Editors Note: New Years Prognostications
By Bruce Tepper, CITE
Welcome to 2010 and the better times that surely lie ahead! Our focus in this issue is on action strategies for taking advantage of our changed environment and what you can do to move your business forward.
In addition to my predictions for our industry in this editorial, be sure read Liz Sutton’s (Sutton & Associates), “New Decade…New Way of Doing Business” and Penny Wing’s (Incentive Travel, Inc.), “Think Big and in New Directions.” Both offer very insightful comments on steps you can take to more effectively serve your clients in ways that will also enhance your business going forward.
Don’t miss Cheryl Miller’s (Terramar), “A Creative Affordable Incentive” profile of nearby Los Cabos presented in a way you’ve probably never imagined it – a focus on culture, cuisine, history and eco-tourism with program ideas that fit today’s economic climate perfectly.
As always, check out what’s happening with the Incentive Travel Exchange and Site and finally, take a look at my article on, “Planning for Uncertainty” that looks at the operational side of your business in this new environment.
Winding up a decade and beginning a new year always seems like a good time for predictions; especially coming off one of the worst years’ our industry and national economy have endured in many a decade.
Here is what some of our industry experts anticipate going forward.
FutureWatch 2010, a study done by MPI and American Express says survey respondents predict:
•Planners and suppliers will take a more back to basics approach in which value and quality will trump frills, extras and special deals.
•More meetings closer to home
•Increased interest in CSR (corporate social responsibility)
•Increased use of affordable technology including a shift to more virtual meetings
•Fairly low growth for the first half of 2010 with an uptick for the second half of the year
•More meetings with more participants and a smaller budget creating obvious challenges
You can read more about this survey in “one +” from MPI.
The January issue of “event solutions” magazine offers the following.
•Sustainability will become the norm for every event
•More sophisticated programs and events will become commonplace
•More real time reviews during an incentive or event
•Social media will play a bigger role in facilitating live networking as well as virtual
•Budgets will be even tighter
•More family friendly activities will prevail – even when children aren’t involved.
•Unique experiences will be in great demand (Editor’s note: Haven’t they always been?)
A number of other publications are offering similar projections. It’s a pretty safe bet that budgets will remain tight; groups will stay closer to home and technology will play an ever-increasing role.
As a long time veteran of this industry, I’d like to add a few predictions of my own – based on my sense of human nature and some 30 years working in incentive travel.
Despite trade publications exhorting the benefits of being green and socially responsible, neither is likely to increase much over the next 12 months. Survey after survey has shown Americans are all for the environment as long as it doesn’t cost anything. That makes minor changes easy. It makes major changes tough – especially in a still-weak economy.
Add to that, a much more skeptical public following the leaked emails from the University of East Anglia essentially admitting climate data was manipulated to show a desired result.
The same goes for CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities. Those with minimal costs will continue and perhaps expand a bit – new major endeavors in this area are not likely to increase in the near future.
The AIG effect will still be with us as well. Some terrific incentive destinations are going to continue to suffer for all the wrong reasons. Buyers are still wary of investor and/or government scrutiny and will avoid those so-called “frivolous” destinations even when they represent a great buy and have a reputation for motivating people to perform.
The flip side of that is many previously overlooked destinations may benefit from this. We’re seeing destinations that have not pursued the meetings/incentive market in the past now going after it. When you add tight budgets and public scrutiny, lesser known and/or lower cost choices might be just what the doctor ordered to avoid concerns for the organization putting on the incentive.
As virtually everyone else is reporting, we’re also seeing better times ahead in 2011. Despite all the articles about the “new normal” being more austere than our so-called extravagant ways of the past, I predict those ways will return in the next few years as the economy improves. As a society we have short memories and the bad times of 2008-2009 will fade into the past for many. Our savings rate may increase in the short term at the expense of spending and investing but remember…incentive travel has always been about the wow factor and the bar for creating the wow continually goes up.
Is anyone planning a trip with Virgin Galactic?
