Corporate Incentive Travel: Giving Your Team a Sense of the Local Culture


Corporate Incentive Travel: Giving Your Team a Sense of the Local Culture


by Anne Thornley-Brown, President,

Executive Oasis International

Specializing in escorted Incentive Travel and sales incentive trips.We provide one stop shopping and will help you plan and organize your next incentive trip to any of our featured destinations.

Anne is @executiveoasis on twitter.

Stop: Even if you don’t have the budget for international travel this year, here is how you can still give your team an international experience without getting on a plane:

If you do have the budget, keep reading:

I’ve often wondered why companies fly their sales and executive teams halfway across the world just to lie on the beach and get drunk at the bar. Particularly in these challenging economic times, companies can do that at home at a fraction of the cost. A foreign incentive trip or retreats provides an opportunity to give your team a rich, unique and memorable experience. All you have to do is build a few experiences into your itinerary that provide a glimpse of the local history and culture of your incentive travel destinations.This is easier to do than you may think and it doesn’t have to take a lot of time.

Before your trip, you can use social media to provide an orientation to the destination. During your sales incentive trip, visit one of the many cultural centres, heritage villages and museums that are designed to give visitors a glimpse into the history and culture of your chosen destiation. Here are a few ideas:

Jamaica:

Before you go:

Where to go:


  • Visit my favourite place on the planet, The Enchanted Garden in Ocho Rios
  • Tour The Outameni Experience where you can travel back in time and explore the 6 cultures that have shaped modern Jamaica.
  • Visit Brimmer Hall Estate, a historical working plantation that happens to be located in my family’s hometown.
  • Go horse riding and tour the ruins at Seville, one of the first Spanish settlements in Jamaica.

Dubai:

Before you go:

Dubai Department Of Tourism And Commerce Marketing (DTCM) has several helpful social media resources that you can access at:


Where to go:

  • Spend an evening at the Dubai Heritage and Diving Village.
  • Tour the Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum House next door.
  • Take a dinner cruise in a traditional Dhow.

Oman:

Before you go:


Where to go:

  • Visit Muscat’s Bait Al Zubair Museum, located in a traditional Omani house.
  • Tour Nizwa’s Fort and browse for treasures in Nizwa’s traditional Souq.

Malaysia:

Before you go:

Where to go:


  • Take a 2 night trip to Kuching in Malaysian Borneo. Spend an afternoon at the Sarawak Cultural Village. You’ll explore the 7 major ethinic groups that have influenced Malysia’s culture and visit traditional homesteads.
  • Take a day or overnight trip to Malacca, a virtual time capsule into Malaysia history with traditional Malay, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, British, and Japanese influences. There is even a full size replica of a historical Sultan’s Palace.

Singapore:

Where to go:

Japan:

Before you go:

Where to go:


  • Explore the Edo-Tokyo Museum with replicas of traditional buildings and interactive exhibits that provide insights into Tokyo’s rich culture and history.
  • Stay at a traditional Ryokan for 1 or 2 nights.
  • Be mesmerzied as you take in a traditional Kabuki performance at the Kubuki-za in Tokyo

Canada:

Before you go:

Where to go:

Even if you have to extend your sales incentive trip by half a day or a full day to make time to build a cultural excursion into your itinerary, it will be time well spent. You’ll broaden their horizons and provide your team with a truly memorable and meaningful experience of a lifetime that they would never be able to have back home.

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