From the great resignation to the epic return of incentive travel

Incentive travel looks poised for a high-anticipated return as industry players report encouraging enquiries from insurance, finance and multilevel marketing organisations.

Besides the pandemic, a viral wave of another sort has been making its way across countries in Asia and world-wide: The Great Resignation. This trend has been talked about across major media platforms, and it has created a buzz with organisations now looking closely at talent retention strategies.

In the MICE industry, professionals have been affected while they looked for ways to pivot their businesses, with many leaving the fold when circumstances were not sustainable. Others have chosen to upgrade their knowledge and skill sets by taking up courses.

But the come-back of incentive travel is a positive outcome to look forward to this year and the next. Given the urgency of recruitment, retention, and engagement of the workforce at the moment, incentive programmes will be even more important than before.

According to the Incentive Research Foundation 2022 Trends Report, incentive professionals are called to motivate a changing workforce while corporate goals also continue to change. Corporate organisations are required to be adaptive, flexible, and to communicate effectively as they make workforce decisions, whether it’s opening the office or travelling on an incentive trip.

With these shifts in the recruitment landscape, companies look for ways to be competitive in the job market, and a robust incentive programme remains an important part of a company’s full benefits package.

The report revealed that overall incentive budgets are expected to increase by 34% in 2022, with the per-person spend increasing to US$806 from US$764 the prior year – although these budgets will need to accommodate price increases resulting from workforce, inventory, and supply chain challenges.

On the ground

Singapore incentive travel organisers such as Applied M.I.C.E. expect a return to normalcy next year, with huge pent-demand from certain industry sectors. According to its Director Benjamin Tan, insurance and banking clients are requesting for trips, “We have a small insurance group of about 30 pax who are going to Seoul this May for team-building activities. While that is not a big group, it is certainly a start after two years of non-activity.

"Next year, we have a much bigger group of over 300 going to Taipei that comprises an incentive and possibly, a conference segment. Overall, I am feeling very positive about the demand to come.”

For Melvyn Nonis, director of M.I.C.E Matters, he similarly sees interest coming back from insurance companies as well as multilevel marketing companies and banks. While conference organisation has taken a back seat, incentive travel planning is gaining traction, especially for long-haul trips to destinations such as Europe and North America.

He shared that the typical 5 day, 4 night itinerary is now slightly longer at 6 days and five nights, with an average group size of 80 to 150 per group. “As compared to pre-pandemic trips, there is, for now, a focus on destinations with lots of nature and open spaces, such as Switzerland and Iceland,” said Nonis. 

Both Tan and Nonis also shared that destinations with travel bubbles and Vaccinated Travel Lane programmes are the ones to be more commonly requested by clients. “Additionally, destinations that are quick to re-open borders with the least Covid restrictions and are budget-friendly are seen as good options,” added Nonis.

Tan, who is pushing for Southeast Asia and Asia Pacific destinations such as Thailand, Australia and New Zealand, brought up important points concerning cleanliness and racism. He stressed that while certain external factors are out of their control, especially regarding a destination’s number of Covid cases, it helps to minimise exposure to low-hygiene conditions, and in particular, the exposure to high-conflict situations such as racism in countries where it’s rampant and wide-spread.

“Based on the feelers I have on the ground, I would not recommend that groups go to Europe or even the US for now,” he said.

For Bangkok, an evergreen favourite of planners, the appeal remains despite the complexities of Thailand's Test & Go procedures. "We are seeing positive demand, especially from the European market where planners are willing to promote Thailand and are looking at a time frame from Q4 of 2022 to Q2 of 2023," said Suriwipa Dalliston, MICE Manager of Asian Trails Thailand.

"Phuket seems to stand out from other destinations as it is slowly getting busier and livelier than other beach destinations. Key drivers are the connectivity of international flights and an abundance list of hotels and facilities. It is clear that a beach destination is still the number one demand from our clients," said Suriwipa.

She added that requests are coming from energy, IT, pharmaceutical and agriculture companies, with group sizes that are smaller as compared to before, at about 30 to 50 pax each group. Period of stay is also longer, from five nights to seven or nine nights.

The outlook may be positive, but the challenges certainly remain and requires the industry to keep on top of constantly changing airline and destination updates, planning requirements, and a balanced perspective.

Tan brought up the issue of budgets, which may be viewed as being daunting and unrealistic. “For sure, flight fares have increased, and there is the additional cost of PCR tests that is a sore point for many; but ultimately, this is counterbalanced by small business vendors on the ground that are, well, hungry for business, and we are able to lower costs slightly.

"All in all, factoring in vendors that are accommodating, and reasonable budgets, which we do have, we can still put together a pretty decent incentive travel experience for our clients,” said Tan.

What is crucial is that planners must win their clients’ trust and manage their concerns in a mediated and controlled manner, especially when it comes to safety and budget, concluded Nonis.