A triple scoop at Hershey Park
Tim Bruins, a specialist in travel programs for
insurance and financial companies, uses a trick to improve
performance for one of his longtime clients. When planning an
incentive trip, he sends the brightly colored promotional materials
to the employees’ homes, so their kids will see the potential for a
vacation and start pestering immediately.
Bruins, senior account executive for St. Louis-based Maritz
Travel, sees a trend in incentive trips for the whole family. As
the demands placed on workers multiply, time spent with loved ones
is at a premium. Insurance companies specifically are at the
forefront of this development, and they are perhaps the most
family-friendly among companies that offer incentives, argues Caren
Bigelow, manager of travel planning for Atlanta-based U.S.
Motivation.
“Making the trip a reward for the whole family is a general
philosophy for sales incentives, but insurance companies have been
a little more warm and fuzzy toward families than most,” she
says.
What follows is a discussion of issues to consider, along with
some tips to remember, when planning incentive trips with family
involved.
Initial considerations
When structuring the invitation, keep the following in mind.
Age range. For trips to family oriented
destinations such as theme parks, all ages should be welcome. For
journeys to more exotic locales, limit guests to age 10 and up,
suggests Tamara Nored, CITE, vice president for sales and marketing
at the Houston-based Griffin Meetings and Incentives. In general,
babies should be welcome only if a spouse can take care of the
infant.
Family emphasis. The company should decide
whether the program will be billed as a family trip or as a trip
where children are welcome. The former would include extensive
children’s programming and might even pay for a limited number of
kids. The latter would simply permit their presence, with an
additional charge if children attend meal functions.
This doesn’t have to be decided when sending out the
promotional collateral, says Caren Bigelow at U.S. Motivation.
Final decisions on the scope of the children’s program can wait
until registration forms are sent out.
Covering costs. A contest can be tiered, so
that higher achievers can bring children at no charge, and those on
a lower tier must pay for their children to attend, says Nored.
However, Bigelow warns it can get messy if the rules vary for
different levels of winners. Best to keep different tiers on
separate trips if attendance rules will be different.
The cost of inviting children can be divided into three
components: airfare, accommodations and programming (which includes
food). Based on budget, the company can choose which aspects of the
children’s trip to pay for, and how many children to cover. Chances
are, regardless of such details, parents will appreciate the
opportunity to take their children. Here’s some greater detail on
those three components of the cost:
Airfare. While a few companies buy flights for
an unlimited number of children, most will either cover only two
kids or ask parents to pick up this cost. Some don’t even pay for
the spouse’s or significant other’s flight.
Accommodations. Generally, planners block
exactly enough (or just a few extra) rooms so that each family gets
one room. This decreases the chance of overbooking. If a family
wants additional connecting rooms, they can be booked on a
case-by-case basis, to be paid for by the participant. If a hotel
doesn’t have extra rooms available, planners might need to
accommodate the whole family at a nearby property, which would
likely diminish the attendee’s experience.
Note that very high-end resorts often don’t have connecting
rooms. Of course, that isn’t as much a consideration if you pick an
all-suite property or put everyone in villas, says Lisa Boston,
account manager for Carlson Marketing Group, based in
Minneapolis.
Programming. Some companies can afford to pay
for the food, activities and local transportation for more than two
children. If not, then charge the family a fee to cover these costs
for each participating child.
A snowball fight at Breckenridge
Picking a place
Most resort destinations are family friendly, leaving a wide array
of options for site selection. For those unsure of where to start,
here are some guidelines for narrowing the choices.
Look to save. Find a property that is slightly
less expensive than what would be chosen for a couples-only trip,
because not only will the children add cost, they also might not be
welcome at high-end resorts.
Stay local. Long-haul airfares are simply too
expensive for most corporations or attendees to pay for
children.
Go all-inclusive. Pay-one-price resorts are
great for children and convenient for parents.
English, s’il vous plaît. Choose a destination
where almost everybody speaks clear English, and one that’s
reasonably safe at all hours, suggests Tim Bruins. That way, it
will be easier for a child to help herself if she becomes lost.
Obviously, steer clear of any countries or areas that could be at
all dangerous.
Planner’s picks. All incentive planners
interviewed agree that Orlando is a huge hit with groups, given its
close proximity to Disney World and Universal Studios. Here are a
few other popular family
destinations:
" Atlantis resort on Paradise Island, the Bahamas, because it
offers an aquarium and water park for children, and a casino, a spa
and fine dining for adults
" Cancun and Los Cabos in Mexico, great beach destinations with
just the right mix of the exotic. The Cancun area features plenty
of Mayan culture, while Los Cabos is better suited for upscale
trips (though Cancun holds its own in that regard).
" Southern California, which virtually guarantees hot, sunny
weather and features Disneyland as well
" Ski resorts in the Rocky Mountains, many of which have
five-star hotels, including Aspen, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Deer
Valley, Jackson Hole, Vail and Whistler
" Cruises. One Disney Cruise was so effortless to execute that
its planner didn’t even get to go. “They didn’t need my help.
Disney does it all,” says Susan Caruso, meeting and travel
coordinator for the Merrill Lynch Credit Corp. in Jacksonville,
Fla.
In addition to picking a perfect destination, time the trip
during a school vacation. Schoolchildren usually get a week off
after Presidents’ Day, one after Easter, one between Christmas and
New Year’s, a few days around Thanksgiving and the entire summer.
Of course, these are peak vacation times, so book early.
When the Kids Should Stay Home
Brenda Anderson
Brenda Anderson, CEO of the Society of Incentive & Travel Executives, based in Chicago, says family incentives are not always the best option for a program. Anderson and others offer some reasons not to invite children:
"
If they’ll get in the way. “If the trip’s goals are building a strong bond between a company and its clients, children can present a distraction,” says Anderson.
"
If the budget is limited. Susan Caruso, meeting and travel coordinator for the Jacksonville, Fla.-based Merrill Lynch Credit Corp., has planned numerous trips at Disney World but is now shying away from such family-friendly spots because, she notes, business is down as a result of this year’s higher interest rates.
"
If it will look extravagant. Although adding children might not be so expensive, a company might avoid doing so to maintain a cost-conscious image. Another option, of course, is to allow but not pay for children.
"
If attendees are top executives. Yes, VIPs have children, too, but the high-powered nature of executive meetings doesn’t lend itself very well to having children in tow, say experts. -- J.V.
Parallel programming
“You almost have to plan one incentive for the adults and one for
the kids,” says Tamara Nored. “If the children aren’t happy, the
parents aren’t happy, and then no one’s happy.”
To this end, Nored sends families a pre-trip questionnaire that
probes the kids’ interests, then she designs activities around the
responses.
Leave it to them. To simplify planning, know
that many high-end resorts have supervised activities available
during the day. Resorts offer everything from cooking classes
(don’t worry, nobody’s going to get flambéed) to trips to local
museums. (For a list of kid-friendly offerings at the major chains,
see the chart here.)
Be age appropriate. Children under 10 should
stay on property for activities, unless one of their parents is
present. Older kids might enjoy quick trips to a go-kart track or a
museum. Once, Bruins brought 40 youngsters to Philadelphia’s
Academy of Natural Sciences for an overnight stay in the dinosaur
exhibit. The museum was practiced in such events, which made the
outing easier to organize.
Close the park. Especially during shoulder
seasons, some theme parks, such as Hershey Park (in Hershey, Pa.),
will agree to sectioning off a portion of the place for the
families on the trip. Disney World uses its Animal Kingdom for this
purpose, along with its Haunted Mansion, an attraction within the
Magic Kingdom. Often, it’s possible to turn an event like this into
a beautiful, casual dinner function, with basically no additional
decor necessary.
Plan the hunt. The scavenger hunt is a
particularly popular activity, claims Jeff Rudder, assistant
director of sales at Hershey Resorts. Kids have to answer
Hershey-specific questions and find items from all over the resort.
For each correctly answered question or found item, the team gets a
piece of wood to make a raft, which they have to float across a
pool at the end of the event.
Don’t be liable. The unpredictability of
children can add extra liability to a trip. Consult with your
company’s lawyers to devise a release, which all attendees need to
sign. There should be separate releases for sponsored activities,
as well. The process of obtaining liability insurance won’t be much
different from any incentive trip. Find out all allergies and other
medical conditions of the young participants, and make sure a
medical professional is on site at or near the hotel. Tim Bruins
takes caution to an extreme by snapping digital photos of the
children with their parents during registration, to make sure all
the youngsters go home with the correct parents.
The Magic Kingdom at
Walt Disney World
Food and beverage
Another major hurdle is food planning for picky eaters.
Plan two menus, one for adults and one for children. Youngsters
generally prefer standbys such as PB&J, spaghetti, macaroni and
cheese, hamburgers and hot dogs, chicken fingers, grilled cheese
and pizza.
Offer some healthy choices. Responsible
parents will want healthy options for their kids, so be sure to
provide fruit, carrot and celery sticks, yogurt and cottage
cheese.
Keep ’em separated. Separate the children’s
buffet from the adults’, and put it at a lower table so the kids
can reach it. Keep in mind that many children, especially those age
10 and older, will want the adults’ food. If this is served plated,
offer the option of receiving a half-portion. Diet-conscious adult
attendees may opt for the half-portions, as well.
Contain the chaos. Groups with relatively few
children, or where networking is a priority at mealtimes, should
divide the ballroom in half and separate the children and spouses
from the employees. Since kids will likely finish first, Anne
Hamilton-Chehab, vice president of resort sales and services for
Disney, has the kids decorate their own cookie or cake for dessert,
a time-intensive process that’s also a lot of fun.
Another option is to invite the children only to select group
functions. If business is a top priority, it might be smart to feed
the children separately during all but one dinner. Caren Bigelow
allows parent-child mingling at all but the final banquet, at which
time she plans a separate children’s function.
It might also be appealing to eschew the ballroom entirely and
hold the event outdoors. Nothing diffuses noise pollution like the
open air. For outdoor events, Boston sets up inflatable moon walks,
rock-climbing walls, face-painting and hair-braiding booths, along
with an artist on hand to draw caricatures. A deejay can play kid-
and adult-friendly music, so both demographics will get the
opportunity to dance.
