How changing work practices bring new opportunities for incentive travel

by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua & Chief Marketing Officer, SITE Pandemic in Dublin Deserted streets. #WFH. Skies free from planes. Weather. “Modern Family”. Zoom calls. Neighbourhood walks. Entire families on bicycles. Where the Crawdads sing. Bird song. Coffee lines. Webinars. Sourdough bread. “The Americans”. Quizzes on Zoom. That’s my random list of memories from… Read more »

Prognosis on recovery for Incentive Travel: it’s a cruciate injury, it’ll take time

by Pádraic Gilligan, Chief Marketing Officer, SITE & Managing Partner, SoolNua Prognosis for recovery of Incentive Travel Maybe it’s a lame analogy but here goes anyway. Today’s incentive travel industry is like an elite athlete who has just done her cruciate ligament. When the crunch happens she knows it’s serious but hopes, at the same… Read more »

Meetings & Events after Covid-19 – Looking in to the Crystal Ball

by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua & Chief Marketing Officer, SITE Who knew? Covid-19? Nobody saw this one coming. Not our cleverest crystal ball gazers. Not our sharpest soothsayers. Our industry predictions for 2020 and beyond made no reference to a virus and, in January, even when it ran through China, like bind weed in… Read more »

Future-proofing Ireland as a MICE destination – 4 things we learned in Dromoland Castle

by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua & Chief Marketing Officer, SITE A new Ireland product for a new audience, a single hotel contract for city wide conferences and a clarion call around sustained, consistent and wide reaching sustainability – just 3 highlights from this year’s Business Tourism conference that saw over 200 MICE professionals from… Read more »

Soft Power trumps hard dollars when measuring success of incentive travel

by Pádraic Gilligan, Chief Marketing Officer SITE & Managing Partner, SoolNua Incentive travel is self-liquidating In the past, when pitching a company on the merits of an incentive travel programme, the clincher would always be that it’s self liquidating, ie, technically it costs you nothing  as it’s paid for from the incremental revenues generated by… Read more »

Disruption in the Hospitality sector – the rise and rise of local experiences

by Pádraic Gilligan, Chief Marketing Officer, SITE & Managing Partner, SoolNua Radical Disruption in the hospitality sector Lokal Hotel in Old Town Philadelphia is yet another example of the radical disruption that’s been tearing up the hospitality sector ever since Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky used digital technology to rent floor space in their apartment… Read more »

Why DMCs and DMOs need to work better together as destination partners

by Pádraic Gilligan, Chief Marketing Officer, SITE & Managing Partner, SoolNua The initial release of the Incentive Travel Industry Index took place during IMEX Americas back in September 2019 but for numbers nerds and data daleks it continues to provide rich pickings. It also offers up some great insights for incentive travel professionals working in… Read more »