Flying can be a real hassle. Not only can flying be more trouble than it is worth, but it can also be very expensive. When businesses have to factor in the cost of round-trip airfare into their incentive travel budgets, they often find they have few resources available to plan exciting entertainment and dining options for travel participants. Because airfare often requires a large percentage of the travel budget, businesses are often faced with the task of making the remaining funds stretch as much as possible. When planning incentive travel, consider an incentive cruise as a reasonable, affordable, and thrilling option with no flying required.

While participants of an incentive cruise do have to get to port, a number of these ports are located within a five hour drive of many of the major cities. At least 50 percent of the population of the U.S. is within a 5 hour drive of a cruise ship's port. Since a ship charter can cost up to 40 percent less than a land venue, such as a hotel or resort, businesses will not have to worry about making their budgets stretch. Exciting incentive travel can be accomplished without having to pay for expensive airfare or deal with the headache of flying.

While we would all like to believe that if you plan it they will come, that is not always the case with corporate events and meetings. Employees and executives have so many meetings and events to attend in any given week that it can sometimes take a little extra effort to ensure that they will show up at yours. Fortunately, there are several simple ways to increase the appeal of your corporate events and business meetings, which will increase attendance and show your client or boss that you know what it takes to deliver the results they need.

Here are five tried and true ways to increase attendance at corporate meetings and events:

1. Invite an enticing guest speaker. Whether it is a trendy guru or a respected leader in your field, adding an enticing guest speaker to the line-up will significantly enhance your event’s appeal.
2. Choose an appealing venue. Folks grow tired of going to the same venue for meetings and events repeatedly. Switch things up by opting for a museum, theme park or cruise ship to increase interest.
3. Serve alcohol. While you might not want to serve alcohol during the annual stakeholders’ meeting, you can certainly arrange for a cocktail social afterwards. Alcohol always seems to increase the appeal of any event.
4. Arrange exciting entertainment options. People love to be entertained, which makes this an easy way to get folks interested in attending your event.
5. Stay in touch prior to the event and ask for confirmations. Send out regular reminders and updates as the date approaches to keep your invitees interested and involved. And, do not be afraid to ask them to confirm their attendance prior to the event.