Corporate Travel Destinations

Employees are often confined to offices or cubicles throughout the workday. They may have little time to interact with fellow employees, subordinates, or managers outside of the workplace. Even at the workplace there is little time for interaction outside of work-related topics or discussions. Employees are often busy working on projects that may include only a particular group of people, and the majority of the workforce may be unfamiliar with one another. A meeting planner understands the need to build in time for camaraderie when event planning. Whether this is accomplished through team building exercises or mutually agreeable leisure activities, building camaraderie is important for event planning.

Team building exercises are an excellent way to build camaraderie among employees. Team building exercises work great at any destination or venue. Group incentive destinations that are inherently more relaxing and offer attendees the chance to unwind are great venues for team building. Group incentive destinations that offer many leisure activities and entertainment options also provide attendees the opportunity to get know one another outside of the office. Finding common interests among employees is a great way to solidify a company's workforce. Choosing destinations that are ideal for team building and leisure activities can help build relationships among those employed by an organization.

The green meeting movement is in full swing and many companies are scrambling to make their meetings and corporate events as eco-friendly as possible. This can boost their public image, shows their commitment to limiting their impact on the environment and can make attendees feel good about the efforts being put forth; however, it can also mean higher pricing. In fact, the fear of significantly higher prices is one of the main reasons that other companies are not taking more steps to green their corporate meetings, events and travel. There is s a perception that going green automatically means doubling your event expenses and, while this certainly does not have to be the case, there are good reasons why some folks think this.

The problem is green gouging. Just like any new trend, there are some folks who see this as a way to make more money and are hiking up prices on organic or local food, sustainably-sourced products and other necessities for green events. Meeting and event planners should expect a slightly higher price on some environmentally-friendly items, which is completely justifiable; however, some venues are taking advantage of this opportunity to freely overcharge folks who care about their event’s impact.

Oftentimes, this can result from the fact they do not have the vendors to meet the needs of folks who need organic or locally-grown food and other essentials. This can be avoided by opting for venues that are just as committed to eco-friendly meetings as you are, and that already have established relationships with green vendors.

The tanked economy may be old news–and news we’re all tired of listening to–but has turned out to be a boon for meeting planners and those booking incentive travel. Ovation Travel Group predicts that the recent tears-long trend of increased rates will be reversed in 2009, and rates might drop. Ovation recently polled hundreds of hotels through the world, and found that some have already lowered their rates, so the trend may be starting.

With over 400 hotels responding to a survey, Ovation reports that this year hotels have already lowered their 2008 rates by 4.31 percent. The company says that overseas, 35.6 percent of the properties report their rates are down by 11 percent, and another 27 percent have held steady. This makes a total average drop in rates of 4.67 percent.

Here in the United States 37.1 percent of our hotels report reducing their rates by 10.2 percent, which mirrors properties worldwide. However, more of our hotels have maintained the 2008 rates–38 percent of domestic properties did not raise prices in 2009. This makes “Buy American” much easier for the domestic planner who is looking to book incentive groups locally.

Even though financially things are tough around the world, that doesn’t mean that you can’t send people on worldwide travel. If you have properties with which you have great relationships already, they may be willing to reduce rates for especially large bookings. These days everyone is fighting for business, so you might as well take advantage of it–find the hotels that have lowered their rates and reward their good sense with your business.