Intermediaries

In this section, the question of who organises incentive travel programmes and hat \ they do so for maximum effect will be explored. This sector of business travel, pet-haps more than any other, is one where the use of intermediaries is widespread. Whereas there are members of staff in most companies who would have a go at arranging a seminar or conference if need be, there are far fewer who would dare to venture unaided into the organising of an incentive programme.

O'Brien (1997b) has estimated that, in Europe, only one in five companies handles all incentive travel arrangements in-house, most opting to have their incentive programmes organised using the services of an external agency.

A range of external agencies providing five different levels of incentive-related services was identified by Ricci and Holland (1992). The range serves to illustrate| the various elements that constitute the planning and management of an incentive travel programme:

•Full-service incentive marketing companies, which handle promotional materials, administration, travel and merchandise fulfillment.

• Hull-service incentive houses, which are similar to incentive marketing companies but specialise in incentive travel rather than merchandise rewards.

• Incentive travel fulfillment houses, which primarily arrange incentive travel trips with some incentive promotion services.

• Travel agents with an incentive division where the agency specialises in providing incentive travel programmes but offers no marketing services.

• Retail travel agencies, which offer typical travel arrangement services and can assist with incentive trips.

Intermediaries offering the more complete range of incentive-related services often reflect this in the names by which they are known: incentive travel agencies, incentive travel companies or incentive travel houses. To these may be added more recent arrivals on the scene: performance improvement companies, such as Maritz, Inc., who propose a range of rewards, including travel, to motivate their clients' workforces.

Agencies active in this field vary from one-person businesses to vast multinational conglomerates for whom incentive travel is only part of their business. An example of the latter is the UK-based events management agency, TMO, with an incentive travel turnover of over £25 million in 2001, out of a total turnover of almost £33 million (Creevy, 2002). However, only a small minority of incentive travel intermediaries have an annual incentive travel turnover on this scale. The vast majority are small and medium-sized agencies doing much smaller volumes of business. According to research undertaken by Conference & Incentive Travel magazine, half of the top 25 agencies in the UK in 2001 had fewer than 50 members of staff (ibid).

Nevertheless, an earlier survey's author quotes the divisional managing director of another major player in this sector, Maritz Travel, who believes that the future will see increasing consolidation among incentive travel agencies, with a few large agencies corning to dominate the market. He also sees increasing demand for services from full-service agencies who can offer clients a comprehensive package providing everything necessary to take their incentive programmes through from beginning to end (Twite, 1999).

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