Great Hotels of the World has announced its prediction that incentive travel is back throughout 2011 and beyond as enquiries for incentive travel through Great Hotels' MICE desk are increasing.

In recent years, many companies cut back on incentive travel to save costs, however Great Hotels of the World has reported a significant increase in incentive travel enquiries placed through their MICE desk for the period of October – December 2010 in comparison to the same period in 2009 and they expect this trend to accelerate throughout 2011 and beyond.

Armand Guillemot, Sales director – meetings and incentives at Great Hotels of the World says "The past few months has seen a significant increase in the amount of enquiries for incentive trips placed through Great Hotels of the World. On average, the length of stay for incentive trips has increased and lead times are short and the industries now considering these incentive events are mainly from the retail, automotive and banking sector.

Bonuses are back in the city and we are now starting to feel the issues of the past few years are coming to an end. One of the trends we've noticed is that corporate social responsibility is becoming more important for companies as many are looking for some sort of charity element included in their incentive trips.

"Our member hotels are offering very competitive rates and creative incentive ideas to help kick start the trend, we have a number of hotels suitable for incentive travel trips which can be found on our website".

A popular way for companies to reward productivity and raise team spirit, incentive travel is an attractive option for employers to motivate staff and get the best from their employees in the future. The incentive travel market is finally recovering as smart business leaders start to invest in incentive travel again realising that inspiring good performance can retain and attract top talent.