THE LUXE REPORT - Report - Page 23
Fresh take on the familiar
Untapped potential
Of course, not all clients want to take a risk on lesser known
or far-flung destinations and are instead finding a fresh take
on popular event destinations. Heron believes that almost any
popular city or destination, including the likes of London,
Lisbon, Madrid, Paris, Venice can be reimagined and looked
at afresh, not to mention Monaco, which is the master of
reinvention (see more in our Monaco focus).
Are there still any other destinations in Europe that remain
relatively untapped for incentives? “I think mainland Greece
has a lot to offer, and the Istria region in Croatia. Those two
stand out for me as they have everything in place already with
good flight access, hotels and infrastructure but have just not
really promoted themselves to the incentive market,” says
Heron.
“Over the last few years, Lisbon emerged as a fantastic event
and incentive destination, but then it became quite popular. I
wanted to get clients out there, but I wanted to give them
something new as well, and adding Comporta to the
programme achieves that. Comporta is special because it’s not
that well known but it’s beautiful and has so much to offer.”
(see more on Comporta in our top 5 destinations to watch).
“A lile further afield, I think Tangiers could really come
online in the next few years and much further afield, South
Korea has a lot of potential. There is a new flight route from
the UK into St. Johns so I could see Eastern Canada becoming
more popular too.”
Other popular European destinations such as Spain are
seeing massive investment in some regions, which is sparking
renewed interest from corporate clients. Andalusia is an
example, with experience management company Voqin’
being on the region being the next rising M&E star, so much
so that it recently opened a new office there.
“We realised that last year Málaga was the city with the largest
public investment in Spain, even more than Madrid. Global
companies such as Google are investing in the region, as are
lots of major hotel groups – we’re talking the likes of luxury
brands such as Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental and Leading
Hotels of the World opening new properties,” explains Voqin’
CEO Diogo Assis.
“As a result, we are seeing increased demand in both Seville
and Malaga from UK agencies and corporates. There is so
much potential for all event types, from car and product
launches to meetings and luxury incentives. The convention
bureaus are also keen work with us and support events, which
enables us to be innovative and get access to unique locations
such as palaces and municipal buildings.”
Thanks to the rise in the volume and variety of luxury travel
options in the UK, Maria Tsierkezos, who previously headed
up incentive programmes for a major telecoms company,
predicts there will also be a rise in incentive groups staying
closer to home. “In the past I would have said that staying in
the UK can’t possibly be as exciting as jumping on a plane and
going somewhere exotic,” she explains.
“But there are some country house hotels popping up that are
also members clubs, which creates a sense of exclusivity that
you can use to your advantage when designing incentives,
places like Estelle Manor for example.
It won’t replace
overseas trips, but I do
think UK incentive
travel is going to
skyrocket.”
23
