Incentive programs in the workplace are focused on showing employees how valuable they are for the company. Nowadays, Incentive travel has gained a top position when talking about rewarding your team and encouraging them to improve their productivity or sales numbers. Besides the incentive travel activities and itineraries we shared to experience in Bogotá and Quindío (link to the first content when uploaded), here is another portfolio of activities to consider if you are interested in recompensing your team with beach activities among others.

Incentive travel activities in Medellín and Antioquia region

Medellín is the capital city of the Antioquia region, a place widely known for great coffee, friendly people, and wonderful towns and places to visit throughout the year. Without a doubt, this city is a great option for your company’s incentive travel.

The Medellín Conventions and Visitors Bureau has an inventory of 180 experiences with different approaches. Hence, it all depends on what you are looking for to achieve with your team during the Incentive travel itinerary in the region.

An incentive travel activity that includes a cultural heritage practice of the region

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 process involves setting up beautiful flower arrangements on a silleta, a term that refers to a chair carried on the back.
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 an unforgettable incentive travel.

First, the team should get dressed in the appropriate attire of the region, 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 handmade leather crossbody bag for men with several compartments.
The idea of the silleteros incentive travel activity is for your team to participate in a workshop and learn about this local practice of creating flower arrangements. The objective is to make a composition that includes creating a landscape composition of your company’s logo with just flowers! In order to do this, is necessary to have over 100 different species of flowers such as orchids, carnations, and hydrangeas. As Colombia is one of the top flower producers and exporters in the world due to its appropriate conditions, 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 during the incentive travel itinerary?

Another incentive travel activity to have with your team includes gastronomic experiences that are all about sustainability. Also, 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 all of the different cultural flavors you can have on your plate. Furthermore, learning about the processes behind each of them and how every town is represented in the ingredients and preparations of every course of the meal.
One of these experiences includes going to a famous town of the region 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.

Cartagena: The best reward for your employees

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 beaches surrounding the city with many activities for your team to experience.

During an incentive trip, why have mud wrestling when you can have a mud bath?

Just 40 kms away from Cartagena you’ll find the Totumo Volcano, with its main attraction: mud. This thick and grey sticky substance is perfect for facials, and you’ll enjoy a completely relaxing experience while letting yourself sink into the crater. A unique and complementary experience for an incentive travel itinerary, and you’ll even get some mud to take back with you!

The emerald tour: how to make a tailor-made treasure

One of the many wonders that Colombia is known for are its emeralds, the famous 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 and head of household.

Enjoy a wonderful lunch or dinner with your team, or in this case, galleon crew

The “Galleon Bucanero” is a replica of the Spanish galleon of the seventeenth century. Hence, its 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?

What is a better incentive than travel to a beautiful island? Discover San Andrés and Providencia

San Andres and Providencia are the coral islands located to the northwest of the Caribbean coast of Colombia. It is 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 for sure!

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. You can even swim with manta rays that approach the coast at certain times of the day.

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). Therefore, these are the most representative and traditional 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 #FeelTheRhythm of all the activities and wonderful experiences we mentioned.