According to the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) the biggest trend in the incentive travel industry can be described as optimistic stability.
“Overall the mood has considerably elevated in the incentive travel community,” says Rodger Stotz, research chair of IRF. “There is a buzz of what’s happening, and it’s very different than four or five years ago when everybody was just in the doldrums.”
In the
Spring 2013 Pulse survey, the most recent one, about one third of planners were either somewhat (28 percent) or strongly (3 percent) negative about the economy’s impact on their ability to plan and implement incentive travel programs. Compare that to March 2009, when 86 percent were negative (evenly split between “somewhat” and “strongly”) about the impact.
“Underneath that feeling of ‘we’re moving in a really positive direction’ are some dynamics,” Stotz says. What’s happening there is the budgets are stabilizing — and when I say stabilizing, we have more planners who said their budgets are increasing than planners who said their budgets are decreasing, which is always a good sign.”
Forty-five percent of the planners who responded to the 2013 Pulse Survey said they expect travel program budgets to remain unchanged. More than twice as many expect a moderate increase (34 percent) as expect a moderate decrease (15 percent). One percent each expected a significant increase or decrease.
When it comes to destinations, “more organizations are looking at domestic, and when I say domestic that’s usually North America, Hawaii, Caribbean,” Stotz says. “So we’re keeping it closer to home.”
Specifically, 17.5 percent said they plan to choose locations “closer to home,” and 16.8 percent are switching from international to domestic destinations. That compares to just 13.3 percent looking international after choosing domestic venues in the past.
Here’s the breakdown of IRF’s 2013 Pulse Survey list of top destinations for incentive Travel:
North America42%
Caribbean32%
Europe31%
Central America18%
South America16%
Asia 13%
Africa9%
Middle East3%