What is a person guided by when choosing a trip, a tourist destination, the nature of activity during the trip? What makes him/her do so and not otherwise?

One of the key points to answer these questions is the motivation for traveling and choosing a tourism product.

Tourist motivation can be defined as a person’s motivations aimed at satisfying recreational needs, depending on his individual physiological and psychological characteristics, system of views, values, inclinations, education, etc.

There are more than 300 types and subspecies of travel in the world, which are constantly supplemented by new varieties that can satisfy the most diverse desires and needs of the tourist.

A tourist trip has at its core motivation, which is one of the most important factors in making a decision to travel and choosing a tourist product and its constituent elements. Motivation of tourist travel choice (time, duration, direction, type, costs, nature of activity) is the most important characteristic that affects the behavioral initiatives of the tourist when planning his/her vacation, choosing, purchasing and accomplishing a tour.

Tourist motives are the most important constituent elements of the system of tourist activity, which can be considered as the determining components of demand, the basis for the choice of a trip and recreation program.

The motives of a person to a certain extent shape his behavior as a buyer and consumer of goods and services, especially in tourism. There is no product that can be realized in the market if it is not produced in accordance with consumer demand. The targeting of a tourism product is the key to its marketability. Understanding the motives of a potential tourist is of great importance in planning, forming and organizing the process of realization of a tourist product. This makes it possible to produce and to offer to the market the tourist product that best meets consumer expectations.

Tourist motivation is the necessary basis on which an effective system of planning, development and realization of the tourist product should be built.

There are many motives that guide the tourist. And the tourist always has a whole range of motivations, of which only certain ones can have significant importance and influence the mechanism and result of the final decision. However, any motive in a particular situation under the influence of certain circumstances is able to influence the consumer’s behavior in the process of making a decision about travel and the choice of tourist products.

Often the tourist program is changed under the influence of side motives rather than the main ones. For example, a person who went on vacation to a certain place, sometimes visits other interesting places and attractions, explaining his act by such a motivational outcome: “When will I visit here again? I have to see everything”. Motivations condition the improvement, development and introduction of new tourist programs.

Active and natural participation of various enterprises and organizations in the development of tourism causes the urgent need not only to identify, study and understand tourist motives, but also to use them and to strengthen professional attention to them.

Understanding of tourist motives allows to ensure the compliance of supply and demand and, as a result, to increase the competitiveness of the enterprise by meeting the needs of the tourist in a particular tourist product.

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So how can incentive travel motivate employees? Let’s explore:

• Traveling gives positive emotions. Studies show that 80% of all cash bonuses and bonuses are spent by employees to pay bills or buy household items. And after a few months, most of them will hardly remember that such a bonus was paid at all. While cash bonuses are often spent on paying utility bills, buying groceries or another suit, traveling brings new impressions, a burst of positive energy, and unforgettable memories.
• Travel creates an upbeat atmosphere in the office long before the trip. Often the budget for a regular award and a travel trip is about the same, but the strength and duration of the emotions from such rewards differs many times over.
• Incentive travel can be a unique benefit to a company. Employees who work for companies that utilize incentive travel are less likely to move on to a competitor. Thus, the employer gets an increase in staff loyalty to the company and a decrease in employee turnover.
• Motivational travel allows employees to spend time together in an informal setting, get to know each other better, socialize on various topics, and network. Ultimately, traveling together helps employees become an effective team! And the company will receive a positive effect in the form of increased productivity due to the atmosphere of mutual support and effective communication in such a team.
• Although monetary incentives provide instant fulfillment of employee expectations, the motivational effect of them fades away just as quickly. “Easy come, easy go” is a proverb that is just as apt to describe cash bonuses. The positive effect of incentive travel lasts for months. And not only after the trip, but also before it – because waiting for a pleasant event always gives a sense of anticipation and positive emotions!
• Travel and trips can be not only enjoyable, but also useful – if they are tailored to the specifics of each particular company. For example, employees of an event agency will learn many times more about what a bright and emotional holiday is if they go on an incentive trip to a Brazilian carnival. And environmentalists will be able to get a closer look at the problems of global warming or pollution if they visit the last corner of our planet practically untouched by man – Antarctica. No trainings or informative articles on the subject will give as much knowledge and experience as can be gained during one trip. So motivational trips can be used not only as a reward, but also as a learning experience for employees.
• Traveling together boosts the overall team spirit of the employees. They help employees to perk up and get a new boost of energy and inspiration after crisis periods, organizational changes or simply after a long and gray winter.
• Motivational tours give employees a breath of fresh air. Workaholic employees who work too intensively, often overtime and without days off, become less efficient. At some point, they become physically exhausted, and emotional burnout occurs. Traveling gives a reboot effect, which is vital in such situations, and employees return more motivated and productive than they were before. Replenished energy reserves give employees the strength and inspiration to conquer new heights!
• Traveling saves money. If you count all the benefits that come with incentive travel, the overall positive effect is far greater than that of a simple cash bonus.
• Choosing the right travel destination decides a lot of things. No matter how much you want your employees to improve their education and learn more historical facts and useful information, you should not send them to places associated with wars, accidents and destruction, human tragedies. Choose fun and positive places where you can easily combine active entertainment and doing nothing under the bright sun with a glass of margarita in hand. Such trips make employees happy. And happy employees mean high productivity, increased sales and, ultimately, increased profits for the company.
• Incentive travel is extra PR for your company. Happy employees will tell about their trip to their relatives, friends, yoga coach and just everyone they know. After all, they are so eager to share the vivid impressions of a wonderful trip! And the more they talk about it, the better for the employer’s reputation. Incentive trips for employees are additional bricks in the positive image of the company in the labor market. In the future, this will help to attract qualified employees with an active life position to the organization.

Of course, there are situations when monetary incentives for employees are more preferable. For example, during a crisis in the country, when employees are struggling to tighten their belts to pay their utility bills or children’s education expenses. In such cases, rewarding travel would be inappropriate and employees would perceive it as wasteful and a “feast during the plague”. Therefore, when planning motivational trips, it is important to take into account the economic situation in the country, as well as the working and living conditions of the staff. Only then will such a trip really become an effective tool to encourage and motivate staff.

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Incentive tourism for professional tour salesmen is designed to familiarize them with the product or services they offer for sale. They explore all aspects of the products they offer to enhance the sale. This type is common in travel agencies, hotels, transportation organizations and leads to an improved level of customer service.

The modern character of tourism demand is shaped by subjective factors. With the emergence of new values, profound changes are taking place in human psychology. They are caused by the following moments:

• more free, direct self-expression and self-assertion of their physical and spiritual data;
• revision of relations with other individuals, social groups and institutions. These relations are of a softer and more flexible nature and depend mainly on the choice of the individual;
• the formation of a different attitude to nature, in which, as noted in the final report of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (COPD-92), “man will moderate his pride and consumer egoism and try to live in harmony with Nature.

This is reflected in the concept of sustainable development of society on the basis of environmentally appropriate nature management, ensuring high quality of life of people in the chain of generations. Sustainable development is put forward as the main task of mankind at the turn of the century.

The main thing is that:

• cultural and cognitive factors play a significant role in the development of tourism;
• the importance of religious tourism is increasing;
• the number of tourist organizations developing religious and pilgrimage tours is increasing;
• more and more attention is paid to event tourism;
• rural tourism is not only saving the personal funds of the tour consumer, but also solving the most difficult social problem – to familiarize children and youth with nature;
• sports tourism is beginning to regain its importance with a simultaneous increase in requirements for its safety and comfort;
• organized tourist trips for professionals (employees of travel agencies) significantly stimulate the increase in tourist demand.

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The cost of intensive tours per person ranges from USD 500 to 1500 and even more, and the duration of the trip is from three to seven days. Among the main countries supplying incentive tours are the United States (about 60%), the United Kingdom (20%), and Germany (11%), with the number of such tours from Japan also increasing in recent years.

The routes of incentive trips take place in France, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Cyprus, as well as the United States, in particular its west coast, Florida, Caribbean island countries, etc.

The expansion of the intensive tourism market has led to the emergence of companies that specialize in organizing motivational trips. They also assist in the development of special incentive programs for labor collectives. The most famous such firms are McDonald’s Travel Company, Marit’s Travel Company, Top Value Enterprices, etc.

In all developed countries there are business tourism associations, specialized publications, training centers, and exhibitions of this business sector. For example, the American Association of Business Tourism “SITE” (Society of Insentive and Travel Executives) unites airlines, hotels, cruise lines, educational institutions, convention centers, consulting and insurance companies, incentive tour operators, and transportation companies. The main areas of SITE’s work are marketing support for its members, generalization and dissemination of experience, and publication of specialized literature.

Business Travel today is a well-developed business travel industry. Experts usually consider the concept of Business travel as a business system consisting of four subsystems. This is a quadrangle, in the corners of which are: “customer companies” (they send their employees on business trips), “companies providing certain types of services” (airlines, hotels, car rental agencies, insurance companies, etc.), “companies providing a full range of services (tour operators) in the field of business travel” and “organizations and firms in the MICE industry”.

Today, many travel companies successfully operate in the field of organizing and servicing conferences, congresses and corporate events. They quickly and efficiently organize trips of various subjects and purposes (from organizing conferences to visiting an exhibition or a specific enterprise) for both large groups (100 or more people) and individual clients.

The organization of business tours has its own specifics. As a rule, businessmen plan their trips several months in advance, which is especially true for the “high season” in the exhibition business, which falls in February-May and September-November. Travel companies cannot do without painstaking work with clients, understanding the specifics of their professional activities and a clear vision of the business purpose of their trip.

Business trips are usually organized with a full cultural and excursion program. The standard program includes accommodation, breakfasts, transfers, and visa processing. Additional services are provided, such as accreditation for an exhibition or entrance tickets, guides, interpreters, additional travel or car rental, and much more that may be necessary for a particular event.

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Europe ranks first in the world in terms of business tourism revenues and expenditures. However, in terms of business tourism growth, it is gradually lagging behind other tourist macro-regions of the world. The main participants in business tourism among European countries are Germany, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Belgium with its main city of Brussels, the capital of the European Union and the headquarters of NATO, where business people make business trips.

Congress and exhibition tourism as a segment of business tourism is the most dynamic in modern conditions. There is a growing interest in symposiums, conferences, meetings, and seminars that combine the interests of scientists and businessmen interested in obtaining the latest ideas and implementing them in business practice.

The major centers of congress and exhibition activity are Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, Vienna, Geneva, Copenhagen, London, Madrid, Paris, Strasbourg, Washington, and Tokyo. The Davos resort (Switzerland) is popular all over the world, where annual forums on topical issues of the global economy are held.

Specialized tourism exhibitions and exchanges are worthy of attention10. More than 200 international tourism exhibitions and exchanges are organized annually in Europe alone. The most famous is the International Tourism Exchange (International Tourismus Bцrse, ITB) in Berlin. An international travel film competition is a popular event at the Berlin exchange.

A special place in business meetings is occupied by the International Tourism Exhibition and Exchange FITUR, which takes place annually in late January and early February in Madrid. This exhibition informs the tourism business about the redistribution of tourist flows and the development of new tourism centers in the new tourist season.

No less popular is the International Tourism Exchange in Milan (Italy), located in one of the largest exhibition complexes in Europe, the Fiera in Milan. Various thematic programs, new tourism product projects, new technologies in tourism, etc. are annually advertised here.

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