Travel Incentives: What Are They?

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Travel incentive programs reward customers, prospects, and employees with free or reduced-cost travel. Companies purchase travel certificates from a third-party agency, which can be redeemed for vacations, hotels, or transportation. Programs exist for employee motivation and customer rewards, with some offering fully prepaid travel. High-value certificates with few restrictions increase loyalty to the company. Low-cost certificates with significant fees or restrictions are viewed as worthless and not effective.

Travel incentive programs are used by companies to reward customers, prospects, and employees with free or reduced-cost travel. Typically, travel incentive programs involve the purchase of travel certificates from a third-party travel agency which are then awarded to the client or employee. These certificates can be redeemed for full vacations, hotel rooms, or transportation. In some cases, the recipient must pay certain fees or meet certain restrictions before using the travel certificate. The most valuable travel incentive awards typically have few restrictions, and recipients typically don’t have to pay any additional fees.

Many companies want to reward their employees who achieve certain goals with free travel and vacations. Because many of these businesses aren’t travel-related, they aren’t set up to organize vacations. However, there are many travel companies that specialize in offering travel incentive programs where the employer purchases a travel certificate which the employee can exchange for travel. The employee can make all arrangements with the travel agency providing the certificates. This type of employee motivation program reduces the hassle for the employer while providing quality travel incentives to the employee.

There are similar programs for companies that want to offer reward programs to customers or want to attract new customers. Travel incentive programs designed to provide rewards to customers may allow customers to choose a variety of travel deals depending on how much business they do with the company in any given year. Some companies that sell upscale items may offer travel incentive programs to prospective customers, rewarding individuals and families for visiting the company’s showroom or office or attending a presentation. For example, many vacation timeshare companies entice potential customers by offering a travel certificate whether or not the potential customer actually purchases a timeshare.

Some travel incentive programs offer fully prepaid travel that the recipient can redeem at any time with little or no restrictions. These travel certificates generally cost the purchaser more than certificates that require recipients to pay part of the cost of travel or severely limit the usability of the certificate. The benefit of using these more expensive certificates is that the employee or customer is more likely to use the certificate, which increases its value to the recipient and encourages loyalty to the company providing the travel award. Many people find that low-cost certificates that impose significant fees or restrictions are viewed as worthless by recipients and are not effective in motivating job performance or customer purchases.




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