The travel incentive trend has so captured the American spirit that a whole industry has been built to help support travel incentives including promotional agencies, premium product development, domestic and off-shore facilitators and fulfillment companies. Regardless of the level of marketing sophistication required, travel incentive programs can yield incredible results if a few simple guidelines are followed.

Attract the Clients You Want to Do Business With.  Providing non-monetary travel incentives can help attract a better targeted potential client if such awards attract participants that are a better fit for your product. For example, awarding something like a hotel stay attracts people that appreciate hotel stays and would be motivated by them.

Make Your Travel Incentive Special. If the participant is less likely to purchase the item because he or she can’t justify it, the award is in fact special and will increase the value of receiving the incentive and increase effort to receive it.

Take Advantage of Social Reinforcement. To get the most out of social reinforcement behavior, encourage participants to think about the awe that will result in achieving the travel certificate and the performance that led to it. This will make earning the incentive more valuable and increase effort.

Make the Travel Incentive a “Splurge”. Communicate within your offer or “pitch” that the incentive program that the award is truly something the participant would only purchase as a luxury or personal treat. This will add to the award’s trophy value and increase its overall power as a motivational tool.

Vary the Incentive to Meet Diverse Needs.  When participants can choose from a variety of incentives, for each performance level, a value will improve. Maximize the value by offering travel and entertainment incentives that are desired by people with assorted tastes.

Use Infrequently Purchased Items or Services Such as Travel.  Items or services that a participant would not likely purchase on their own such as travel are more likely to attract the attention of colleagues, family and friends increasing the trophy value of the travel incentive.

Don’t Set Yourself Up for Failure. Switching from a cash incentive program to a non-cash incentive can result in a loss issue with the participant if you’re not careful.  It is believed that there is a perception that losing something hurts more than receiving the same thing of equal value, especially if you are replacing cash. Think about it - if a cash incentive program is eliminated, any tangible, non-monetary incentive programs implemented in its place should be of greater perceived value. Because of this travel is a great substitute for a cash award because of the built in Trophy value and its high perceived emotional value.