Overview of Incentive Travel Trends 2013

Research illustrates how the economy also in 2013 continues to have a negative effect on every aspect of the incentives trips industry.

The top conclusion from this year’s survey executed by the Incentive Research Foundation shows hardly any changes in comparison to the results from last year. This partly the result of to the negative economic picture that has been painted in last months of 2012. The overall message from incentive travel planners seems to be: “Keep it solid.”In fact, the vast majority of incentive and event planners are showing strong consistency in many aspects of their programs:

Programs in 2013:
Most of the program developers (about 80 percent) maintained their programs heading in to 2012, and 90 percent will be maintaining them going in to 2013. Just over half of the respondents will be maintaining the same budgets in 2013, with another 25 percent raising them slightly.

Challenges in 2013:
It seems the new economy presents a stable set of challenges for planners. Staying within budget, finding the right destination, and negotiating with suppliers continue to be the top challenges, similar to last year’s findings.

Budgets in 2013:
Per-person budgets continue to average around €1.900,00 per person with the standard program attendance radiating around 150 people. Looking way back to 2006 the average spending amount was around €3,800 per person, and that year 56 percent reported increases in their incentive budgets. This year only 35 percent saw an increase in budgets.

Difficulties & trends in 2013

Of course, not as many programs are being canceled as during the economic crash, but more than one in 10 companies still canceled their incentive trips. The main cause of the difficiculties and cancelations is without surprise to 68 percent of the respondent the current economy.

Companies are getting more and more creative about working within these parameters, finding ways to make their incentive programs special year after year. Interestingly, the top strategy of companies to deal with smaller budgets is to have less management attendance during the incentive. This is maybe also because senior management is also increasingly left with hardly any budget due to budget cuts. Companies also continue to reduce the number of on-site gifts. They also tend to travel more and more to second-tier cities, avoid five-star hotels or venues , and cut sponsored cultural, leisure activities.

Social Responsibility & Wellness:
Corporate social responsibility and wellness continue to generate a many discussions in the industry, and a consistent third of planners reported using each of these in their programs in 2013.

Social Media:
Social media seems to be one of the few aspects where change is noticed within the incentives & events industry. Almost 40 percent of incentive and event planners are reporting to use social media to promote their programs. 60 percent of these planners are using Facebook and more than half are using Twitter to get the word out about their programs.

There is also good news…

Is it true there is also some good news? Yes, there is!!! A full 59 percent of the research respondents expect their companies’ sales to increase in 2013 which is a healthy increase compared to 2012. And 35 percent expect that based on their sales increase that their incentive budgets will also grow.... 


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