Incentive - December 2008 - (Page 40)

TRAVEL Believe the Hype : TAHITI TAHITI The intense blues and rugged island landscape are on view from the over-water villas at the St. Regis Bora Bora Starwood’s French Polynesian properties offer a taste of paradise By Leo Jakobson here may be better ways to spend a Saturday afternoon than trying to count the shades of blue as you sit, sipping Dom Perignon, on the deck of your private, over-water villa at the St. Regis Bora Bora. None come to mind, however. The top end of the four properties run by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide in French Polynesia, the St. Regis’ seagrass-roofed villas offer the level of appointments, décor and service expected from the brand—wonderful beds, enormous bathrooms, a truly separate living area, 42-inch plasma TVs, a Bose surround sound system, high-speed Wi-Fi—without intruding on the essentially laid-back, forget-about-the-world mindset the islands of Tahiti inspire. And as with the other three T resorts I visited earlier this year, it was clear that incentives are a big, and important, part of the business, and one the properties’ management and staffs understand. The surprising thing about the trip was the ease of travel on Air Tahiti Nui— which made the top 10 in Travel + Leisure’s 2008 World’s Best Awards—to French Polynesia, a quasi-independent country, with a legal system, defense policy and budget provided by France. The key is how the eight-and-one-half-hour flights are scheduled. A late-afternoon departure from Los Angeles (leaving time for connecting flights) gets you into Tahiti’s Papeete Airport around 9:30 p.m. Getting off the plane, our group was treated to the kind of airport experience longtime incentive planners reminisce about: Our group was pulled to the side as we entered the terminal and brought into an air-conditioned side room with couches and cold drinks. We had a brief rest as the airline’s personnel collected our baggage and then brought us to our own customs line—no waiting—before a private coach transfer to our hotel, the Sheraton Hotel Tahiti. There, we were taken to a seating area off the lobby and met with coconuts full of an excellent rum punch. While we relaxed on the couches, a group of staffers checked us in, handed out room keys and took our luggage. That was followed by hors d’ouevres and what would become a ritual—a brief welcome performance by a troupe of native dancers—in part of the newly renovated property’s 20,000 square feet of interior and exterior venues. We 40 | Incentive | December 2008 | incentivemag.com http://www.incentivemag.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Incentive - December 2008

Incentive - December 2008
Contents
Editor's Note
Headlines
Cover Story: Motivating Their Own
Incentive Interview
Case Study: Cargill's Course
Travel News
Cruises: Saving Without Sacrifice
Spas to the Rescue
Field Report: French Polynesia
Potentials Here and Now
Spa Products
Research: Corporate Gift IQ
Gift Cards: Dining & Entertainment
Advertiser Index
Last Word: Can You Be Specific?

Incentive - December 2008