Next Level Performance Incentive Travel Managers are pleased to recognize the 2019 winners of Travel Partners of the Year Awards in the Destination Services and Hotels and Resorts categories.

Awards go to Bucher Travel, the 2019 Destination Services Award for Most Valuable Group Travel Partner and to Pelican Hill Resort & Spa for the 2019 Most Valuable Hotel & Resort Group Travel Partner Award. These destination experts and hospitality companies provided exceptional communications, coordination and service qualities to demonstrate their worthiness to receive this year’s award.

Bucher Travel of Switzerland received the 2019 Destination Services Travel Partner Award for collaborating with Next Level Performance on the planning, execution and guest experience of the insurance company’s Race to the Alps incentive travel program to Lausanne, Switzerland. The client, an insurance company, drove engagement for this channel sales incentive program with an exceptional experience in Switzerland. The experience, which included an exclusive event in the village of Gruyères and a spectacular flight over the Matterhorn, inspired results and won client praise for its cultural authenticity, creative design, and motivational power.

Switzerland-based Bucher Travel helped execute tricky logistics during Next Level’s complex four-night trip to Lausanne, Switzerland, as a major automotive insurance company rewarded their best agents and representatives. Bucher Travel worked with Next Level to ensure all local program events and excursions ran smoothly, including custom excursions of Bern, Lutry, Lavaux, Lausanne – and even Yvoire and Evian, France.

When dramatic mountain weather threatened an exciting day of private helicopter flights over the Swiss Alps and around the Matterhorn – Bucher stepped in,

…offering alternatives and advocating with suppliers to manage an authentic program that met guest expectations, while remaining safe. Bucher Travel facilitated success using weather alerts and creative schedule reconfiguration. Because of Bucher’s strategic advisement and collaboration, the insurance agents and reps securely enjoyed a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Next Level also recognized Pelican Hill Resort & Spa in Newport Beach, CA with the 2019 Hotel & Resort Travel Partner Award, for incentive and channel travel programs.

For a top banking client’s nomination-based winners’ trip to Newport Beach, CA, Next Level designed a once-in-a-lifetime program…

…that began with imaginative trip-themed communications to get participants engaged and excited. The full impact for program participants was realized by highlighting the special qualities of Pelican Hill. Pelican Hill Resort & Spa delivered with unique ambiance and flawless attention to detail, creating an experience beyond expectations.

The hotels and facilities chosen for Next Level Performance’s programs must be special, creating a warm, welcoming environment, and making the guests feel like the VIPs that they are. A participant on one of the trips to the Pelican Hill Spa & Resort praised the arrangements by saying,

“Service was next level above anything I have experienced previously and one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.”

The hotel displayed their highest level of service throughout planning and then flawless execution of the program. Kirsten Adams, Senior Travel Program Manager, holds the resort in highest regard.

“The team at Pelican Hill are the definition of what a partner to Next Level is – they share our expectations, standards, and always want to go above and beyond. They helped realize the ideal, from the site visit and ability to connect with the client and brainstorm ideas through execution. Next Level always strives to exceed expectations, and every step of the way, Pelican Hill effortlessly did just that.”

Next Level works closely with their travel industry partners to exceed clients’ goals and expectations to provide the special moments that make once-in-a-lifetime experiences for all who earned it. Kolleen Whitley, Senior Travel Program Manager, praised Bucher Travel.

“The term ‘destination expert’ has never been so fitting as it is for our thoughtful and knowledgeable partners with Bucher Travel. Throughout the planning of our program, our front-line compatriots were communicative, poised, and invested in the success of our program. From planning to site inspection to onsite execution, they internalized the level of pervasive cultural authenticity we strove to achieve and made it a reality.”

About Bucher Travel
Bucher Travel Inc., founded in 1865, is the leading DMC (destination management company) in Switzerland in providing leisure and business travel, bus & limousine service with its own fleet, incentives & conventions as well as Incoming destination services. Because of their unique service portfolio, the full-service-agency is the “One-Stop-Shop” for both the leisure and corporate communities. This traditional company with offices in Lucerne and Dierikon/Lucerne employs over 30 multilingual personnel. In 2015 Bucher Travel celebrated its 150th anniversary.

About Pelican Hill Resort
The Resort at Pelican Hill® immerses guests in luxury, set on 504 acres on the Pacific Ocean, with world class restaurants, and 36-hole golf course, circular pool and villas with magnificent coastal views. The Spa at Pelican Hill® delivers an exceptional experience with well-appointed therapies, detail, uncompromising service and extraordinary design and facilities. A Five-Star, Five-Diamond destination, Pelican Hill retains the luxury hospitality industry’s gold standard, among hotels and resorts worldwide this year.