Meet your sales quota, make plans for Mexico

By Barbara De Lollis
USA Today

Rising corporate profits are sending more workers packing — on vacation, that is.

More companies are reviving luxury travel incentives for top performers. After the Sept. 11 attacks and recession in 2001, employers scaled back or eliminated incentive travel.

After a two-year hiatus, software firm Convera of Vienna, Va., revived its annual trip contest. In May, it sent 20 employees on a four-night trip for two to the Four Seasons Resort on Great Exuma, the Bahamas.

Bruce Himmelstein of luxury-hotel chain Ritz Carlton says incentive-travel bookings top last year's by more than one-third.

Of 50 Fortune 500 companies surveyed by the Business Travel Coalition, most expect to increase their incentive-travel budget next year. A better economy and higher profits are only part of the reason. Companies worry rivals could lure their sales hotshots with their own bonus programs, says Kevin Mitchell of BTC.

Many companies axed incentive-travel budgets and tightened eligibility to save money in 2001. In the weak economy, it was harder to justify all-expenses-paid luxury trips.

A better economy boosts efforts by salespeople, dealers and distributors in meeting quotas — and possibly winning a vacation.

As many companies are reinstating contests and upgrading destinations, experts see other changes:

Foreign travel. Companies increasingly are inquiring about Mexico and South America, says Maritz, a large incentive-travel arranger. Insurer AFLAC's 2004 winners, for instance, will fly to Tokyo after scrapping an Asian trip for two years because of agents' security concerns.

"Some people feel it's safer to travel," says Debbie Weh Maestas of air charter company CSI Aviation.

Family travel. More firms are adopting direct-seller The Pampered Chef's approach of family-focused incentive trips.

"There's a lot of guilt associated with a weeklong trip leaving the kids," says Dan Connelly of Maritz.

New experiences. Ritz Carlton groups want cooking classes, nature walks and spa time, not just golf, Himmelstein says.

"People are demanding more because they've simply traveled more," says employee-recognition consultant Jerry McAdams. When manufacturer Diebold of North Canton, Ohio, took top sellers to Orlando, they went to an auto-racing school.

Less excess. Many companies are still concerned about cost and appearances in the post-Enron world, hoteliers say.

Sales director Melinda Anderson-de Regil of luxury chain Le Meridien says lobster is out, salmon is in.