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A conversation with Aoife Delaney, CIS, CITP, 2021 president of the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE) and director of marketing and sales for the DMC Network, about recovery and building community in the incentive travel industry.

As 2021 SITE president, how do you view your role in the recovery efforts of the industry?

As president of SITE, I have to look in two directions—outwards to the incentive travel industry at large and inwards to our members. For the business world and society at large, I have to champion travel as a motivational tool that can transform individuals and the businesses in which they work. For our members and our industry, I have to work with my board to create a strong, vibrant community that’s providing caring outreach along with professional development and tools to prepare our members to get back to business.

As the pandemic took hold last year, we restructured our communications around four pillars: information, ideas, insights and inspiration. As SITE president, I see these as the themes or channels that I need to highlight in my communications with our four audiences—our members, the industry, the business world and society at large. With the right information and ideas, clear insights and, above all, an abundance of inspiration, our recovery will be strong and we’ll build our industry back better than it ever was.

My job is to state these things comprehensively, consistently and coherently.

Is there an aspect of incentive travel that has already shown signs of recovery?

Crisis always brings opportunity and right from the get-go SITE members were finding new ways to reward and recognize incentive qualifiers.

As early as one month into the pandemic, recognition programs were being delivered virtually, with celebratory beverages and gourmet feasts delivered to the qualifiers’ homes.

Based on local protocols and restrictions, some live programs even took place last summer, so there has been some continuity in our industry, but this has all been within a local context.

With vaccinations advancing strongly and destinations implementing heath and safety programs, we’re seeing more and more live events taking place within a regional context. We were in Aspen/Snowmass, Colo., in early April for our Incentive Summit Americas, our first in-person event in more than a year.

What aspect or type of incentive travel might take the longest to recover, and why?

We’re still some time away from the resumption of international programs with most incentive travel professionals, according to our research, believing it’ll be 2023 before we get back to 2019 levels. Travel across borders and between continents is tricky due to the uneven pace of recovery across the regions of the world as well as the fear of the spread of new variants of the virus.

What is the biggest hurdle that the incentive travel industry must overcome?

Our biggest challenge will be to convince corporations that it’s safe to travel. Individual corporate executives and the qualifiers of their performance improvement programs will be chomping at the bit to travel again but there will be a reluctance to do so on the part of corporate governance due to issues around duty of care. Individual travel and leisure will rebound very quickly once borders open, but corporations will be slow at first.

How are you ensuring the SITE community continues to grow together, and how might that help overall and individual recovery efforts?

The SITE Board of Directors recently created a new staff role, head of chapter engagement, and Rebecca Wright, who now serves as interim executive director in addition to her chapter role, has been building community across the entire chapter network since her appointment.

This year Nakisha Wilson, CMP, joined the staff team as chapter and sponsorship specialist, so we continue to prioritize resources for this part of our organization. Chapters are the life blood of our association. This is where our members get their first experience at volunteer leadership and its where we nurture our future global leaders.

We use all the technology means at our disposal to build connections between HQ and chapters and between chapters themselves. In our enforced pause from regional and global events, we’ve had more time too to focus on chapters, and this has produced massive dividends.

In particular, the use of online meetings and events platforms has united our chapter network globally, establishing member connections between chapters that would have been impossible pre-COVID. We strongly believe that these connections will help recovery as companies will have access to a strong global talent pool, passionate about our industry.

SITE’s theme this year is Build Back Better. Can you tell us about something that you hope will be even better than it was pre-pandemic?

I am excited to see a lot of change for the positive coming out of this as we Build Back Better!

Focusing on incentive travel, I would love to see greater inclusivity in program design with programs catering for all employees, not just the sales elite.

Greater consideration and discernment about destination selection will also be important, so that we deliver our experiences in destinations with impeccable records in terms of human rights, freedom, etc.

I also want us to address environmental concerns and flight shaming and develop carbon offsetting programs.

Yes, we have a lot to do, but we also have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reset!

Why are you optimistic about recovery, and can you share a story about recovery that has inspired you?

I am optimistic about recovery because of the talent within our industry that is determined to make this happen. We all have our down days of course, and it’s been quite a ride this last year! But overall, the positivity and appetite for new opportunity has been inspiring for me.

One story in particular to share is surrounding a group of industry friends I have, from multiple disciplines all over the globe, that I have made through the SITE Young Leaders program. Within weeks of the pandemic hitting, we had arranged group Zoom calls where we all got together to share stories and tips for coping locally—and in the beginning, really just to let off steam and laugh during a hugely difficult time. Over time those calls developed into brainstorming sessions on how we could support recovery within our companies and industries, but first and foremost they were a group of amazing industry professionals in their own right who were coming together with the sole purpose of support and friendship for each other. SITE gave me that community and I am eternally grateful for it.

As an incentive travel professional yourself, what have you learned from the pandemic?

I have learnt that we as an industry are a resilient bunch! The last 12 months have thrown more curve balls than I ever could have imagined, and certainly handed me a presidential year within SITE that I was not expecting. But it has made me a stronger, more qualified, happier incentive travel professional with new ideas, a reaffirmed love for travel and creating incentive experiences and the right balance of personal and professional commitments.