Incentive - December 2007 - (Page 52)

AWARDS Planner Resources American Express Incentive Services’ Expeditions Card www.aeis.com/AEIS/prod_expeditions.html Carlson Marketing’s Destinations by Design Card www.carlsonmarketing.com Travelocity Incentives’ Hotel Gift Cards www.travelocityincentives.com Great American Days www.greatamericandays.com Viator www.viator.com/gift-certificates Bedandbreakfast.com www.bedandbreakfast.com/GiftCertificates.aspx Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts www.fourseasons.com/giftcard/ Hyatt Hotels and Resorts https://www.certificates.hyatt.com/Org IncentivesOverview.aspx Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Ovation Rewards www.fairmont.com Marriott Hotels and Resorts https://gifts.marriott.com/ Ritz-Carlton Hotels & Resorts www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Retail/Default.htm the last couple years and you don’t necessarily want to go back. You want to go to Key West or you want to go to Cape Cod or you want to go to Napa Valley. Now you have the incentive to go out there,” says Matthew Howe, director of national sales for Bedandbreakfast.com, which offers cards that can be used at over 4,000 inns and escapes in its network. Howe is also a member of the steering committee for the Incentive Travel Council, the Incentive Marketing Association’s newly created strategic industry group. Established in August of this year, one of the Council’s express goals is to provide a stronger voice in the industry for just the sort of individual incentive travel that these gift cards facilitate. Of course it’s nearly impossible for the individual to replicate the experience of a full-scale, pillow-gift-and-private-concert incentive trip on his or her own. But these travel gift cards provide a flexible alternative extravagant getaway. But what is perhaps more noteworthy about these dollar-denominated travel cards is how low they can go. Most travel motivators, from planned trips to individual weekend packages, are intended as elite rewards for top sellers or executives and are budgeted in the thousands of dollars. So travel is usually not seen as a viable reward at lower price points, and companies will instead use merchandise. But a dollar denomination on travel gift cards means winners at all award levels can qualify for individual incentive travel. As a spot reward, or in a points-based system, travel cards for smaller denominations can be given to employees and can serve as a standalone award toward a winner’s next trip, or add up to cover an entire weekend stay at a resort. This is an effective way to spread out the motivational impact of travel over a longer period of time, and across a number of award levels. The opportunities presented by travel “You want to go to Key West or you want to go to Cape Cod now you have the incentive to go.” –Matthew Howe for the many exceptional cases, whether an individual can’t make the scheduled trip, or if a company prefers not to have all of its top performers away at the same time. “Sometimes you have a client who says, ‘We have a tier of travelers that we just can’t put on an incentive trip [at one time],’ but you want to reward them with a travel incentive,” says Cy Moore, the senior new business manager of prepaid card services for Carlson Marketing, which offers its own Destinations by Design card that can be redeemed at any travel service provider that accepts Visa and MasterCard. “So instead of giving them some packaged trip to Los Angeles or Las Vegas or Boca Raton, you say, ‘Here is a $4,000 Destinations by Design card—create your own trip,’” says Moore. With their sky-high maximums (Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts can load a gift card for as much as $100,000), these cards make it easy to let the winner create even the most gift cards are generally viewed with optimism by members of the industry, as an answer to many of the issues that can surface in trying to develop a travel program. “I don’t think it’s cannibalizing group travel. Products like Ovation Rewards are actually opening up an entirely new market,” says Robert Ward, director of sales for Fairmont Hotels and Resorts’ Ovation Rewards. “It’s an expansion.” These travel gift cards are a promising option for planners looking to provide both high-end individual travel opportunities and smaller travel awards. To learn how to incorporate travel gift cards and certificates into your incentive program, read Incentive Primer from the November 2007 issue, an introduction to individual travel awards by TravelAwardsOnline’s Founder and CEO Phil Duyff, at www.incentivemag.com/travelprimer 52 | Incentive | December 2007 | incentivemag.com http://www.aeis.com/AEIS/prod_expeditions.html http://www.carlsonmarketing.com http://www.travelocityincentives.com http://www.greatamericandays.com http://www.viator.com/gift-certificates http://Bedandbreakfast.com http://www.bedandbreakfast.com/GiftCertificates.aspx http://www.fourseasons.com/giftcard/ https://www.certificates.hyatt.com/OrgIncentivesOverview.aspx http://www.fairmont.com https://gifts.marriott.com/ http://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Retail/Default.htm http://www.incentivemag.com/travelprimer http://incentivemag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Incentive - December 2007

Incentive - December 2007 Contents Editor’s Note: Revved Up In the News Cover Story: Rolls-Royce Empowers Its Own Case Study: Booz Allen Hamilton Beating Your Best Incentive Primer: Add Value to Your Event Keeping Safety In Mind Incentive Interview Potentials Here and Now Research: Corporate Gifts Facts Report Tabletop Awards: Travel Gift Cards Travel News Viva Puerto Vallarta Indigenous Spas Advertiser Index Off the Cuff: Ambassador Christoph Bubb Luxury Brands Special Supplement

Incentive - December 2007

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