5 Exciting Incentive Travel Trends for Top Performers

Your incentive winners want meaningful 
travel experiences—not more stuff.

A nice wristwatch made a fine incentive award for a previous generation. But in the 21st century, your top performers, who are increasingly millennial, crave transformational experiences more than merchandise.

That’s why today’s top incentive travel trends is a quest for include more meaningful experiences incentive travel. Your awardees want more adventure and more culture. They want a more luxurious and all-inclusive experience. Plus, they want it more sustainably.

1. More LUXE incentive travel

What better way to reward your top performers than pampering them with a truly luxurious experience? Don’t hold back. Think welcoming design, accommodation the size of a condo, panoramic seascapes from private terraces, king-sized beds and plush linens.

Young and young-at-heart incentive travelers appreciate high-tech features like touch pads for easy access and control of their environment, as well as interactive flat screens. Of course, they’ll need high-speed internet to post their every experience—the arresting artwork in that magnificent gallery, the charming café in Old Town, the countless selfies in front of landmarks.

Everybody appreciates seamless service on vacation. Maybe a concierge to help them plan the perfect day. Or a personal suite attendant who helps them unpack, restocks the minibar, and brings their morning coffee just the way they like it.
Such thoughtful attention to detail creates an experience so comfortable and inviting that your guests may forget to leave their rooms—or camp sites. Don’t forget those adventurous camping trips of youth, now updated glamorously. Today, “glamping” comes not only with starry skies and cozy campfires, but also with amenities and comforts not usually associated with roughing it, like gourmet grub and wine pairing.

In the wondrous Galapagos Islands, your top performers will find such experiences with Celebrity Cruises. All around the world, Celebrity vacations include luxuries large and small, like fine design, spacious staterooms and suites, spectacular views, the latest technology, and the greatest luxury of all, intuitive service.

2. All-Inclusive Rewards

When you’re rewarding your top performers, no one wants to be nickeled and dimed. All of their wants and needs should be included so they have the most memorable experience.

Your top performers want to roll out of bed and enjoy breakfast their way, whether that means coffee with a warm pastry to launch the day or a hearty meal at the onsite restaurant—included. They want swimming pools, resort services, group activities, and enrichment classes—included.

After each busy day of discovery, they want to dine in distinctive restaurants and casual cafés. They want to discover new cuisines and savor new flavors. They want to taste the creations of renowned chefs. In fact, fine dining is one of the best incentives to travel in the first place. Imagine tasting a world of flavors right at the source—pizza in Italy, cheese in France, salmon in Alaska, chocolate in Mexico, coffee in Kona. And they want to do so without having to come out of pocket for it.
Your guests want to be entertained, too. How about a live theater performance, a musical concert or stage play, maybe some gymnastics, even a bit of street theater—included.

In keeping with one of the leading incentive travel trends of including everything for your performers, Celebrity’s incentive travel certificates cover much more than a room. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner in distinctive restaurants and cafés come included. Award-winning entertainment engages guests in grand theaters and all around the ships. Your top performers will get access to the ship’s onboard amenities as part of the deal.

3. Choose Your Own Adventure & Destination

Travel can be disorienting—at least if you do it right—and your top performers desire different experiences, from tropical beaches to iconic cities to natural wonders. Offer your awardees a range of top incentive travel destinations and experiences to choose from to maximize their enjoyment.

Tropical islands: In Hawaii, the Caribbean, and throughout the tropics, it’s summer all year. Your awardees can bask in golden sunshine, snorkel through turquoise waters, and lounge on white beaches. A swim with dolphins will put a smile on anyone’s face.

Alaska: The Last Frontier makes a natural choice for those traveling with their families. They can watch glaciers calving, whales breaching, and eagles soaring. They’ll discover native Alaskan cultures and explore the towering Denali, the highest peak in North America.

Europe: The Old World will always show your awardees something new. They can climb the Rock of Gibraltar, an iconic gateway to the Mediterranean. Or play the links in Scotland, the birthplace of golf. Art lovers will relish the pieces displayed in the Hermitage, domain of Russian emperors.

Bermuda: Nothing adjusts an attitude like a quick escape to Bermuda—rum swizzle in hand, pink sand under foot, British colonial charm all around you.

Galapagos: These timeless islands really evolve your concept of incentive travel, and no destination makes a bigger impact on awardees. This unique archipelago inspired Charles Darwin to develop his theory of evolution. Today, it inspires albums of exotic photos and lifetimes of breathless stories.

Worldwide, Celebrity Cruises offers 3,000 shore excursions with a focus on nature, culture, cuisine, art, adventure, activity, and wellness—just about any interest your incentive travelers may bring.

4. Dive Into Local Culture

Top incentive travel destinations give guests the chance to soak up diverse cultures while they’re on vacation. Imagine tracing the footsteps of Socrates and Plato through Greece, ancient cradle of Western philosophy; inhabiting the organic architecture of Gaudí in Barcelona, site of the iconic Sagrada Família; or savoring the Italian food in Naples, birthplace of pizza.

Travelers want to connect with the places they visit in a more meaningful way, which is why cultural experiences are one of the top incentive travel trends. A good place to start is with the UNESCO World Heritage program, which lists over a thousand sites on every continent—places as diverse as the Taj Mahal and Angkor Wat in Asia, the Great Barrier Reef and Sydney Opera House in Australia, Machu Picchu and the Galapagos Islands in South America, Alaska’s Glacier Bay and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in the United States.

Celebrity ships call at more than 300 destinations around the world. Many of our shore excursions will immerse your awardees in local cultures and provide in-depth explorations of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, satisfying their desire to learn more about the people and history of their destination.

5. Sustainability is Key

To keep wild places wild, your top performers, like all mindful travelers, want to limit their impact on the planet. That includes both the flora and fauna of exotic destinations as well as local populations, both the people who make their livings from tourism and the ones who live in traditional ways. They support hospitality companies that protect and even work to improve our environment.

To ensure your top performers can adhere to their sustainability standards, look for travel providers that partner with environmental and humanitarian organizations. For example, Celebrity partners with the fishing community in the Galapagos Islands, one of the world’s top incentive travel destinations. The partnership helps the community distribute its catch, which provides guests with fresh, locally sourced seafood. While on vacation, many of our guests participate in voluntourism and have planted 38,000 trees so far. Our newest ship, Celebrity FloraSM, was designed with dynamic positioning to protect the seabed, silicone paint to glide with less fuel, and solar panels to generate electricity.

Find out more about Celebrity Cruises’ corporate incentive travel awards or give us a call at (800) 722-5934.