Corporate Travel Destinations

Corporate travel planners are well-versed in working with budgets and are pros at finding exceptional deals and negotiating their way into cost savings for their events. Now more than ever, saving money wherever possible is critically important, particularly as many small businesses and large corporations are facing shrinking budgets and closer public scrutiny. It can be a bit of a challenge to cut costs without cutting quality, but with a little time and effort it is completely doable.

One of the keys to successfully cutting costs without losing quality is properly determining which aspects of your event can weather some cutbacks without being significantly affected. Once you have determined which components can handle some cutbacks, the trick is to find ways to cut these costs that will not be noticeable to your attendees.

For example, you might opt for a lunch event, instead of a dinner event, or you might go with an off-brand digital camera, rather than a name brand camera for an incentive travel pillow gift. You can also opt for business class for flights, or bypass flying entirely and opt for train travel, or a bus charter if the event is close to home. Some planners have also found having servers pass appetizers, rather than having a buffet-style set up, provides significant savings, as folks tend to eat less when they are served in this manner.

Travel gifts are a great way to enhance your corporate travel participants’ experience and make your event or incentive travel package more memorable. This will, of course, reflect well on you and will help your participants remember you as a great, thoughtful corporate travel planner. Whether your budget is limited or allows you to spend somewhat freely, there are many gift options in a variety of price ranges that are sure to meet your needs.

Here are just a few ideas for affordable travel gifts that can be easily incorporated into your corporate travel planning:

• Personalized carry-on luggage
• Personalized garment bags
• Toiletry bags
• Personal care kits
• Digital cameras
• Sunglasses
• Guidebooks relevant to the destination
• Travel wallets
• Passport and document holders
• Beach towels
• Beach bags
• In-flight entertainment kits with magazines, crossword puzzle books and snacks
• Discount cards for public transportation and area attractions
• Tickets to local attractions

It is a common practice to give pillow gifts to participants of certain types of corporate travel; therefore, it is often expected that some sort of gift will be distributed. If you are a corporate travel planner that regularly includes gifts, you can use the above list for new ideas to switch things up a bit. This is particularly important if you have many repeat travel participants.

Ensuring that your meeting or event attendees, or incentive travel winners, have a satisfying, memorable experience during the corporate travel you have planned for them, involves much more than scheduling venues, renting equipment, booking a block of rooms and negotiating prices for airline tickets. Of course, you already know that your job entails much more than that, but many planners sometimes leave out a few details that can make all the difference when it comes to the experience your participants have.

This is particularly true if you are planning corporate travel for folks who may not travel frequently for business or in their personal lives, or who have not previously traveled to this destination. For example, turning them loose without any information about the area might be seen as okay by some, but planners who want to make sure every detail is taken care of and who want to be known for going above and beyond to meet their participants’ needs would never consider doing that. Gathering and distributing information about the destination does not have to take a lot of time and effort, and is sure to be seen as an appealing extra that your attendees will appreciate.

A simple list of attractions, eateries, transportation options and other types of useful information is sure to be greatly appreciated, and it will only take you a short time to find all of this information online.

In an effort to regain lost market share, some major airlines are implementing special discount airfare programs for corporate and incentive travel. Delta, in particular, is back on track with its previously shelved Delta Meeting Network, which offers benefits such as discounts on published fares, special fares for air travel for more than 10 meeting attendees and one free ticket for every 40 purchased.

Other major airlines are offering similar programs, providing corporate meeting planners and incentive travel planners with new, cost-saving options for air transportation. Companies can contract with Delta, or other airlines, for a particular meeting or event, or for multiple meetings, making this program cost-effective, simple and convenient for meeting and event planners and travel managers.

Another recent change to the air travel industry that is of interest to corporate travel planners is the expansion of Wi-Fi availability among major carriers. AirTran now offers Wi-Fi fleetwide, with Southwest working towards a fleetwide expansion and several other major carrriers, including Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, United Airlines, Virgin America and US Airways implementing pilot programs or beginning to expand availability to multiple routes.

This is excellent news for travel planners that will now have increased options for pleasing clients who need Internet access to complete work or prepare for meetings during their flights.

You want to create an incentive event that you can be proud of.  You want your event to be a great success so that you can be excited and happy about all the hard work that you have put into the event.  You will want to make sure that you have the best strategy so that you are creating exactly what you want and need.

1. You want to picture yourself creating the best event that you can.  You will want to allow yourself a lot of time to prepare for the event.  If you are not giving yourself enough time to make the event great, you will not have the best situation that you can.
2. You want to make sure that you are sending out the invitations in plenty of time to all the guests. If you are expecting a rasp, you need to make sure that you are giving the guests enough time to do so.  This will help you be better prepared for the special event so that you can get ready to have a great and successful time.
3. Be ready for mistakes. Everyone makes a mistake and you need to be prepared for him or her.  Things can go wrong at anytime and you want to be sure that you are allowing yourself the time and the help that you need to make it all right.  There are things that you can do to get ready for anything that can happen. You want to always have a back up plan ready and waiting for you. 
4. Being organized is a great way to avoid pitfalls when you are planning an event. You will want to make sure that you have everything ready for your event. You need to be sure that you are able to get things ready for the big event so that you are not forgetting to do something.  You can write things down and make sure that you are crossing them off your list as you go.  This is something that will help you keep on track and ready.
5. Create a time line. You should do this for any event that you are planning. You will want to have everything written out so that you are going to be able to expect things that happen. You want to have the time allotted for all the things that are going to happen during the event. You want to allow time in between for the other things that are going to be done during the event. 
6. Keep on your budget.  If you are not giving yourself a budget at the very beginning of your event, you may be heading for a pitfall. You need to have a set budget so that you are aware of the money that you have to spend. You need to go through and decide what you need and what the cost of everything is going to be.  You will then want to shop around and find bargains that will get you the best prices to fit your budget plan.  You will find it a lot easier to stay on track and keep your event going as planned.
7. Keep everyone on your staff happy. You want everyone involved getting along and making things run as smoothly as possible. You will feel better and be able to get things moving in the right direction and keep everyone working together.  Make the planning environment a great place to be so that everyone is up beat and ready to make this a great event planning process. 

Planning a great incentive event is something that you can depend on when you are using all the tools and method needed to make it great. You will be happy and so will your guests with the great presentation on which you have worked so hard. 

Planning a business event can be hard for anyone. You may find that the task is just too big for just one person, this is why most people will have a team or assistants to help them with all the little details. There are a lot of things that you need to look out for when planning your event, but if you take the time to plan your corporate travel event, you should be fine.

The first thing that you need to avoid when planning an event off-site is not to get overwhelmed. You don’t want to get overwhelmed because it will only make things worst. Not only will you have a bad meeting, but you will also be fluttered and frustrated into doing things that you shouldn’t. You need to gain control over the event instead of letting the event gain control over you. You need to make sure that that everything is okay one piece at a time. For instance, one day you should take care of the decorations and the next day deal with the venders. This way you aren’t taking on too much at once. You may also hire an assistant to help you or you may find that things can get too much. If you are having a very important event, you should always have a team to help you so that you can find ways to quickly solve those last minute blunders. Continue reading »

The swine flu, more correctly called H1N1, has hit the travel industry hard. There doesn’t appear to be any destination that hasn’t reported some cases of H1N1. Predictions of a widespread resurgence of the flu inspired many economically wealthy countries to donate 10% of their stockpile of H1N1 to poorer countries. People in these countries will suffer the most in the event of another outbreak of this strain of influenza.

The CDC (Center for Disease Control) now encourages tourists to resume their travel plans, taking a few common sense precautions. Include a basic medical kit in your luggage and get the normal seasonal flu shot as well the H1N1 vaccine if you are in a high-risk group. Increase your travel insurance if you’re going overseas. Check the policy over carefully, making sure that you have coverage against pandemic diseases.

Your best defense is common sense. Wash your hands frequently with soap and water, especially during flu season and don’t overuse bacterial disinfectants. They are useless against viruses.

Travel plans can change dramatically if H1N1 rears its ugly head. Last year cruise lines were not obligated to grant refunds when itineraries changed and most airlines have no written refund guarantees in the event of another outbreak.

There is still a lot of caution with corporate travel, even though some are seeing signs that the recession is letting up. What is likely happening is an overflow of the emotional aspects of the bailouts and subsequent regulations surrounding meetings with those companies. It would behoove everyone to remember that it is largely emotional, and logic says that canceling travel is not a good idea.

For those who disagree and think corporate travel is wasteful, let’s see if you can answer this question truthfully: would you run your company on emotion or logic? If you said logic, good for you. So the next question for you is do you want your employees to know they are valued when they are productive? Or do you want them to think that all the productive employees before them were appreciated and they are not?

If your client has always provided corporate travel, especially for incentives, and he cancels the program, he may lose more than he bargained for. If you have a client who cancelled attendance at meetings, she may be telling her people that their education really isn’t important after all, and they may wonder why it was before.

Of course there are other concerns to canceling travel, but the most important ones regard people who deserve the trip. It all depends on the message your client wants to send, and the doubt that he or she wants to cast among the workers.

The meeting world is changing. You, as a planner, already know that. “Destination” doesn’t just mean where people are traveling, it also means where the industry and your business are going. It means where your client’s business is going. It means where the economy is going.

This brings to light the fact that everything is moving, everything is changing, and all things move through time whether they want to or not. Where they go is largely up to us. This means you are making decisions on where your business goes daily, but others’ opinions and decisions affect those decisions. Continue reading »

You’ve heard the term “finding a needle in the haystack.” You’ve probably experienced its meaning firsthand several times over, especially if you are a corporate meeting planner who has had to look for activities and diversions outside the meeting. However, sometimes it’s not enough to find a needle–it needs to be a certain kind of needle, a golden one that will make sure your client never forgets you (in a good way). Think about activities like this when you are trying to find the perfect diversion for your travelers.

Historic Tours

There are almost always tours of a city sponsored by a historical society or foundation. These are often by bus. Some tours are not guided, such as the various tours of San Francisco–you just get on the streetcar and follow the signs, getting off when you wish to view the area in more detail. Continue reading »