October 25 2007 - The total market for incentive travel, motivational meetings, and special events was $77.1 billion in 2006, according to the 2007 Industry Profile Study: The Market for Incentive Travel, Motivational Meetings, and Special Events in the United States recently released by the Incentive Research Foundation. According to the study, 66 percent of companies in the U.S. used one or more of these business initiatives in 2006 with $13.4 billion spent on incentive travel, $25.9 billion spent on motivational meetings, and $37.8 billion spent on special events.
"These numbers indicate that incentive travel, motivational meetings and special events are valued more than we imagined," said Bob Dawson, CITE, of the IRF. "These programs are now viewed as effective business tools that pay a major role in all kinds of organizations." The study revealed that 10 percent of large and small companies used incentive travel in 2006, 50 percent used motivational meetings, and 55 percent used special events. Large companies are bigger users: 23% used incentive travel, 61% motivational meetings, and 81% special events.
The study defines incentive travel as a management tool using a travel experience to motivate/recognize participants for performance. Motivational meetings encompass inspirational elements and recreation, speeches, awards, and team-building. Special events include a range of activities including product road shows, product launches, social customer gatherings, and other related activities.
Other key findings:
- Average budget for: 1) incentive travel programs: $164,271; 2) motivational meetings: $68,330; 3) special events: $78,029.
- Most common objectives for incentive travel were: motivate incremental sales, maintain high morale, and improve productivity.
- More than half of the respondents from large companies believe spending on incentive travel will increase over the next two years;
- More than a third of large companies state the budget for motivational meetings has increased over the past two years;
- Four in ten large companies state the budget for special events has increased over the past two years.
The 2007 Industry Profile Study was conducted by GfK, the fourth largest market research organization in the world. The Incentive Research Foundation, a leading source of incentive industry research, will soon make this study available at its Web site at www.TheIRF.org.
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