Incentive travel is a tried-and-true tactic for nearly half of all businesses in the United States. Corporate incentive trips help businesses boost sales, productivity, retention, loyalty, and morale by awarding top performers a luxury getaway. Incentive travel programs motivate employees to increase performance and improve the company’s sales and ultimate success. Whatever your goal, incentive travel can be the catalyst that moves you beyond the finish line.
Create experiences that leisure travel cannot
Group incentive travel programs are an excellent way to keep top performers achieving top performance. The benefits of incentive travel start with the destination reveal and live on long after bags are unpacked. To ensure the success of your program, it is essential to partner with the right incentive travel agency.
Brightspot is committed to delivering exceptional group incentive travel experiences, offering unique destinations, exclusive events, special activities, and luxury accommodations that surpass typical leisure travel.
Our globetrotting experts provide your incentive trip with creative ideas and excellent execution, ensuring your incentive trip is a success. Let us handle all the details while you and your guests enjoy a remarkable VIP trip.
Careful management of your finances will ensure that your incentive trip delivers maximum value for every penny spent. With Brightspot, you can satisfy your accounting staff and give your top performers a truly excellent experience.
Our experienced managers and graphic designers will handle each project with care and creativity. We offer bucket-list itineraries and beautiful collateral. We promise to enhance your program and wow your participants while making you look like a rockstar.
This is not our first rodeo. Our experts are CMPs (Certified Meeting Professionals) who bring years of travel to the table. We are knowledgeable in the art of cost-saving. We know the best tips and tricks, and we’re happy to share our secrets with you.
Our commitment to excellence is one of our core values. We strive to exceed expectations and provide a 5-star experience for our clients. No matter the preparation, we know changes can occur unexpectedly. Your Brightspot team is always ready to help. We will make sure everything is right.
Incentive travel companies help businesses boost sales, productivity, loyalty, and morale by crafting a motivational getaway trip. The goal is to improve an individual’s performance and a company’s sales and success. This is achieved by providing the following services. See our Incentive Travel Company Guide for more information on how an incentive travel company can help businesses like yours.
Our bright globetrotters have earned the highest certifications, including CMP, CITP, and CIS -guaranteeing deep expertise in all facets of incentive travel. After seeing almost every destination and resort, our firsthand knowledge promises a bucket list experience.
The Sourcing Dept pros average 20 years’ experience per manager. They know the destinations that motivate; they know the best “incentive-quality” hotels. We manage hotel negotiations and contracting to maximize savings and minimize headaches.
Our love of what we do runs deep. It shines through industry leadership with The Incentive Research Foundation and Society of Incentive Travel Excellence. For you, it means your trip could win the next industry award for most creative travel experience.
Air booking and tracking services ensure seamless travel arrangements for your participants. We manage flight ticketing, monitor schedules, and provide real-time updates for a smooth travel experience. We also coordinate end-to-end ground transportation, ensuring reliable and comfortable transfers from airport to event.
The Brightspot planners transform event venues with creative décor and entertainment – and add authentic dining experiences, working with local partners and chefs. planning ensures exceptional to create diverse menus. For activities, we strive to incorporate local, authentic experiences (beyond catamarans and ziplines, though we enjoy those too.)
Recognize and reward participants with our award and gifting ideas from aspirational brands pre-trip to gifting experiences on-site to local, curated shopping options. We manage all aspects of merchandising and fulfillment to enhance the participant experience and reinforce your brand.
Our designers bring your vision to life with beautiful branding, theme development, and a cool trip logo. They stay abreast of new trends in color and texture, so you get contemporary, visually-enticing designs that are sure to catch the eye of your audience.
Our collateral could be in a museum. Seriously. The pre-trip mailers include name badges and luggage taps that will be lasting trophies. Promotional reminders, where in print or digital, will generate excitement and get your sellers closing more deals.
Streamline your registration with our customized forms, ensuring ease-of-use and thorough data collection. It’s the little details that have a big impact – traveler legal name, passport number and date, attendee activity preference (such as renting clubs or spa therapist gender), and secure data management.
Our unique team approach dedicates an event manager and event specialist ensuring continuity from pre-planning thru on-site operation. No disruptive handoffs to subcontract trip directors; only a smooth experience. Oh, we are friendly “people people” too!
Our detailed budget tracking ensures transparency and maximizes your investment. We strive to be a “zero net cost” showing you a detailed cost savings report that offsets our event management fee.
We conduct thorough post-program evaluations to assess the success of your event. Our “plus-minus” process provides valuable insights to measure ROI and improve your next trip.
Explore our experts’ Top 20 Incentive Destinations for 2025 and beyond, featuring bucket-list locales with quality hotels and authentic activities, perfect for planning your next President’s Club or Incentive Trip.
If you plan to keep your trip closer to home, the U.S. offers a diverse range of incentive travel destinations, from sunny beaches to majestic mountains and vibrant cities, providing unmatched options for creating memorable and motivating experiences.
Budget estimates help you realize what factors must be considered before making your cost projections and just how far your dollar will go. Try our calculator to determine what you can expect to spend on an incentive travel program.
Budget estimates help you realize what factors must be considered before making your cost projections and just how far your dollar will go. Try our calculator to determine what you can expect to spend on an incentive travel program.
An incentive travel company helps businesses boost sales, productivity, loyalty, and morale by awarding top performers with a luxury trip getaway. Incentive travel programs motivate employees to increase performance and improve the company’s sales and ultimate success.
Incentive travel companies combine the services of a travel agency, event planner, marketing communications expert, and business strategy consultant. For the best corporate incentive trips, a professional meeting planner (or better, a CMP, Certified Meeting Professional) creates an “incentive-quality” group travel program designed with the earners’ tastes and demographics in mind. Bespoke incentive trips deliver a VIP experience that top performers will remember fondly for years to deepen their loyalty and elevate their performance.
According to the IRF (Incentive Research Foundation), the premier source for incentive industry research, incentive travel has an undeniable impact on return on investment for companies including:
For additional tips, visit our post dedicated to ROI of Incentive Travel
When starting an incentive trip, most companies seek a program name that endures for many years. Here is a list of popular incentive trip names:
A smart budget for an incentive travel program or President’s Club Trip, is $6,000 per person for destinations in the continental USA, Canada, or Mexico. Additional cost drivers may include length of trip, quality of hotel, included activities, and group functions. Read our blog about incentive travel program costs for more information, and cost saving opportunities.
The incentive industry utilizes different fee structures including fixed fees, percentage fees, per person rates, and hourly rates to manage client programs. While each model has its pros and cons, working with a trusted agency, like Brightspot, can help offset the cost of hiring an incentive agency with the cost savings you’re likely to obtain through strong partnerships and contract negotiation – we call this Zero Net Cost.
As a general rule, if the prize or award is merchandise or travel instead of cash, the item’s fair market value (FMV) must be included in income. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) does not provide a clear value or formula; instead, it vaguely says FMV is based on all the facts and circumstances.
IRS Publication 525, Taxable and Nontaxable Income, states: Bonuses or awards you receive for outstanding work are included in your income and should be shown on your Form W-2. These include prizes such as vacation trips for meeting sales goals. If the prize or award you receive is goods or services, you must include the FMV of the goods or services in your income.
Brightspot believes a 30% discount for group incentive travel is reasonable and justifiable to remove additional costs that a leisure vacation would exclude, such as group function costs (for audiovisual, lighting, entertainment, and setup charges), the extra premium for catered event food over restaurant costs, private group excursions and activities, event website, site inspection visits, and the incentive travel company management fee.
Lower Your Taxes – Brightspot will help save money on taxes for company and winners with expertise on lower values
Visit our complete guide of Tax Rules for Incentive Programs to learn more.
