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Although it might seem obvious, creativity when developing incentive trips is fundamental to attract new clients. That is what Alejandro Verzoub stated. He is an Argentinian expert in the field of convention tourism who shared his experience with several Colombian businessmen in seminars organized by Proexport.
" I think that the country has a fantastic (tourism) offer, skilled people, good infrastructure. What it needs now is to create experiences that captivate people and make them decide to bring their incentive trips to Colombia," stated Verzoub, President of AV Business & Communication S.A. and the Society of Incentives and Travel Executives (SITE).
The Argentinian, who led the first incentive sales company in his country, was in Colombia as a PROCOLOMBIA guest to train tour operators in Bogota, Medellin and Pereira who have or who want to include this product in catalogs that they distribute abroad.
" The work that we are doing with PROCOLOMBIA in these training sessions is to help entrepreneurs understand that they have to put a bit of creative work into the proposal that they usually give tourists, to adapt it to the incentives segment," he added.
Incentive trips are what companies give their best employees as a reward for outstanding performance. This is done to motive staff to follow their example.
" In Colombia, we specialize in unique experiences and incentive trips that make people realize the immense potential that we have in this product. A product that generates some of the greatest revenue, according to a report from the Conferences and Conventions Association," said PROCOLOMBIA president Maria Claudia Lacouture.
Research, which was recently presented by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), revealed that corporate visitors spend an average of 759 dollars a day during their trip. That is three times more than regular tourists.
240 people attended Verzoub' s training sessions, including tour operators and hotels based in Antioquia, Cundinamarca and Risaralda.
Pablo Ravelo, the Director of Projects for the agency Experience and one of the participants in the Bogota session, believes that it is " very interesting that PROCOLOMBIA cared enough to plant this seed in the sector because we are in a process of developing tourism in Colombia and visions such as this contribute" to this.
Mercy Rojas from Chaska Tours stated that the views of the speaker " helped me realize that there are many other things that we can offer to tourists, a bonus, so that they select us. Colombia is not the only country in the race to attract travelers."
In 2012, according to figures from Migracion Colombia, a total of 126,982 foreigners came to the country to attend a convention, conference or event, which is the third reason to visit this country after vacation or business.
