Travel Incentives in the Gunsights

If there ever was a case study in communication - this is one. 

Due to some high-visibility articles and the grilling of executives by our Washington representatives on television - incentive travel - heck, meetings in general - have come to be the issue du jour. 

And, because there are a fair number of people (including our leadership in Washington) who haven't been exposed to incentive travel and its brethren, meetings travel - the masses are jumping on the bandwagon to vilify business travel as junkets, boondoggles, wastes of money - you name it.

Unfortunately, this is repeated often in the media because it makes good headlines (everyone likes a villain) the majority of us don't see ourselves as fat-cat titans of business - masters of the universe.  But the sad fact is, people will believe information - even wrong information - if it is repeated often enough (it's called the validity effect - the increase in perceived validity of repeated statements.)  This is the case with business and incentive travel.

Truth

I think it is important to outline some of the facts about business travel and hopefully counter the repetition of poor information.  I'm happy to see some folks are talking about this issue and providing the kind of information needed to balance the oft-repeated lies and misleading information.

One person, Lisa Rosenthal, provides some facts about the economic impact of business travel.  Here's what Lisa Rosenthal's site: HR Thoughts offers...

• Business Related Travel...
  - Contributes more than $730 billion to the U.S. economy
  - Generates 2.4 million American jobs
  - Creates $244 billion in spending
  - Generates $39 billion in tax revenue at the federal, state and local level

• Meetings and conventions account for over $100 billion in annual expenditures
• Meetings and events are responsible for nearly 15% of all travel in the United States
• The U.S. Commerce Department predicts a loss of 247,000 travel related jobs in 2009

In other words, business travel is good for the economy.

The True Participants in Incentive and Meeting Travel

The biggest misconception that is being propagated in the news is that these "junkets" are only for the top executives within a company.  I'm guessing the public has visions of fat, half-naked old men, sitting on pillows with young ladies dropping grapes in their mouths.  Nothing could be further from the truth. 

Most incentive participants are:

• The rank and file sales person whose job depends on ever-increasing levels of performance and contains risk most of us desk-jockeys couldn't imagine.  (Do you want your continued employment predicated on your prospect being in a bad mood after spilling hot coffee on his/her lap in the Starbucks drive-thru?)
• Employees who have exceeded, by a wide margin, the constraints of their job description and have increased the competitiveness of their company
• Members of a company's distribution channel who have stuck with the company to become top producers and advocates for the product, service, brand or company - people the company needs to remain competitive and innovative.
• The spouses, children, significant others, who attend with the person who earned the trip - providing much needed reward for the sacrifices they have made to allow the earner the time and attention being one of the best requires.

Incentive and meeting travel is a critical element in building relationships - especially in this predominately electronically connected world.  These relationships will help companies weather this economic storm, create new business ideas from collaborative conversations, foster innovations that will drive business, and reduce the costs of turnover within organizations.

Do not perpetuate the false information that is filling the airwaves, newsprint and electrons. 

Understand the issue - understand that the MAJORITY of all business travel is legitimate and necessary if we are to emerge from this business cycle stronger and better prepared for the next phase.

If you believe that meetings/incentive travel is needed and valuable I urge you to go to "Keep America Meeting and sign their petition.

You know how we/I feel - what do you think?  Let's get the party started!