Incentives for Tour Guides

"So what is the incentive market? Can I travel? You can travel in the incentive market. You can stay home or you can travel. And I'll explain it. A lot of the tour directors that I've trained, this is where they've started is in the incentive market. Some stay there; that's what they prefer over leading tours. Give me the name of a Fortune 500 company. [Allstate.] Allstate. Good. All the Fortune 500 companies do this. They offer their employees an incentive to work harder. They might say...all those that bring in an "x" number of new policies get a free trip. Let's say they are in New York. They might say, you get a free trip to Southern California, staying at the Montage (the new gorgeous hotel right on the beach in Laguna Beach) in the spring, all expenses paid. Something to want to make them work harder; to give them an incentive to work harder. It might be a trip to Paris, it might be Hawaii, it might be Acapulco, it might be a cruise; something that will get them excited to do more. And that's what we call the incentive market. Now, Allstate will (say it's in New York)...they will hire an incentive house. The incentive house might be in Chicago. They are the ones that put the program together. They do the airline reservations, the hotel reservations and they send travel staff (which are trained tour directors) with the group to make sure that their client (Allstate) gets a great trip. Because they are dealing with VIPs, they are dealing with their most important managers and employees. Now we said Allstate is in New York, the incentive house is in Chicago, let's say they are going to Orange County, California. They would hire what is called a DMC, Destination Management Company, in Orange County to take care of the group. And that DMC hires tour directors, trained tour directors to meet the group at the airport, take care of the group at the hospitality desk, take them golfing to only the best golf courses. They stay at four and five-star hotels and resorts. Everything is first class. Often, they use limousines for them. They eat at the finest restaurants; what we call "dine-arounds." They might take them shopping on Rodeo Drive. They might take them to Catalina by helicopter, Universal studios, horse racing, just anything that gets them excited and entertained. They have beach parties for them. They'll have parties with artists. Each company tries to outdo the others. So they need very conservative, professional, trained tour directors to work with the DMCs locally. It's a heck of a lot of fun. And a great way to network because not only are you getting experience, but you'll meet tour directors that already do tours that might be able to help you get into a business. And that...I see that happen all the time. So, it's a market that if you are in an area where there's a lot of tourism, it's a market that you might want to check into."