Straight From the Source
A majority of the people who read Prevue or engage with us online and at our live events are corporate direct planners—many of whom plan incentive travel. Ninety-eight percent of our audience says Prevue serves as an inspiration in planning incentives.
With that in mind, we have just released our first-ever—and the industry’s only—research study focused entirely on in-house corporate incentive planners. Three-hundred-and-eighty-two planners responded from a variety of industries, with the largest numbers coming from technology (26 percent), financial and insurance (24 percent) and manufacturing (23 percent)—and many from Fortune 500 companies. What we heard, straight from the source, was that 2023 was a turnaround year, with 60 percent of respondents reporting that their companies’ sales had increased. That growth filtered down to incentive budgets, with 51 percent of respondents saying their incentive budgets had grown.
The average per-person incentive budget for 2023 was $6,177, which increased from 2022 for 49 percent of companies and stayed the same for 30 percent. The outlook for 2024 is even stronger, with 58 percent of respondents reporting bigger incentive budgets. International travel is back, with companies expanding their programs beyond the Caribbean and Mexico to Europe and even some long-haul destinations such as Singapore and New Zealand. Cruises are popular too, with 59 percent saying they use cruises for their incentive groups. There’s much more data in the article that you can use to benchmark your own budget and forecast. Our plan is to continue this research annually at the start of each year to track trends over time.
This issue’s theme is value, with the cover story by sr. contributing editor Regina Baraban focused on some of the world’s most important convention facilities, including the newly renovated Renasant Convention Center in Memphis.
This first issue of 2024 also features our annual special sections on Florida and Mexico. There's also an array of on locations—Celebrity Ascent, Norwegian Viva, Explora I, The Ritz-Carlton in Puerto Rico, Milwaukee, Seattle, The Berkshires and Raffles Boston.
Enjoy the issue.
—Barbara Scofidio