Innovative incentive travel planners continue raising the bar when designing rewarding programs to inspire and motivate top performing teams.
Just as important for planners now, too, are carbon considerations: with flights often responsible for a significant portion of an incentive travel reward’s carbon footprint.
At SITE’s recent Incentive Summit Europe (ISE), one planner shared that carbon budgets are a bigger concern for her client than the event budget itself — making train-based travel increasingly appealing for planners looking to cut emissions and deliver different experiences for delegates.
Conscious planners also want to ensure however that they don’t lose attendees along the way: metaphorically or literally!
Here are suggestions from SITE’s event & marketing teams to ensure your next rail-based incentive gets off to a motivating start from the second your delegates take their seats and start chugging their way to some truly beautiful destinations.
(We especially love the Bernina & Glacier Express lines topping C&IT’s list, as routes we just spotlighted at ISE 2025 — more highlights coming very soon, for those looking to discover more about this year’s destination itself!)
From SITE Event Specialist Emily Parsons-Walker: start the destination discovery early, get gaming, and help shape new connections
Include a local guide on the train to talk about the areas you pass and share facts and history of the area: something our 2025 ISE planning partners, the Switzerland Convention & Incentive Bureau — provided for our event delegates that proved a hit!
You can also utilize your event app, if you’re using one throughout the program, to gamify the train ride.
Curated snack boxes full of local traditional items (or hand-passed trays of sweets, like what our Swiss providers supplied) also keep attendees happily munching away.
Or consider creating intentional networking opportunities during travel periods. Use registration or company data — shared with attendee permission, of course — to identify common ties and encourage conversations or meet-ups while en route. You can even turn this into a game and challenge participants to figure out why they might have been matched.
Finally, get creative and encourage safe movement while on board the train. Encourage those who are comfortable to change up who they are talking to: maybe even with something similar to musical chairs. I know that sounds funny, but you can even expand your creativity by incorporating local music to amp up the fun mixing and mingling!
From SITE Marketing & Communications team member Sydney Nolan: be crafty, get stuck into a good read, or curate event content from the get-go
As one of the openly more introverted members of SITE’s marketing & communications team, I’m always sympathetic to those qualifiers (or their guests) who looking for something a little quieter — or more structured — to start off their incentive experience.
I like the idea of tapping your destination planning partner, whether it’s your DMO, CVB, DMC (or even a locally based corporate employee with a talent to share), for an onboard activity like a storytelling session or a craft or small DIY project specific to the region. Bonus points if you incorporate a CSR or give-back component, too: like creating or crafting items to donate back to the community you’ll be visiting.
Your local planning partners might also be good resources to tap for bringing reading or activity materials onboard — like area guides, “best of” or “hidden secret” lists, maps, board & card games, and other resources to get qualifiers excited about where you’re heading.
You could also wrap this into any pre-event communications or gifting: consider sending these kinds of materials to attendees in advance, and then provide local voices on the train coach to help answer questions or lead a light discussion about what they’ve shared.
This can also be another place to incorporate CSR touches. Consider sourcing onboard guides from a senior community whose residents might be eager for companionship and can provide literal living historical views; or tap a youth center for fresh insights and to help build up the next generation of potential tour guides!
You can also use the journey time to start building out post-event content. For incentives that require a business component, consider using train travel time for an on-the-go keynote. Or for a more interactive spin, ask qualifiers for their keys to success and what has brought them onboard today, as a way to co-create business takeaways from a talented group.
You can even collect soundbites and short video or audio clips to help encourage future incentive participation and encourage other team members to qualify for future programs. Collect these insights and start shaping key takeaways before you’ve even arrived onsite: getting the work out of the way so participants can truly relax and focus on having fun once they’ve arrived.
Be sure to reward and thank those who share their time and talents with you, too, by starting any program gifting early. Bring gifting partners onboard to demonstrate their products or ask them to curate a special on-the-way experience to entice qualifiers from the opening moments of their travel reward.
Ready to get onboard?
Stay tuned for more insights and perspectives on this year’s Incentive Summit Europe — with our ears and eyes always open, too, for any examples you would like to share with the SITE community from your own rail-based programs.
