When you are looking for destination options for your next incentive travel program, you may want to consider adventure travel. Adventure travel has taken the travel industry by storm and is a hot trend among families, couples, groups of friends and companies looking for exciting team building, incentive travel or executive retreat options.

Examples of adventure travel include:

• Mountain climbing
• Rock climbing
• Trekking across the desert on camels
• Cave exploration
• SCUBA diving
• Going on a safari
• Spending a week or a weekend at a dude ranch
• Storm chasing
• Backpacking
• Camping
• Exploring ancient ruins in a rainforest

There are many reasons to consider adventure travel for your incentive travel winners, including offering a unique vacation experience that they may never otherwise have the chance to experience. One additional reason why more companies are opting for adventure travel is that most options include an underlying team building component. This makes this type of travel beneficial to both the employees and the company overall, making it a more enticing option.

If you decide to opt for adventure travel as a reward for your company’s incentive program, always keep in mind that it is extremely important to choose options where everyone can participate. Low-key adventure travel, such as whale watching or bird watching is not as physically demanding as other options and may be a good choice for some companies.

When opting for adventure travel for team building, there are several factors to keep in mind. First and foremost, it is absolutely essential to choose an adventure travel option that is accessible to all of the members of your team. Differing levels of physical fitness, disabilities that may require accommodation, dietary restrictions and religious affiliations should all be considered when determining the type of adventure travel that is an appropriate choice and will meet your needs.

Since the point of this type of travel is to encourage your employees to work together and to build team spirit, it is exceedingly important that no one will feel left out or will have to decline the experience due to one of the abovementioned factors. While it is true that team building adventure travel should push employees to leave their comfort zones and for the team to find and rely on the different strengths each of member, there is a distinct difference between encouraging a loner to participate and putting someone in an extremely uncomfortable position that alienates them from the rest of the team due to physical characteristics, abilities or beliefs.

Considering these factors during the selection process will assist you in ensuring that you do not waste resources on an ineffective team building experience and will help you avoid the pitfall of setting your team up for failure, rather than success.