Incentive travel is all the rage among progressive business organizations; it’s a well-calculated tactic to improve work quality and strengthen employee engagement. Whenever incentive travel programs are presented, employees claim they take their game to a whole new level — because who wouldn’t want to travel?

However, incentive travel programs are not like ideal holiday trips to a beautiful destination. Sure, you get to see a new place and you’re even provided pocket money, but most of the time, there other things incorporated into the program, especially since companies want to make sure that the money allocated to this provision creates a benefit for the organization as well.

Don’t be too disillusioned, though, because you can trust that it will still be an enriching experience. However, it’s important to understand that it may not be everything you hoped it would be. Why?

First of all, you may be given a responsibility to accomplish for the company during the trip. You may be required to go to meetings, attend functions, scout the market, provide a report about the market, etc. So, get ready to bring some of your work essentials for the trip because you may find yourself writing up a report while you’re lounging at the poolside of your hotel.Your travel incentive is not going to be a complete R&R.

Secondly, your itinerary may include compulsory activities that you’re not too keen on joining (such as the trek to the highest peak of a tourist destination). This is common for companies that really just take advantage of those tour package offered nowadays for their incentive travel program instead of actually taking time to thoughtfully design the trip with an incentive travel agency.

Thirdly, you may not like your accommodations, and this is a common occurrence because some travel agencies really just look at hotel, inns, and other rental properties online; they haven’t personally seen these places to fully determine their quality. It’s not like these accommodations are bad, but there’s a possibility that they may just fall short of your expectations.

Fourthly, you may not get to do everything that you set your heart on doing based on your itinerary due to weather conditions. The incentive travel program may have the best intentions but it has no control over weather, and when weather turns mean and ruins your trip, you can’t blame the program.

And lastly, the adventure can turn on you. Being in a different place may prompt you to try a bunch of novel activities such as parasailing, swimming with dolphins, etc. All are intended for fun, but a lot of things can happen due to a mix of different variables. If you’re lucky, you’ll escape laughing at the unexpected outcome, but if you’re not, things can go the other way. So, do study the adventure you want to try.

The idea here is make your expectations realistic; this way, you can make adequate preparations and be able to make the best out of all the things that can happen during the trip.