Tourism Portfolio’s Donna Kessler: incentive travel expectations are high in a tight labour market for top talent. Photo Credit: Tourism Portfolio
Tourism Portfolio, which specialises in connecting Australian and New
Zealand meeting and incentive travel planners with its partners such as
leading DMCs and venue operators around the world, is expanding.
Buoyed by the rise of Australian corporates heading offshore for
meetings and incentives, Tourism Portfolio has expanded its
international DMC network, adding destinations including the UAE,
Morocco, South Africa and Brazil in recent weeks.
This will offer a higher level of diversity and inspiring
destinations for local planners. Tourism Portfolio founder and director,
Donna Kessler, and Sharon Levingston, general manager, said they seen a
resurgence in enquiries for international destinations, with businesses
appearing eager to explore new places, invest in their teams, and forge
deeper connections with staff.
“Long haul is definitely the trend right now and there is certainly a
focus on the exotic,” Kessler said, “Our level of international
enquiries continues to rise and these new DMC partners are already
proving popular. Programmes appear to be more focused on ROE – Return On
Experience – as a measure of success.”
Levingston said there was also strong interest in running programmes
in new destinations and in some cases, dual destinations. “Our new DMCs,
like IMPACT Event & Destination Management which provides
experiences in Oman and the UAE, have that covered,” she said.
New DMCs in the Tourism Portfolio include:
- IMPACT Event & Destination Management, UAE and Oman
- Amazing Africa, South Africa
- Access Travel, Morocco
- Unica, Argentina
“The tight employment market is also having an impact on the high
quality of incentive travel rewards being offered to top tier staff who
want more than off-the-shelf experiences,” Kessler said.