Incentive - October 2008 - (Page 69)

“Four months ago it was a good probability that we were going to Europe [in 2009]…now we probably won’t.” –Lise Nunziato, Hertz Corporation Solutions in Malvern, Penn., and a Travel IQ survey respondent. Even though she had contracted with a major airline to buy seats well in advance of a trip to St. Kitts early this year, many problems arose. Despite the contract, one of the flights her sales winners were booked on was canceled and passengers were rebooked onto the next flight— which was already full. “It was no longer, ‘When we get there will they have fun?’ ” she says. “The question was, ‘Are they going to get there?’ We had people come in a day early and paid for the extra room nights. We put people into Nevis and boated them in. And we still had a couple of people who did not get in for two days—thank goodness it was a six-day program.” When asked how the growing difficulty of air travel had affected destination choices, more than one-third of our respondents said they look for destinations with no more than one transfer for all participants, and nearly as many said they try to stay closer to home or are not considering long-haul destinations at all. In a separate question, nearly three-fifths of respondents said the airline industry’s changes are having a “moderate” or “significant” impact on their programs. Jamison thought she had solved that problem for the current program, bringing 1,000 people to Cancun in a trio of four-day, back-to-back programs in early 2009. “We thought Cancun would be easy. But the airlines are flying smaller planes, so they fill up faster and the prices are higher. How do we budget when we book hotels a year and a half out?” What really sets her off are charges for a second—and even for a first— checked bag, lower acceptable bag weights and $2 sodas. “The nickel and diming is so frustrating,” she says. s Send comments to ljakobson@incentivemag.com incentivemag.com | October 2008 | Incentive | 69 http://www.radisson.com/StMartin http://www.radisson.com/StMartin http://www.incentivemag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Incentive - October 2008

Incentive - October 2008 Contents Editor's Note Headlines Cover Story: Face Time with Senior Executives is the Top Motivator of Cisco Systems' Chairman's Club Winners Incentive Interview Safety Incentives: Safety Drives a Limousine Service's Motivational Efforts Case Study Primer Learning: Diving into Incentives for the Mind Enhances Both Loyalty and the Bottom Line Research: Travel IQ Travel News Florida Coast to Cost Caribbean Escape Potentials Here and Now Gadgets & Power Tools: High-End Roars Seen at the Motivation Show Advertisers Index Off the Cuff

Incentive - October 2008

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