An incentive cruise can be an excellent way to reward top performers, motivate employees, and save money on travel costs. With typical land based meetings, companies will incur expenses for things such as accommodations, airfare, meals, entertainment, and meeting services. All of these expenses, when paid for separately, can be quite costly. Because company budgets may be more restricted now than they were in the past, incentive travel may not even be on a company's radar. However, it is very important that companies do not suspend incentive travel du to finances. A meeting planner can help companies plan incentive travel, such as a ship charter, that will be enjoyable and affordable.

There are many services that are typically included on an incentive cruise that make meetings at sea ideal. Inclusive services that make an incentive cruise unique include things such as: complimentary room services and in-room movies, round trip airfare and transfers, all meals including snacks and a midnight buffet, production shows, cocktail receptions, and other types of special shows. Cruise shops also provide things such as basic audio/visual equipment, computer equipment, and choice of meeting rooms that may include theater seating as well as light and sound. Meeting planners can assist companies with incentive travel such as ship charters.

Everyone knows that incentive travel is an excellent way to reward employees for increasing sales or meeting goals. It can increase company pride, build and maintain team morale and encourage employees to continue performing at their best. Incentive travel is more cost-effective than handing out raises to show your appreciation to your top performers, and can help companies retain good employees, even when tough economic times may not allow for increases in pay.

But, there is more to incentive travel than just showing your appreciation and building company pride. Incentive travel can mean more to employees than you might know. Depending on their income level and family status, being able to put in extra effort to receive incentive travel may give them travel opportunities they might not otherwise have. By providing opportunities that they might not be able to afford to experience otherwise, you are giving your employees a particularly appealing reward that they are sure to appreciate.

Knowing this, you can enhance incentive travel packages even more by adding little extras that will not cause you to incur significantly higher expenses, but will be meaningful to your employees. For example, you could include a gift certificate for dinner for two in their destination, a gift card to a store where they might purchase things they need for the trip, or tickets to a show or event happening during their stay.

According to a new  research study conducted by Oxford Economic, for every dollar invested in business travel, businesses experience an average $12.50 in increased revenue and $3.80 in new profits.

Face-to-face meetings and incentive awards to top performers seem to improve the bottom line.

While many companies have cut travel budgets, this study may help change the minds of the decision makers.

While we usually think of incentive programs benefiting the top producers–and the incentive itself does–the real effect is on the average employee, according to Fay Beauchine. In May 2009’s Incentive Magazine, she made the point in Incentive House Roundtable that it’s the middle producers who move up.

“We all know top performers are usually top performers,” she said to interviewer Leo Jakobson. She claimed that it’s the middle that improve by trying to hit the target. Even though they will miss it, they will still improve, even if only a few percent, and that will increase the total sales by “huge numbers in some cases.”

This underscores the importance of the incentive travel programs currently in place in corporations today. You as the meeting planner need to understand that you are a key player in your client’s bottom line, and you have to produce sales in an indirect way. This can be more difficult than the motivation speaker who simply gives them all a good talking to.

Remember that when you plan incentive travel, you need to plan with the person in mind. Tailor it to fit a participant’s ideal needs and wants and she will talk about it for a long time–and she will say it to some of the middle producers in the company.