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2. Methodology  Questionnaires were mailed to a sample of employees of a major life insurance company which currently operates an incentive program. An insurance company was selected as an appropriate site for the study since the insurance industry is one of the top users of incentive travel. The incentive rewards presently being offered at the company include annual sales conference trips, cash awards and merchandise awards. Sales conferences were described on the questionnaire as 'annual trips to sales conferences'. The qualifications and the site selection for the conferences vary each year. Destinations have included Amelia Island, the Bahamas and Las Vegas. Cash awards were described as involving up to $1000 in cash and merchandise awards were described as including answering machines, calculators and cameras. These descriptions are consistent with the awards that have been given in the past.  The company is also interested in implementing personal vacation trips, described on the questionnaire as weekend excursions or getaways to selected destinations and, thus, they were included in the questionnaire to determine their attractiveness to employees.

1. Introduction  Understanding the intricacies of incentive travel programs has far-reaching ramifications for the travel and tourism industry. The size of the worldwide incentive travel industry is estimated at US$17 billion, with predictions that it may grow to over $50 billion by the end of the decade. "Moreover, travel rewards have a tremendous impact on every dimension of the industry, including accommodations, destinations, tour operators and travel agencies. In 1988, employers spent on average more than $1600 per incentive travel winner and an equivalent amount for the winner's spouse. Despite the importance of incentive travel to the tourism industry, there is a lack of empirical support regarding its effectiveness and attractiveness. The comparable attractiveness of the most popular incentives, which includes cash, merchandise and travel, has not been clearly established in the literature.  Additionally, there have been limited efforts to assess empirically the contributions of contests, which are typically used to determine which employees will be rewarded. To this end, research was undertaken with a view toward ascertaining the motivational effects of contests as well as determining the attractiveness of incentives, particularly travel incentives, to employees. The influence of social pressure on the reward attractiveness was also examined.  To summarize, there have been limited efforts to assess empirically the contributions of contests on employee motivation and productivity. The influence of various personal characteristics on the desirability of specific reward options has also not been fully examined, thereby making it difficult for managers to understand which type of employee would be most attracted to a particular incentive opportunity.  The influence of perceived social pressure on the attractiveness of reward options also has not been fully examined. Given the above framework and the need to respond to the dearth of research in this area, the present study was undertaken with a view toward furthering our understanding of the intricacies of incentive travel programs and the contests that are used to determine award winners. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to examine the attractiveness of travel, merchandise and cash awards as incentives in the workplace. The influence of social pressure on reward attractiveness was also examined. Finally, the motivational effects of contests and respondents' willingness to increase their productivity were evaluated.

5. Significance of the study

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