMs are also big fans.) This is also a favorite at large tech companies such as Microsoft and Salesforce. The latter hosted Katy Perry in a private concert on its President’s club trip to Hawaii 2022. Mauna LaniAuberge Resorts. A report from the Incentive Research Federation US businesses spent over $22 Billion on incentive travel. 46% of the companies surveyed used it to reward top performers. Sales programs are the most likely to use it. (A 2022 Follow-up study correctly forecast incentive spending to grow significantly across the industry. The world has reopened since the peak of the pandemic. Tourism is on the rise. These trips are becoming more opulent, and companies compete to provide the best five-star experience. Employees may never have experienced anything like this, except for their honeymoons and the trip of a wealthy friend. destination wedding—if that.
Alex Green
Sean Hoff is the founder and CEO of Moniker Partners, a corporate-retreat-planning agency based in Toronto. He was suddenly asked to plan trips to Asia and the Middle East by companies that used to send their top employees to places like New York City and Miami. Hoff has many clients who are Canadian real estate brokers or developers. When the market boomed in Canada, it was like “a mini arms race” as builders tried to compete with each other for the best trips.
