SITE identifies Asia as region with "brightest future" for incentives

The Asia-Pacific region has the potential to benefit the most from the incentive travel sector.

This is according to Didier Scaillet, chief excellence officer at the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE). He said Asia-Pacific has been earmarked as a growth area and in particular could benefit from the organisation’s recently launched ‘Bangkok Manifesto’, a collection of ten statements examining the purpose and value of incentive travel.

Originally unveiled at the SITE Global Conference in Bangkok, Thailand in January, an expanded version of the manifesto, taking into account industry feedback, was launched this week at IMEX Frankfurt.

One part of the manifesto outlines how the ‘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’.

Speaking to CEI, Scaillet said: “Asia-Pacific has a great future for incentive travel - what we need are unique experiences. There are destinations in Asia that may not have the infrastructure but which offer amazing cultural heritage. Asia has big hubs - people need to travel beyond these to the countryside areas.”

The Bangkok Manifesto is supported by Meet in Ireland and aims to be a core reference point for incentive travel professionals throughout 2019. SITE intends to publish a number of manifestos;  a ‘Vancouver Manifesto’ is under preparation and will be unveiled at SITE’s next Global Conference, to be held in the Canadian city from 24-27 January 2020.