Corporate Travel Destinations

Who says corporate travel is all about jets, hotels, and airports? The world is a place where many modes of transportation and even different meeting venue styles vie for corporate business. Here are some lesser known corporate travel alternatives:

• Trains – Trains are an older form of transportation, but modern bullet trains are amazingly swift. These trains can be found throughout Europe, Asia, and are even becoming a popular alternative in the United States.
• Boats – Boats come in many shapes and sizes, but many boats are designed to at least appear to be culturally and/or historically significant. Traveling up a river in a modern-day steamboat is safe, quiet, and even offers corporate travelers a way to relax while getting a little business done en route.
• Ships – Some boats are big enough to be called ships. While the distinction between the two can be a little blurry at times, most corporate travel on ships tends to take place on cruise ships. Cruise events and cruise meetings are also understandably popular.

No matter which style of alternative corporate travel is selected, remember that the choice can be used to portray the company in a certain light to employees, the public, partners, suppliers, and virtually anyone else. How people in a company travel and work says a lot about that company, and where that company holds its meetings and events can be equally important.

Cruise events are all the rage, but not all companies are aware of signs that indicate that they might need to be considering a cruise event. Here are some signs that your company needs to consider cruise events:

• The competition is doing it – The fact is that all companies are viewed in relation to their peers. If one company starts to offer cruise events, they gain ground on the competition in a critical way. If your company is one of only a handful not offering cruise events, then the company may have a serious image problem in the making.
• The company has reached a plateau – Companies that have no competition, or no competition using cruise events, may still reach plateaus. These parabolas can be broken with cruise events that are well selected and executed.
• A recent PR problem still looms – Sometimes forgetting the past with a party or two is all it takes to set new wheels in motion, and there is no better way to start a PR blitz than with meetings and events held at sea.
• The company is breaking into a new market – Sometimes breaking down the walls requires a lot of momentum. Get that momentum started with a noteworthy cruise event.

While smaller meetings and events on cruise ships are all well and good, there is another option that is actually even better for those who truly have a need: chartering and/or buy-outs.  Ship charters are surprisingly affordable, as it gives the cruise company a chance to earn their overhead without spending as much on marketing, but there is so much more to consider:

• Some meetings need to be secretive by nature, and buy-outs/chartering ensures that none of the other passengers might be eavesdropping. On the other hand, companies that host cruise meetings where others can see them might not only seem more open and honest, but they may seem more attractive to investors.
• A buy-out of all cabins on an existing cruise ensures complete access to all facilities at all hours. In short, you are calling just about all of the shots save for the course. Even then, the captain of the ship might be amenable to arranging longer stays in Port A and skipping Port B.
• Complete concierge services is also typically available on charters. This should be no surprise since the concierge usually serves the guests. Since all the guests are your invitees, all you have to do is kick back and relax and let someone else sort out their problems.
• There are big and small charter cruise ships available. Do not worry if all you have are a hundred or so participants as there are smaller cruise ships that are ideal for the task at hand. Even a smaller cruise ship is still an enormous floating meeting and entertainment facility.

Large events, meetings, and seminars have traditionally be scheduled at conference centers and/or hotels, but that is all changing now. Cruise ships are the new ‘it’ place to host events of almost any size, for many good reasons. Here are a trio of very good reasons to consider:

• Go places, do things – One of the top reasons to opt for cruises over more traditional meeting environments is the fact that cruise liners take your places while you work instead of taking you to places to get work done. Add to this the limited distance between work and play, and cruises are nothing if not efficient and convenient.
• Amazing facilities – Hotels come in different quality levels, usually measured in stars. Cruise ships are an all-star affair, and every passenger is made to feel like an all-star. Putting a dollar value on having meeting participants felt like that are having their every whim met is nearly impossible.
• Affordable – Meetings and events held on cruise liners are surprisingly affordable. Why? Because one companies is providing everything. Instead of distributing the overhead of a catering company, a hotel, and a conference center over each participant, cruise liners have a single overhead to distribute. It is all about cost of customer acquisition, and that is what makes cruise meetings affordable.

Salt Lake City, Utah is a popular tourist destination, particularly for those interested in seeing Temple Square and taking a tour of one of the most famous religious buildings in the country. Visitors to Salt Lake City can enjoy world-class skiing and snowboarding in the winter, hiking and other outdoor activities in the sunny summer months, and a clean, well-planned city throughout the year. The city is well-known for its wide streets and easy grid-like street layout, making it easy to get around.

What many people do not know is that there are also over 120 meeting venues, including museums, stand-alone banquet halls, hotels and historic buildings. Coupled with the presence of major hotel brands and an airport that is serviced by major airlines, it is easy to see why Salt Lake City is becoming a popular corporate meeting and event destination.

While the city only has a population of approximately 180,000, it is surprisingly well-equipped to handle small, mid-sized or larger meetings and events. In addition to a variety of meeting venues, transportation options and accommodations, Salt Lake City and the surrounding area also provide abundant options for outdoor activities and excursions to sites of historical and cultural interest.

For a well-rounded meeting destination that offers the charm of a historic town, as well as the amenities of a major city, Salt Lake City should not be overlooked.

It is not without reason that Cancun is known worldwide as a preferred resort destination. There's something for everyone in this tropical seaside vacation spot. Located on Mexico's eastern shores in the state of Quintana Roo, Cancun is a top pick for corporate travel planners who are looking for a temperate climate, sandy beaches and an active night life. Approximately 4 million visitors come every year to enjoy the area in 24,000 hotel rooms and dine in over 380 restaurants. Corporate travelers from the colder regions to the north especially appreciate the warm winter weather with average highs of 82°F in December. There's no better way to beat the winter blahs than a visit to this tropical retreat.

Urban legend would tell us that the location for Cancun was selected by computers. The fact is that a team of researchers worked to locate and select the city's ideal location. Modern day Cancun is the final result of a 1967 feasibility study conducted by Banco de México. Failing to locate enough private investors, the Mexican Government had to finance the first nine hotels. From those humble beginnings Cancun has grown to become a world-renowned tourist resort. Along with the many resort and vacation facilities, Cancun offers excellent venues for corporate meetings and events.

Santo Domingo, located on the coast of the Dominican Republic offers the perfect blend of modern amenities and rich history and culture. Christopher Columbus first came upon this region in 1492, with his brother, Bartolome Colon, founding the city of Santo Domingo de Guzman in 1498. As the first city in the New World, UNESCO naturally awarded it status as a World Heritage Site and visitors can still walk along the cobblestone streets of the original city, now called Colonial City, where the first university, church, hospital and monastery constructed in the New World can still be seen.

A popular destination for the cruise meeting industry, the Port of Santo Domingo has two cruise ship terminals: the Don Diego Terminal and the San Souci Terminal. Each of these terminals allows passengers convenient access to nearby Colonial City, as well as a number of important historical sites and landmarks, many dining options serving scrumptious local cuisine and nightspots that come alive each evening with the vibrant sounds of merengue. Santo Domingo is considered one of the most important cultural capitals of the Americas and offers a wide variety of entertainment, dining, shopping and cultural attractions, such as the museums of the Plaza de Cultura, the Columbus Lighthouse and the Parque Colon.

A well-established, modern public transportation system makes getting around this historic city a breeze, which will allow your attendees to take in all that Santo Domingo has to offer between scheduled meetings and events.

The Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort knows just what it takes to create the most imaginative meetings that generate the highest possible results.  Their approach definitely lightens the work load for meeting planners, since the resort takes the responsibility for achieving the "WOW" factor for your meetings and events. 

Their approach, called ReImagine Meetings, puts the focus on combining creativity, theme, technology, and relationships. In addition to more than 329,000 square feet of indoor meeting space, the resorts proximity to Walt Disney World offers access to the parks and fabulous Disney events.

Why not ReImagine your next meeting or event at a place where the unforgettable surroundings will inspire creativity?  For meetings from 15 to 15,000, the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin have been delivering top notch events for two decades.
 

Hard Rock International is planning a Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hungary, near the Austrian and Slovakian borders.

They expect to open in early 2012, and the hotel will have more than 600 guest rooms. 

As Cruising Slashes the Cost of Land Based Venues by 25-40%,

Planners Can Persevere with Today’s Shrinking Budgets

MIAMI, FL (Sept. 29, 2009) – Cutting costs without compromising quality or creativity is top of mind with meeting planners these days.  With that in mind, the fact remains that meetings and incentives held at sea, verses traditional land-based programs, can reduce costs by 25-40%.  But for those unfamiliar with staging events on board cruise ships, the process can be intimidating.  With the debut of Seasite.com, the first and only web portal dedicated solely to serving the cruise meeting market, planners will find what was once labor intensive, is now quick, simple and accessible all in one place.

The first and only comprehensive online marketplace for planning cruise meetings and events, Seasite is a revolutionary approach to ship selection and onboard event planning.  “It is the new frontier of cruise meetings and incentives, allowing you to do more with less,” says Josephine Kling, Seasite CEO.  “And beyond the affordability factor is the ability to design and customize and implement a program that is unique, client focused and unforgettable,” she adds.

Seasite demystifies the process and puts users in control so that meetings at sea can now be planned as easily as land based meetings.  Driven by sophisticated technology, super rich content and robust ship-search capabilities, Seasite puts incentive and meeting management companies, corporate or independent meeting planners and other group event organizers in total “cruise” control.  For those needing assistance, Cruise Advisors are on hand by chat, phone or email.  And for those already comfortable with organizing events at sea, Seasite’s sophisticated search and content rich data, coupled with its unique eRFP process, saves time and simplifies the process.  There is no cost or membership fee to use Seasite. Continue reading »