You might feel grateful if your company booked space in a luxury hotel for its annual sales meeting.
Sure, you would get a nice cup of coffee and a croissant, and possibly even an à la carte lunch. But such perks pale in comparison with the benefits offered by some venues.
Ferrari World, which is taking part in the Gulf Incentive, Business Travel and Meetings Exhibitionthat ends today in Abu Dhabi, offers businesses the prospect of renting out the entire theme park. But the offer is good only for Mondays, when Ferrari World is closed to the public. Another option is for a company to pay a tidy sum for the exclusive use of a particular ride on any day of the week.
Or what about a corporate gathering on a cruise ship?
Silversea Cruises, which has its headquarters in Monaco and purports to be one of the world's top-rated cruise lines, hosts about 15 to 20 meetings a year on its ships. "Because of our calibre and price point, there aren't many companies who are doing their employee sales meeting on Silversea [ships]," says Sean J Mahoney, the company's global vice president of corporate and incentive sales. "The type of meetings we're doing are very high-level executive board meetings," he says, noting that the most popular route for such events is the western Mediterranean. But for an even more dramatic backdrop, businesses could consider hosting a meeting in Petra, the ancient Jordanian city carved out of the living rock.
"There are very small meeting rooms there. There's no convention centre," warns Salem Batmani, the director of Karma House Travel.
"It is not that popular," he acknowledges. "We rarely have meetings there. We usually have meetings in Amman and then we have a day trip to Petra," Mr Batmani notes. Then again, there is always a castle. The Czech Republic has about 200 castles and chateaus which can be hired for events.
"Most of them could host business meetings," says Petr Kuklik, the meetings and incentives specialist with Czech Tourism and Czech Convention Bureau.
And if that still does not sound exotic enough, perhaps Busan, a city in South Korea with six beaches, will fit the bill. "Our main speciality is we combine with leisure and business," says Sunny Lee, the manager of convention marketing for Busan Metropolitan City Government.
