Supported by Meet in Ireland, the Bangkok Manifesto will be a core reference point for incentive travel professionals throughout 2019.
CHICAGO, IL, USA – At SITE’s Global Conference in Bangkok in early January under the expert facilitation of Martin Sirk, former executive director of ICCA, The Bangkok Manifesto was created following a series of workshops with SITE’s international board of directors, trustees of the SITE Foundation and a cohort of global experts in the field of incentive travel. The final 10 statements of the Bangkok Manifesto were then crowdsourced with the full conference assembly using Slido, the on-line, audience engagement platform.
Supported by Meet in Ireland, the Bangkok Manifesto will be a core reference point for incentive travel professionals throughout 2019. A print collateral piece, complete with commentary from incentive industry thought leaders will be launched at IMEX, Frankfurt in May 2019. At SITE’s annual conference in Vancouver, Canada in January 2020, the Vancouver Manifesto will be crafted.
“Only SITE – the “I” in MICE – has the authority and entitlement to produce a manifesto about incentive travel, articulating its true purpose and identifying its tremendous value within the ever-changing business world today,” said SITE President Philip Eidsvold, CIS, CITP, VP Strategic Alliances, One10.
SITE’s CEO Didier Scaillet added: “SITE’s voice needs to reach out beyond our membership and our industry into the business world and society itself positioning incentive travel as an extraordinarily effective tool for improving business performance and travel as a transformative agent for positive change in communities and society at large.”
“Meet in Ireland is proud to assist SITE in the creation of this hugely important document. Incentive travel is the fastest growing sector of MICE with the highest per person spend and the widest reach across the destination supply chain. Incentive travel delivers significant economic benefit for destinations like Ireland along with the wonderful boomerang effect – satisfied clients tend to return again and again and generate great 'word of mouth' for the destination” said Ciara Gallagher, Manager, Meet in Ireland, the official MICE brand for the island of Ireland. Owned and managed by Failte Ireland – the National Tourism Development Authority – it promotes Ireland as a world class business events destination.
The Bangkok Manifesto is a wide-ranging series of statements that tackle the nature, purpose and direction of incentive travel. In February and March SITE will invite leaders in the field of incentive travel to provide written commentary on each of the 10 statements. This content will be captured in written and verbal form and launched at IMEX Frankfurt in May 2019.
Formally passed by 182 votes to 11 during the General Closing Session of SITE Global Conference, Bangkok, January 2019
Text of the Bangkok Manifesto
1, Every stakeholder in the incentive travel community should embrace social responsibility as a core part of their business philosophy and recognize that our business practices and policies will define how that responsibility is exercised.
2, Relationships and teamwork build business results, not isolated individual effort. And nothing creates and strengthens relationships more effectively than shared incentive travel experiences.
3, Incentive travel contributes significantly to economic growth, partnerships within and between organizations, and innovative thinking by both participants and the organizations that create the programs.
4, The interests, aspirations and perspectives of incentive program participants should be placed center stage in our industry’s strategic thinking and advocacy work.
5, The definition of luxury has changed. The era of logos and brands is ending. Luxury in future will be defined by authentic, unique and personal experiences.
6. Incentive travel helps to create corporate cultures that are fuelled by motivation and focused on future success.
7. Inclusivity should become a critical concept for our industry -– we believe that incentive travel changes behavior and builds motivation at all levels of an organization.
8. Our industry must encourage more second and third-tier cities and non-urban destinations to embrace incentive travel as part of their business mix, highlighting that success in our business is not dependent on massive infrastructure or investment.
9. Incentive travel drives human capital excellence and innovation within destinations, with profound benefits for other targeted business segments.
10. Emerging destinations that include incentive travel in their strategic plans will experience faster economic growth and human capital development than would otherwise be the case.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
