Incentive

Incentive tourism means travels financed by the company to give an incentive to employees as the appraisal of their work, to facilitate the teamwork and to stimulate work motivation. World annual turnover of incentive tourism exceeds $8 million, 80 % of which is spent on trans­port, accommodation and foods services, and only 15 % is spent on sight­seeing and entertainment programs. Throughout the world 70 % of all incentive tours are to Europe, 10 % are to the USA thought 60 % of all incentive tourists are Americans, and 15 % of the tours are to the South East Asia. The average duration of an incentive tour is from 3 to 7 days.

Incentive tours are becoming more diverse, both in the choice of the countries and in the tour programs. Some intensive tours are aimed at business activities or interests of the tourists, i.e. historical or wine tours; there are also separate "mass" tours for ordinary employees and VIP programs for senior management. The latter prefer adventure tourism or even extreme tourism such as auto rallies or balloon flying.

Recently senior management of many companies prefers investing money not into traditional entertainment incentive tours but in team- building tours. In this matter travel agencies work together with business consulting companies, professional psychologists, etc. The example can be so called "rope-courses". They last for 3—4 days and are comprised of different activities including sport, adventure and extreme. The em­phasis of the courses is placed not on sport abilities of the participants, but on effective teamwork, problem solution, leadership skills develop­ment and behaviour adjustment to different situations and sudden chang­es. Some travel agencies called incentive houses specialize at incentive tours only.

TEXT WORK

1. Pronounce correctly and transcribe. Consult the dictionary if

necessary.

Incentive, exhibition, entertaining, approximate, negotiation, enter­prise, employee, appraisal, annual, turnover, throughout, diverse, choice, VIP, senior, psychologist, course, emphasis, adjustment, sudden.

2. Answer the questions.

   1. What is the place of business travel in the world tourism?

   2. What is MICE?

   3. When did business travel become a separate part of tourism busi­ness?

   4. What was the first perception of business travel by businessmen?

   5. What is the situation nowadays?

   6. What can you say about MICE in Russia?

   7. What is the demand structure of MICE today?

   8. What do most travel agencies offer to businessmen?

   9. What can specialized travel agencies offer to corporate clients?

   10. What are the biggest American agencies working in the sphere of MICE tourism?

   11. What is incentive tourism?

   12. What is the world annual turnover of incentive tourism?

   13. What are the popular destinations for incentive tours?

   14. What are incentive tours aimed at?

   15. What kinds of incentive programs exist?

   16. What does senior management prefer investing money into?

   17. What is an example of a team-building tour in the text?

3. Give Russian equivalents to the following words and word

combinations. Find and translate sentences with them in the

text.

MICE, meetings, incentive, conferences, exhibitions, separate branch, opportunity to have a good rest, situation changed greatly, MICE development in Russia, highly dynamic, in the rest of the world, indi­vidual business travel, intensive, combined together in one event, sup­plement other types of business travel, travel agencies, air tickets, accom­modation and transfers, specialized travel agencies, in the sphere of MICE tourism, including dozens of meetings, numerous workshops, devoted to MICE, support this growth, incentive tourism, the appraisal

of their work, to facilitate the teamwork, to stimulate work motivation, annual turnover, throughout the world, more diverse, aimed at business activities, "mass" tours for ordinary employees, VIP programs, for se­nior management, the latter, adventure tourism, team-building tours, the emphasis of the courses is placed not on, incentive houses.