Incentive programs in the workplace focus on showing employees how valuable they are to the company. Nowadays, Incentive travel is a popular way to reward your team and encourage them to improve their productivity or sales numbers. Besides the activities and itineraries we shared in Bogotá and Quindío, here is another portfolio of activities to consider if you are interested in rewarding your team with beach activities and more.
Incentive travel activities in Medellín and Antioquia region
Medellín is a wonderful destination for an incentive travel.
Medellín is the capital city of the Antioquia region, widely known for being the fashion capital of Latin America, having a world innovation hub, friendly people, and wonderful towns to visit throughout the year. This city is a fantastic option for your company’s incentive travel.
The Medellín Conventions and Visitors Bureau has an inventory of 180 experiences with different approaches to enjoy. It all depends on what you are looking to achieve with your team with your incentive travel itinerary in the region.
An incentive travel activity that includes a cultural heritage practice of the region
The silleteros practice is a national cultural heritage activity.
One of the most famous carnivals in the region, the Medellín Flower Festival, celebrates the silleteros practice during the flower parade. This national cultural heritage activity involves setting up beautiful flower arrangements on a silleta, a term that refers to a chair carried on the back, that is also a preservation of the form of transport that was used in the colony to cross the Andean heights. They represent resistance, courage, and human capacity to overcome challenges.
The practice, that today involves around 500 families and started in the town of Santa Helena (Antioquia), is a tradition that has been practiced for over 150 years. For this reason, it is now part of the incentive travel activities that any company can choose for their team to experience.
Blooming experiences with your team during unforgettable incentive travel
First, the team should get dressed in the appropriate regional attire, or at least the most important accessories from it! In this case, the aguadeño hat - a handwoven traditional hat made from a local straw and a carriel - a traditional handmade leather crossbody bag for men with several compartments.
The idea of the silleteros incentive travel activity is for your team to participate in an engaging workshop and learn about this local practice of creating flower arrangements. The objective is to create a landscape composition of your company’s logo with just flowers! In order to do this, is necessary to incorporate over 100 different species of flowers such as orchids, carnations, and hydrangeas. Colombia is one of the top flower producers and exporters in the world due to its appropriate conditions, so there is no better place to cultivate this practice than here. You can even encourage some healthy competition by dividing your team in two and seeing which group does best! This activity is recommended for large groups from 20 to 40 people.
How about a sustainable lunch?
Why not spice up your incentive travel with gastronomic experiences that are all about sustainability? Learning where your food comes from and even preparing some of it can be a unique and creative experience.
The main goal of this lunch is to explore the wide variety of different cultural flavors you can have on one plate. Furthermore, your team will learn about the processes behind each dish and how every town is represented in both the ingredients and the preparations of every course.
One experience includes visiting a regional town called Carmen de Viboral. There, your team will learn how to make their very own farm cheese and how to have a zero-waste lunch with local ingredients. This experience serves as a very conscious incentive travel activity.
Also read: Are you going to do meetings tourism in Colombia? Enjoy your stay with these plans
Cartagena: The best reward for your employees
Discover all the wonderful activities Cartagena has for your team.
When considering incentive travel in Colombia, Cartagena is a must. Besides the beautiful colonial architecture of the city which creates a wanderlust atmosphere, there are several surrounding beaches with activities for your team to experience. The Cartagena de Indias Convention and Visitors Bureau have also arranged complementary activities for your team that are relaxing and creative such as: coffee tastings, dancing lessons with music developed from African rhythms like Champeta, Cumbia, and Porro, and ecotourism through the mangrove swamps among others.
The emerald tour: how to make a tailor-made treasure
One of the many wonders Colombia is known for are its emeralds, the coveted green beryl-family gemstone. For this reason, Cartagena is associated with enchanted stories about pirates and treasures. This is the perfect place to immerse your team in the art of making fine jewelry.
Corporate Incentive travel is all about team-building activities to develop better practices within the organization. With that in mind, this activity that turns your team in professional jewelers for a day could serve as the perfect exercise.
The idea of the tour is for your team to learn how to facet a high-quality emerald in a jewelry set that includes earrings, a necklace, and a bracelet. Furthermore, each member can take their piece of jewelry home with them. They will also learn about this cultural crafting experience with the artisans of the “Joyería del Caribe” foundation who are mainly single mothers, heads of their households.
Enjoy a wonderful meal with your team, or in this case, galleon crew
The “Galleon Bucanero” is a replica of the Spanish galleon of the seventeenth century. Their main focus is to harken back to the time when Cartagena experienced pirate visitations as a commercial port. It is a wonderful venue to have a delicious meal with your team, or even recreate some stories for a storytelling workshop. Who would have thought that corporate incentive travel could be so fun?
Discover: 5 Unconventional locations to organize events in Colombia
What is a better incentive than travel to a beautiful island? Discover San Andrés and Providencia
San Andrés and Providencia is a natural treasure.
San Andrés and Providencia are coral islands located to the northwest of the Caribbean coast of Colombia. They are famous for the “Sea of the Seven Colors” because of the multi-colored coral reefs. This is a perfect place to enjoy water sports, diving and eco-tourism in the natural pools that the waves have sculpted in the rocks.
The best incentive travel activities are on an island!
In fact, this archipelago is the home of the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve, declared a member of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves by UNESCO. Some of the water sport activities you can add to your incentive travel itinerary are kite surfing, wind surfing and Jetski riding.
Corporate incentive travel in the sea!
In San Andrés you can find two different types of formal accommodation: hotels and native inns. The latter are houses with heritage value that belong to the Raizal population (the indigenous inhabitants of the island). These are the most representative and traditional form of tourist accommodation of the island.
Take San Andrés and Providencia into account when choosing your next incentive travel destination as it was named the best Sun and Beach destination in the 2014, 2015 and 2019 in the World Travel Awards.
Without a doubt, Colombia has great destinations for incentive trips. We hope you and your team dare to grow with all the activities and wonderful experiences we mentioned.
