Business travel trends have been evolving this year as the world opens back up again and organizations adjust to more remote workforces as well as rising costs. Incentive travel is similarly evolving as new destinations garner increased interest and priorities shift.
Some of these new trends were revealed in the 2022 Incentive Travel Index released by the Financial & Insurance Conference Professionals (FICP), the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) and the Foundation of the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE Foundation), in partnership with Oxford Economics. The report is based on a survey of more than 1,400 incentive industry professionals — on both the buyer and the seller side — conducted from May to July of 2022
The vast majority of respondents, 91 percent, agreed that incentive travel will play a more important role in building engagement and company culture as dispersed workforces become the norm. The industry is well on its way to recovery, although North America remains a bit ahead of the curve — 67 percent of North American buyers reported that their teams’ international travel has already resumed, while that number dropped to 50 percent for buyers from the rest of the world.
Another reason for the growing importance of incentive travel, according to about two-thirds of respondents, is the ongoing effect of the Great Resignation and companies’ increased efforts to attract and retain talent. Another two-thirds noted that they expect benefits such as relationship building and engagement to have a greater focus in future programs, and 72 percent indicated that relationship building is the most important component for a successful program.
The societal mindset and lifestyle shifts that have occurred throughout the pandemic are also apparent in the report. For example, 35 percent of incentive travel professionals now believe that wellness activities are important for a successful program.
When it comes to the inclusion corporate social responsibility (CSR), the survey results are also in line with trends we’ve been seeing from the greater meetings and events industry (and other industries) — notably, that North America lags behind. Only 29 percent of North American respondents rate CSR as important to their programs, compared to 44 percent of respondents from the rest of the world. This is one area where North America, and the US in particular, urgently needs to do some catching up on.
Given the current state of affairs in 2022, incentive travel still faces obstacles to full recovery. Incentive travel industry professionals ranked rising costs/inflation as the top ongoing challenge, followed by attracting talent and new expectations on contract management.
The increased cost of travel combined with a renewed focus on sustainability throughout the industry is also impacting destination selection: 49 percent of North American buyers are looking to decrease the distance of travel to destinations. However, 66 percent are still looking for new destinations that they haven’t used before, including in the contiguous US, the Caribbean, Mexico, and Hawaii.