If you are planning a meeting or conference in a popular tourist destination, such as the Caribbean, South America, Australia, Hawaii, Spain or Greece, you can rest assured that you will have plenty of interested participants that will certainly attend. However, you may be concerned about how good their attendance will be once they are at the destination and have to make the tough choice between attending meetings or spending the day at the beach and shopping for souvenirs in open air markets. Your attendees are naturally going to be tempted by pristine, sandy beaches, the warmth of the sun and the draw of local villages and sites of cultural interest. Because of this, it will take a bit of planning to ensure that your attendees participate fully in your meeting or event.

One way to encourage them to attend planned functions and to ensure them that they will also have plenty of time to explore the area is to provide a schedule that clearly defines blocks of free time. This will provide them with a visual reminder that they are there to work, as well as play, and will let them know that you have planned plenty of free time for their enjoyment. You may also want to consider scheduling a free day within the first few days of the event, rather than only towards the end. If they see that they have to wait until the end of the week to hit the beach, they will be much more likely to play hooky from meetings to sneak away to the shore.

Another way to ensure attendance at important events is to plan a group cruise event.  Cruising is extremely popular with meeting attendees, and meeting planners can plan structured events at sea around the cruise itinerary.