The Site International Foundation and the Incentive Travel Council released part two of its in-depth study, Incentive Travel: The Participant Viewpoint. In this second installment, the study focused on what the 1,003 program participants found to be motivational. This study was unique in that it surveyed both the perspectives of the award earners and the non-earners. Some topline results documented:

1.  Build Relationships with Peers Outside of Work
Seventy-two percent of respondents also felt that incentive travel rewards allowed them to build relationships with peers away from work.

2.  Unique Experiences
The opportunity for participants to experience something unique — something they could not do on their own — has long been viewed as a purpose of motivational travel. That was confirmed by 70.7 percent of respondents who said they valued that benefit.

3.  Interact with Higher Level Executives
When asked about the opportunity to interact with higher level executives, 60.2 percent (nearly 2 out of every 3) respondents agreed that it was seen as a motivational value.

An interesting result is that more earners (52 percent) than non-earners (41 percent) believed that people who came within 90% of achieving the goal to earn the reward should have the opportunity to “buy in.”