Incentive - December 2007 - (Page 67)

TRAVEL Viva Mexico! PAGE 70 Spa-licious PAGE 72 Planners are finding more to do than ever before south of the border Spas focus on local flavor and indigenous ingredients to create a memorable sense of place Staying Cool in Crisis How the San Diego CVB, hotels, incentive groups and DMCs came together during a harried week of extreme uncertainty By Anne Marie D. Lee t was Monday, [October] 22nd that, I think, the phone calls and e-mails started going around saying ‘could this affect our program, what is the status, the containment issues…” says Christopher H. Lee, chief executive officer at Access Destination Services, a destination management company (DMC) in San Diego that focuses on inbound group logistics for meetings, conventions and incentive travel. That week, Access was scheduled to host a weeklong incentive travel program operated by Creative Group in Chicago, for LG Electronics. “By Tuesday morning, the 23rd, the first conference call had been arranged between Creative Group, Access and LG,” Lee continues. “And that was really the first formal discussion about what the status of the program was and what the status of San Diego was. Of the three parties, we were the only people in San Diego, and they were obviously very concerned because they were watching national news. So they were getting images of the actual fire, not of downtown I San Diego where the program was to be.” By now, the facts and figures entailed in October’s San Diego wildfires are familiar to most of us: high winds over 70 mph, over 500,000 people evacuated, about 1,500 homes destroyed, and more than 700 square miles burned. To those around the country, media images of towering flames and smoke so intense they could be spotted from space instilled the impression of a county in complete peril, being rapidly devoured by an inferno that people feared only an ocean could stop. But in the concrete downtown area that was far less susceptible to the fury of fire than the wide acres of dried brush, forests and vegetation that cover San Diego’s back country and residential areas, Access Destination Services, like other tourist-related businesses in the county, worked round the clock to quell the flames of media sensationalism and provide visiting clients with accurate information. Wasting no time, Lee sent out a team to take photographs of the venues planned for the incentive trip: the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel, the Marriott Hotel downtown and the USS Midway—an aircraft carrier/ museum where Access would be producing a party for 1,000 LG employees on Sunday, the 28th. Says Lee, “We went out and took continued on page 68 A HIGH-TECH AMENITY La Jolla Shores Hotel (formerly the Sea Lodge Hotel) has made a new amenity available to its guests, one that is sure to set minds awandering. Beginning last month, Garmin nüvi 260 Pocket Vehicle GPS systems were provided to hotel guests free of charge, upon request through the concierge at the La Jolla, Calif., hotel. The nüvi 260 features a color touch screen, maps in 2-D and 3-D perspective and turn-by-turn voice directions. While exploring incentivemag.com the San Diego area by foot or by car, guests using the nüvi 260 will be able to navigate with ease, simply by entering a desired destination into the touch screen. Each GPS unit is preloaded with street maps and a points-of-interest database that includes local attractions—SeaWorld, the San Diego Zoo, Torrey Pines Golf Course— as well as restaurants, ATMs and gas stations. Greg Rizzi, general manager, La Jolla Shores Hotel, announced the new offering, saying, “We continuously strive to improve upon our guest services and amenities.” | December 2007 | Incentive | 67 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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