by Pádraic Gilligan, Co-founder, SoolNua & Research | Consultancy, SITE The mood music The mood music around global trade, and by extension, around business events, now sounds like Shostakovich’s or Rachmaninoff’s darkest, most tormented pieces. Or, to use a biblical reference, it’s the Book of Job. When it seems that things can’t get any worse,… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Research & Consultancy, SITE & Co-Founder, SoolNua I travelled to Athens recently to speak at a gathering of meeting and incentive travel professionals, organised by Hosts Global, one of our industry’s foremost and leading DMC consortia. I was asked by my friends Kurt Paben and Tina Gaccetta to speak on trends and… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Co-founder, SoolNua Consulting & Chief Marketing Officer, SITE At IMEX America this year, SITE and our partner, the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF), launched the 2024 Incentive Travel Index (ITI) to a packed room of eager attendees in Las Vegas. Each year, the ITI gives us a clear snapshot of where incentive travel… Read more »
Pádraic Gilligan, Chief Marketing Officer, SITE & Managing Partner, SoolNua AI is not new on the Wild Atlantic Way AI is not at all new in Ireland, at least not along the Wild Atlantic Way or in Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands. Since the 1940s, it has been a thing in rural Ireland where I have deep… Read more »
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 »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua & Chief Marketing Officer, SITE Will Covid-19 kill Incentive travel? Part of me loves the speculation, the permutations and combinations. The “if this, then that” logic that we indulge in on a daily basis. I’m referring, of course, to the endless chatter around what meetings 3.0 or incentives 3.0… Read more »
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 »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Chief Marketing Office SITE & Managing Partner, SoolNua The Wall I could see the hotel directly in front of me, no more than 100m away. But I was separated from it by a complex wall involving a 6 lane highway and a tangle of spiralling over-passes. Traffic was relentless and fast. There… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua & Chief Marketing Officer, SITE NOTE: This post is even more relevant in the context of recent news on the Wall Street Journal of the cancellation by Financial Advisor, Charles Schawb, of its long established incentive travel programme. The Incentive Research Foundation published this article in response. I was… Read more »
by Pádraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua & Chief Marketing Officer, SITE Global Chains v Independent Hotels – the debate continues This week I found my mind exercised, once again, by the on-going debate around the merits and demerits of independent hotels versus global chain hotels. Our relentless contemporary pursuit of travel experiences that pivot around… Read more »