Why not start the incentive travel program in the destination and ditch the air?

by Pádraic Gilligan, Co-founder, SoolNua & Chief Marketing Officer, SITE

For many years now, the Incentive Travel Index (ITI) has been unveiling fascinating insights into the evolving landscape of incentive travel, shedding light on its current state, underlying motivations, and potential future trends. Traditionally, its annual report has focused on core themes such as industry growth, budget allocations, program elements, stakeholder perspectives, and destination choices. However, the index’s creators—SITE, the IRF, and Oxford Economics—have recently begun exploring the less mainstream, hidden alleyways, probing deeper, gauging sentiment, and attempting to identify the earliest indicators of emerging trends, catching them in their nascent stages before they fully take shape.

Lurking around the edges of ITI 2024 is a great question on the place of air travel in incentive programs. It asks:

What is your view on the following statement: within a few years, incentive travel participants will be responsible for arranging their own air travel with the incentive program deemed to commence upon arrival at the destination

Respondents were asked whether they thought this was “unlikely”, “likely” or “very likely” and were also given the “Not sure” option. ITI 2024 launches shortly at IMEX America so all will be revealed then. In the meantime, however, I did want to weight in with my own very personal perspective.

I think it is indeed very likely that within a few years, participants and qualifiers will be responsible for arranging their own air travel with the incentive program deemed to commence upon arrival at the destination. For me, the only surprising thing is that this hasn’t happened already!

Cost & Time Efficiencies for Organisers

Let’s be crystal clear: organising air travel for individuals is a regal pain with zero perks. Maybe in the halcyon days of travel agent commission, AD50s 75s and 90s, the revenue gained made it worthwhile but certainly not now. And a business model based on a transaction fee per ticket issued simply isn’t a sustainable business model at all. If it was, there’d be a lot more travel agencies around!

As an organiser of incentive travel programs, you’re trying to balance and harmonise the demands for flexibility on the part of the qualifier with the draconian, tyranny clauses of the airlines. Simply put, this is a Sisyphean task that inevitably ends in gnawing frustration while clocking up pointless hours that could be expended for greater qualifier benefits elsewhere in the program.

While some airline systems may be set up to deal with “groups”, an incentive program is certainly not a group, even if it may look like one from the perspective of the airline. Occasionally an airline will deploy a specialist and make a valiant effort to offer a dedicated program for the incentive market but I’ve been around too long to hold out much hope that such commitment would ever be long term. That said, chapeau to the airlines that do make this investment – know that this does make a massive difference.

Personalization and Flexibility

When it comes to booking air, qualifiers want personalisation and flexibility but that would require a dedicated resource or concierge-style service, and that simply isn’t viable or affordable within the current supply chain.

Airline loyalty programs – which most qualifiers will be part of – reward the individual, not the group or the company so it’s unlikely that a third party agent will ever trump a Diamond Medallion or Delta 360°. So what’s the point of your involvement when the system isn’t set up to allow you be effective? Or, embarrassingly, when your client has significantly more pull than you when push comes to shove!

If and when group fares are organised with a particular airline, qualifiers are often dissatisfied as their status may rest with an alternative loyalty program so upgrades and other concessions are not possible. This, obviously, doesn’t fill them with delight especially if they’re embarking on a 6 hour flight!

With the advancements in technology and the proliferation of great booking apps, it’s far easier for a participant to organise her own air, leveraging her status and perks so why not just go with that?

Different qualifiers, different points of origin

The prototype incentive travel programs from the late sixties / early seventies often involved large groups travelling together on air charters to the chosen destination. Within this context it made perfect sense for the reward to begin from the point of departure , providing special access through the airport of origin and special treatment on board a dedicated flight, bought out entirely by the sponsoring company.

But this, clearly, is no longer the case – or, at least, it’s rarely so. Qualifiers these days can be spread across the entire nation and, often, across the entire world. With so many variables and moving parts, it’s virtually impossible to guarantee quality control across the entire qualifier “journey” and all too often qualifiers arrive in the reward destination stressed, late or both. Hardly the best way to begin a travel experience that you worked darned hard to win?

So what should we do?

The best solution would be to simply provide a fixed contribution per qualifier towards air and leave it to the qualifier herself to handle the air. This could easily be done based on flight time from home to the reward destination with set amounts for flights up to 3 hours, from 3 to 7 hours and 8 hours +. It could also be factored into the tier thresholds with greater amounts allocated to qualifiers in higher tiers.

In addition, further incentives could be offered to qualifiers who elected not to fly and opted to take the train (extremely common in Europe if less so in the USA), thereby contributing to the sponsoring company’s sustainability commitments.

The result?

Less stress, less hassle, less frustration, less need for Plan B and C. And, potentially, fewer CO2 omissions.

More focus on building out a truly transformative destination experience with attention to elements that can be mastered, controlled and delivered upon.

Happier qualifiers.

Happier organisers.

What do you think?