Corporate Travel Destinations

There are many metaphorical closed doors in the business world. Worse, there are doors that are sealed tight. There are ways to open those doors, even those that seem sealed shut. One such way is to consider sending invitations to a cruise event. After all, requests for meetings and invitations to conferences can be ignored by many but few will turn down an invitation to travel on a cruise ship. In fact, most people would consider an invitation to travel aboard a cruise ship to be an honor. Here are a few points to consider:

• Most cruise ships are all inclusive – This means that a single price covers almost every a guest could want. Whether you are inviting all-star employees in an attempt to build morale, stubborn clients, potential clients, or intransigent suppliers, everyone invited to cruise events/meetings will feel like they are highly valued.
• Almost nobody can resist the opportunity to take a cruise – This is one of the main reasons why cruise events and meetings have such high attendance rates. Simply put, a hotel is possible for most people to resist.
• Special events can extended the irresistible nature of a cruise – most meeting and/or event planners are more than happy to schedule special events for members of a large group. Those that could resist a cruise might not be able to resist a cruise plus a little something extra.

Meeting planning is an undertaking that requires attention to detail. A meeting planner has to be intimately involved in all aspects of meeting planning. Detailed involvement helps to ensure the corporation gets the most for its money and that participants of the cruise event feel their time was well spent. When planning a group cruise, many of the details of typical meeting planning is already determined. However, determining which ship will be right for the group cruise event is not.

The type of ship chosen will be closely related to the type of cruise event being planned. For meetings at sea, it is ideal to choose a ship that offers the best group rate. Since there will be a large group of people for whom the cruise is being planned, choosing a ship that can accommodate large groups at reasonable rates will be essential. Some cruise ships are more adult oriented while others are more kid friendly. Cruise ships that are not designed for children will be more tailored to adult interests. The expectations of cruise event participants, the preferences of the organization, and the group rates available will help meeting planners determine which type of ship will be best.

On any given day, you can see evidence of just one more way that the H1N1 or so called Swine Flu has changed travel. Any agent who doesn’t wonder where it will stop is not very informed. While the answer to this question remains open and changes often, one thing is for certain: no one wants to go to a foreign country for corporate travel and be quarantined.

It is more than understandable that countries use quarantines to stop the spread, especially in places like China, where many of the people live in close quarters. However, H1N1 pops up in various places anyway. The May 11, 2009 issue of “Travel Weekly” printed an amusing sidebar about all the strange things people have done in response to the scare, especially the World Health Organization (WHO). They not only changed their definition of “pandemic” to me less definite (?), but even more peculiar one of their representatives suggested that there should be a contest to see if someone can come up with a “more user-friendly name” for the disease.

If you are expecting an answer here to the question of how your job as planner will change over the coming influenza months, you will be disappointed. However, it can be said with confidence that you will need to stay abreast of all H1N1 developments as well as keep yourself updated continuously on how foreign countries–as well as the U.S.–are handling incoming visitors. The last thing you want is to send a large group of people from a prominent company to a foreign country, only to have them cooped up until after their event is over.

Be informed and be successful.