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An Expert’s Guide to Planning Incentive Travel

Incentive travel management is one of Paragon Events’ many areas of expertise and also one of our team’s favorite types of events to facilitate! The following tips will help produce an incentive program that suits your budget, reflects your company culture, and produces favorable ROI.

WHAT ARE YOUR INCENTIVE TRAVEL PROGRAM GOALS?

Outline your incentive travel budget & objectives.

The first step in planning an incentive trip is to clearly establish and define your goals. This will help you to identify the target audience within your company. Once you determine the departments or key positions to incentivize, you can create internal qualification guidelines. This will also help you better measure your actual ROI later on. From experience, our clients often consider the following top objectives:

• Increased sales
• Increased productivity
• Improved customer service
• Lower turnover and absenteeism

Identifying some of these goals may also help to generate your program budget. How much is turnover costing your organization annually? Once winners meet the goals of the competition, how is that going to influence an increase in your overall sales revenue? Identifying these factors can help you delineate where to set your budget.

Generate Interest and Track Performance

• Create engaging event branding to entice employees
• Hold a grand unveiling of the destination and qualification requirements ( Do this early to build anticipation and excitement! )
• Maintain a schedule of internal communication to promote the trip and encourage employees to embrace the challenge

The key is to keep your employees engaged and competing to win!

Incentive Travel Risk Management

For any event, risk management plans are a necessity. As industry leaders in risk and crisis management, Paragon Events assists our clients in developing emergency preparedness plans for their incentive programs. We recommend several health and safety measures throughout the event planning to ensure a smooth program flow. These include insurance, security, communication plans, destination research, and documentation of protocol for specific locations and venues.

MAKE YOUR INCENTIVE TRIP WORTHWHILE

Destination and partner selection.

Destination appeal is an important factor in holding your team’s motivation high. When selecting your incentive trip destination, there are several factors to keep in mind:

• Value of your currency. Will you be able to get enough bang for your buck? Are you traveling nationally or internationally? Southeast Asia and New Orleans are current examples of great locations where your money will go a long way!
• Tax benefits. Some destinations have little to no sales tax (Langkawi in Malaysia is one of our favorites!)
• Hotel loyalty. Does your company receive perks from a certain hotel brand for business travel? Member points can be a bonus for your attendees.
• Travel experience. It’s important to examine the safety and infrastructure of your destination. Consider the general activity level for attendees and make sure to distribute strong, travel guidelines.

Once in a Lifetime Experiences

Creating highly memorable and authentic experiences is what incentive travel is all about. Trips build lasting memories, improve workplace camaraderie, and provide tangible experiences more valuable than money or cash bonuses. Paragon Events strives to provide options to our clients that are unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Picture this:

• Swimming with whale sharks in the Maldives
• Racing dragon boats in Malaysia
• Sleeping in glass igloos under the northern lights in Finland
• Experiencing breathtaking vistas of Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe on a train journey
• Celebrating the full moon rise on the shores of Western Australia
• Catching a Giant Tuna off the coast of Nova Scotia

Currently, a trend we are seeing is allowing guests to select their activities in smaller groups to create a more personalized experience. This is a great opportunity to incorporate activities focused on wellness and social responsibility as well.

Immerse in Local Culture

• Share naturally-sourced gifts and artisan products such as custom-tailored traditional outfits
• Hire local musicians, artisans, and performers as entertainment to showcase historical styles
• Incorporate local and regional delicacies into food and beverage menus

Think beyond the big box hotels and popular tourism sites (this is the secret to finding hidden gems in any destination!).

MEASURE YOUR INCENTIVE TRAVEL SUCCESS

Hard dollar and soft power benefits.

Increased sales and productivity are major benefits of hosting an incentive program. There are several other benefits for your organization—some of which may be surprising. Take a look:

• Improved employee engagement
• Positive relationship building between employees and management
• Enhanced customer satisfaction
• Increased mindshare in the marketplace
• Greater ability to recruit new employees and partners
• Stronger brand compliance

The value of these benefits must be carefully considered and held in high regard. While hard dollars are very important, engagement, growth, and overall employee satisfaction can be defining factors for your organization.

ROI Calculation Methods

The purpose of holding incentive programs is to achieve certain internal goals whether they are direct, implied, or both. That means it is paramount to be able to look back and report on proven results. There are several ways that we ensure our clients are truly calculating their return on investment:

• Net income margin/incentive investment
• Incremental sales year over year
• Employee satisfaction measurement
• Client satisfaction measurement
• Executive and winners post-event survey

Aside from the subjective employee benefits, the financial payoff for companies as a result of incentive travel is undeniable. A report by Oxford Economics USA found that for every dollar invested in business travel, companies realize $12.50 in incremental revenue.

It Doesn’t End Onsite

Incentive programs have boundless benefits for an organization. Let us put these tools into action and build a successful initiative that you and your employees will look forward to each year. Reach out to our team to learn how incentive travel can enhance your company goals.

This blog has been authored by Diane Ambrogio .

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UPGRADE YOUR INCENTIVE TRAVEL

Retain talent and inspire growth..

Incentive trips aren't just expensive celebrations.

They're a key way to motivate your team and hit business objectives.

In fact, 65% of employees surveyed strongly agree that they remember travel and merchandise rewards longer than cash payments.

Incentive travel offers a unique opportunity to connect with your top and new employees, celebrate their hard work, and inspire them for the year to come.

In a competitive labor market and challenging sales environment, incentive travel could be the secret to business growth.

GoGather manages your incentive program from A → Z

GoGather does more than just check off tasks for your incentive travel program. We make sure the full experience, from invites to activities to departures, is seamless and fun for the attendees.

Incentive travel that engages & motivates.

GoGather ensures your incentive travel program hits your goals while maintaining the bottom line.

With GoGather as your go-to event planning partner, you'll benefit from:

• Strong relationships with unique properties and luxury hotels
• A dedicated project manager that has your best interests in mind
• Creative travel incentives  that elevate your trip and hit business goals
• Branding, gifting, activities, and more, to make your guests feel like celebrities

Awe-inspiring trips for your team.

" One week after returning from 2023 President's Club in Los Cabos, Mexico , I've been flooded with inquiries from friends and colleagues asking about my experience. It's difficult to put into words just how extraordinary it was – beyond anything I could have imagined.

I extend my heartfelt gratitude to the entire event team for orchestrating this world-class experience. From the breathtaking Four Seasons resort and the delightful dinner events to the exhilarating sea activities and the daily surprise gifts, every aspect contributed to making the 2023 President's Club an unforgettable and awe-inspiring journey."

Where are you heading next?

Create unforgettable experiences.

Your incentive travel program should be a crafted experience that's more than just a pretty location. We'll help you put together a trip from start to finish that inspires your team to hit their sales targets year after year.

Moments to celebrate & inspire.

From the time they step off the plane to every moment in between, GoGather makes sure your team gets the VIP experience.

Boat arrivals that are usually only reserved for celebrities? We can make that happen.

Moments to connect.

Moments to entertain.

Whether it's kayaking through Kantun Chi or wine tasting in the French Riviera, GoGather sources fun and unique activities that your guests will rave about for years to come.

We'll make sure these events are not just your standard team-bonding activities, but give your guests a taste of the local culture.

Moments to give back.

Connect with the local community through volunteering events that emulate your brand mission and leave the world just a bit better.

Science kits for a local school provided by a biotech company? We'll do the coordination.

Moments to indulge.

Go beyond the water bottle with unique and locally-sourced incentive travel gifts that your team will actually leave room in their suitcase for.

Plus, tie your gifts back to your brand with small touches like personalized postcards.

Moments that matter.

Reinforce your brand in elegant ways throughout your event. From pillows to lighted branding on the side of buildings, your incentive travel program can leave your guests feeling more connected than ever to your company.

Our in-house experts can help you find creative ways to leave your brand mark throughout the incentive travel program, including custom logo creation.

Let's plan your next incentive trip.

Top incentive travel destinations..

Our team has exceptional relationships with gorgeous properties internationally, giving your team the chance to experience luxury while sticking to your budget.

Our clients' favorite locations for their incentive programs include:

Everything you need for exceptional incentive travel.

Connect your team and inspire top performers with a trip of a lifetime.

GoGather takes care of all the logistics for your incentive travel program, from finding the ideal location to creating small moments that make a difference.

We're here to help you plan a trip that's not only fun, but that celebrates, inspires, and ultimately reaffirms your team's loyalty to your brand.

Let's start planning your incentive program.

More insights for planning., how to plan your channel partners incentive trip, why host a channel partners incentive trip, 14 new all-inclusive resorts for your 2025 incentive trip, sample company retreat agenda: florida keys.

Incentive Travel

What is incentive travel? How are incentive programs, trips, and events different from conference and meeting planning? In this section we'll look at the definition of incentive travel, including: examples of incentive travel programs, how to become an incentive travel planner, an incentive travel planner job description, career advice, employment information, and the pros and cons of being an incentive travel planner in this sector of the events industry.

A guide to incentive travel programs; definitions, descriptions, and examples.

Careers in Incentive Travel / Destination Management

Why become an incentive travel planner or destination manager? Career advice and employment information.

Being an Incentive Travel Planner

What does an incentive travel planner do? Read a real incentive travel planner job description by Martin Turner, former Director of Travel, International Travel Group, and former Global Head of Events, Credit Suisse .

Pros and Cons of Incentive Travel

Pros and cons of incentive travel by Martin Turner, former Director of Travel, International Travel Group, and former Global Head of Events, Credit Suisse .

Being a Destination Manager

What does a destination manager do? Read a real destination manager job description by Jennifer Miller, Partner and President, ACCESS Destination Services .

Pros and Cons of Destination Management Careers

Pros and cons of destination management careers by Jennifer Miller, Partner and President, ACCESS Destination Services .

MICE: Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions

Although the content of an incentive travel program is very different to other types of meetings—in that the emphasis is on entertainment, activities, and socializing—the event planning process is very similar. Meetings and incentive programs both involve location planning, destination management, co-ordinating travel and accommodation, and creating a program of supporting events.

Meeting planners often find themselves working on a mix of meetings, conferences, and incentive travel programs, and in doing so will often call upon the services of a destination manager at a DMC (Destination Management Company). Destination managers are a type of event planner who offers local knowledge and resources to meeting planners in order to help deliver events in a particular region

What Is Incentive Travel?

Incentive travel is the reward element of an incentive, recognition, or loyalty program, which takes the form of an all-expenses paid trip with a program of scheduled events and activities.

Incentive Programs

Incentive, recognition, and loyalty programs (from here on referred to as just ‘incentive programs’) are used by companies as a motivational tool to achieve certain business objectives, for example to increase sales.

Participants—which might be the company’s employees, distributors / re-sellers, or customers—usually have to qualify by achieving a certain level of performance, pre-defined by the terms of the incentive program, e.g. achieving pre-set sales targets.

Those that meet the relevant criteria are then rewarded by taking part in the incentive travel trip (sometimes referred to as the ‘award’). These are usually group trips with a set itinerary where all those qualifying take part in the same program of events and activities, however individual incentive trips are also used by some companies.

Incentive Trips/Awards

To fulfill the award, the company will use some form of event / meeting planner to co-ordinate the trip and design the itinerary, including all travel arrangements, accommodation, receptions, dinners, activities, excursions, entertainment, and special events.

Often, this will involve the meeting planner hiring a Destination Management Company (DMC), located in the city where the event is being held, to assist them in booking and managing local elements, such as restaurants, venues, transport, staffing, production, décor, entertainment, activities, and excursions.

Incentives are a very effective way to drive sales. An incentive program might be aimed at a company’s employees i.e. the sales team, or its distributors / re-sellers.

For example, a car manufacturer might create an incentive program for its dealers, whereby they have to meet a certain sales target each month. At the end of the term of the program, a year perhaps, those that made the required amount of sales will be rewarded by coming together with management executives, and the other qualifying dealers, to attend the award trip.

This might consist of a three-day trip to Monte Carlo during the Monaco Grand Prix with a cocktail reception on a yacht, a private dinner at the world famous casino, followed by leisure activities and excursions such as sailing, wine tastings, golf, or a private tour of The Prince’s Palace.

Rewards and Recognition

Group travel can also be used as part of an employee reward and recognition program. Whereas incentive programs aim to inspire or influence someone’s efforts, the purpose of rewards and recognition programs are to reinforce certain behaviors.

A qualifying employee may be deemed to be improving customer service, living the corporate values, or meeting productivity goals. A company might create a group travel program ‘award’ as a way to engage with their employees, recognize performance, and reward top achievers.

The format is similar to those held for sales incentives in that, as a reward, the emphasis is on leisure activities, excursions, group dinners, and receptions. It might be a trip to Sir Richard Branson’s private game resort, Ulusaba Lodge in South Africa, with a program that includes safaris, hot air balloon rides, helicopter tours over canyons, and outdoor dinners and receptions with the finest African cuisine.

Employee Motivation

For example, in addition to various dinners and leisure activities, one company’s program included a team building session called ‘Helping Hands’ where employees were given a box of parts and an instruction booklet. Working as a team they had to assemble an object, which later transpired to be a prosthetic hand, which was then given to a land mine victim who had lost their hand.

Customer Loyalty

Another variation of an incentive program is when group travel is used to reward customer loyalty and repeat business. I have actually been on the receiving end on an incentive program organized by the parent company of a group of event industry suppliers.

The parent company owns a caterer, a venue finding company, a staffing agency, and a technical production company—amongst others. They have an incentive program whereby their customers, event companies such as my own, Left Field Productions , have their annual spend with any of the parent company’s businesses converted into points. Once a certain amount of points is accrued, my company qualifies for between one and three places on a group travel ‘award’.

One year this included a three-day trip to Portofino, Italy, where we stayed in the luxurious Hotel Splendido, which sits on a hillside overlooking the Mediterranean and is frequented by celebrities such as Madonna, George Clooney, and Elizabeth Taylor.

The ‘incentive travel program’ is what, up until now, we have been referring to as the ‘award’; it’s the reward element of the entire ‘incentive program’. Among event planners however, the ‘award’ is generally referred to as the ‘incentive travel program’ or just the ‘travel program’. It’s not really regarded as an event, because it’s usually a lot more than that; it’s a program of events and activities over several days or even a week.

Incentive Program

The ‘incentive program’ is the entire scheme that leads up to and includes the ‘award’. The ‘incentive program’ might start up to a year in advance, often it’s unveiled at the end of the current program—perhaps at an awards dinner on the final evening—in order to build excitement.

The incentive program is often unveiled on the final night of the previous year’s incentive travel program.

Teaser Campaign

‘Teasers’ are sent out to participants to build anticipation of the official launch. For example, if the destination is going to be a beach resort, then a flip-flop might be sent to each participant with a cryptic clue attached. Promoting an incentive is all about building excitement, so often the way it is communicated needs to be creating and engaging.

Official Announcement

Official announcement, information packs, and enrolment kits are sent out for participants to ‘sign up’ to the incentive program. These packs will outline the terms and conditions of the program, with information on what is required to qualify, for example defining sales targets.

Qualification period

During this period, which could last up to a year, participants are required to meet the pre-defined criteria that would enable them to qualify for the award, for example hitting sales targets.

Mid-Program Motivation

More teasers and reminders will usually be sent out over the course of the qualifying period to encourage the participants to meet the necessary criteria.

Qualifiers Announced

Qualifiers or ‘winners’ announced. In some cases, physical trophies or other gifts are handed out at this stage, in advance of the actual ‘award’ trip. Shortly after, travel arrangements will be communicated to the qualifiers.

Guests might travel separately from different locations or, alternatively, group travel arrangements will be made where everybody takes the same flight together.

Upon arrival in the destination city, participants might be greeted at the airport by local representatives, before transferring to their hotels. Often the creative elements of the program start here.

For example, when I attended an incentive program in Monaco, we were flown from London to Nice, South of France, and had expected to be driven on to our hotel in Monte Carlo. However, on arrival in Nice, we discovered a series of helicopters had been laid on to transfer us the rest of the way.

Hotel Check-In

Participants are then greeted at the hotel, checked in, and have some time to settle in before the evening’s welcome dinner. Typically a welcome pack and gift is often left in room.

Welcome cocktail reception. An opportunity for everyone to meet and network, perhaps on a private terrace at the hotel, possibly with live entertainment from musicians and performers. Usually the meeting planner will add in a few extra creative touches to make the reception a little more special, such as a wine or tequila tasting.

Open-air dinner in the hotel’s private gardens overlooking the sea, possibly with after-dinner entertainment and/or some speeches from the hosts. Often the first evening’s dinner is held ‘on-site’ at the hotel as people are tired from travelling.

After-Dinner Drinks

Often, on the first night, this is just informal after-dinner drinks in the hotel bar as most people are tied from travelling. However, depending on the group, there might be cigars and cognac laid on, or a private lounge area with cocktails.

Breakfast at the hotel, perhaps followed by an informal meeting or presentation regarding upcoming activities.

Excursion to local attractions, sightseeing, and shopping. These might be cultural activities or the opportunity to take part in authentic ‘real life’ experiences typical of the location—such as exploring the Hutong area of Beijing by bicycle and having tea with locals in their homes.

Group lunch at a restaurant or special venue. Again, this is an opportunity for the meeting planner to get creative perhaps by obtaining access to a venue or location that's typically not accessible to the general public—such as lunch on a movie set or in private rooms at a royal palace.

Afternoon of leisure activities, which depending on the group, might be traditional activities, such as golf or a spa day. Alternatively, it could be more unusual activities like cage diving with sharks or bulldozer adventure playground days. Often, the meeting planner will try to obtain some sort of unique or VIP access, such as getting to kick around footballs with a professional team and star players at their local stadium.

Reception and Dinner

The second day's evening cocktail reception and dinner typically takes place ‘off-site’ at a restaurant or private venue, usually with entertainment. Again this might involve some sort of unusual venue, such as a USO themed event on a real naval base.

Nightclub / Casino

Option to continue on to a local nightclub/casino.

Breakfast at the hotel, perhaps followed by an informal meeting.

Excursion / Activities

More leisure activities, trips, or opportunity to experience local culture. Depending on the group, this could be anything from cave tours, to zero gravity flights at a NASA training facility, to private backstage tours of a Broadway show and an opportunity to meet the cast.

Group lunch at a restaurant or special venue.

Team Building

Team building / experiential activity—sometimes with a connection to the local community or a charity. This might be building a park in the desert for a children's home or the Helping Hand's activity mentioned previously where the group make prosthetic hands to be given to land mine victims who've lost their hand

Dinner/Dance/Awards

Cocktail reception, gala dinner, awards ceremony, and dancing ‘off-site’ at a private venue. Next year's destination/incentive program revealed.

Breakfast at hotel.

Check-out / transfers

Hotel check-out, transfers to airport.

Group lunch at a restaurant or special venue en route to airport

Return flight home

Obviously, this format only outlines the bare bones of a travel program. The challenge for the event planner is in making these programs as creative and engaging as possible—especially when you have to create something new and different every year.

The destination, accommodation, and activities might be amazing in their own right. For example, a three night trip to Hawaii with an itinerary that includes a sunset cocktail cruise, a private dinner on the beach, activities such as surfing, golf, waterfall hikes, hula lessons, and stargazing treks. It might also include excursions to the Diamond Head volcanic crater and Pearl Harbor, before a closing dinner and awards ceremony on the final night.

However, a good planner will make sure they include some extra special moments, private access to people and places, or exclusive experiences that the guests could not create themselves—either through lack of financial resources, local knowledge, contacts, or even imagination.

New Orleans

One leading incentive travel company created a trip to New Orleans for one of its clients, a Fortune 500 company. In addition to the usual 5 star accommodation and the finest local cuisine, the company added some extra touches to make the trip even more special. These included a private parade along Bourbon Street, followed by a dinner on the field of the Superdrome—where they were greeted by a marching band with their names circling on the ribbon board and their photos on the Jumbotron. They even had the chance to toss a few footballs around the pitch.

The following day, to connect with the local community, the group spent the afternoon planting trees and bushes at a newly rebuilt elementary school, which had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The playground and the landscaping that the group contributed to were the final touches to the redevelopment that had been seven years in the making.

Whether it’s providing exclusive access to something not readily available to the public, taking part in authentic ‘real life’ experiences typical of the local culture, or giving something back by connecting with the local community, those moments create memories that go far beyond being a business trip or vacation—and is what makes incentive travel work as a motivational tool.

REFERENCES 1. Anatomy of a Successful Incentive Travel Program White Paper, Melissa Van Dyke, Incentive Research Foundation

Why become an inventive travel planner or destination manager? Career advice and employment information.

The Power of Incentive Travel: Boosting Company Morale and Performance

by J.Shay Team | Jul 28, 2024 | Incentive Travel

In today’s competitive business landscape, keeping employees motivated and engaged is more crucial than ever. One of the most effective strategies companies are increasingly adopting is incentive travel. At J.Shay Event Solutions, we understand the profound impact these programs can have on your organization. In this comprehensive guide, we delve into why incentive travel is important for companies, the metrics to evaluate its success, key considerations for planning, and some useful tips for a seamless experience.

Table of Contents

Why Incentive Travel is Important for Companies

Incentive travel is more than just a fancy perk; it’s a strategic tool that can drive business results. Here are some compelling reasons why incentive travel is essential:

1. Boosts Employee Morale and Motivation

Incentive travel programs recognize and reward employees for their hard work and achievements. This recognition fosters a sense of appreciation and belonging, leading to higher morale. When employees know their efforts can lead to an exciting trip, their motivation to perform at their best increases significantly.

2. Enhances Team Bonding and Collaboration

Traveling together for an incentive trip creates opportunities for team bonding outside the workplace. These experiences help build stronger relationships among team members, improving communication and collaboration. A cohesive team is more likely to be productive and innovative.

3. Increases Employee Retention

High employee turnover can be costly for any organization. Incentive travel programs can increase employee loyalty by making them feel valued and recognized. When employees see that their contributions are rewarded with unique experiences, they are more likely to stay with the company long-term.

4. Drives Performance and Achieves Business Goals

Incentive travel is directly tied to performance metrics. Companies can drive specific behaviors and outcomes by setting clear goals and offering an attractive travel reward. This can lead to increased sales, improved customer service, and overall business growth.

Metrics for Measuring the Success of Incentive Travel

To ensure your incentive travel program delivers the desired results, it’s important to track and measure its impact. Here are some key metrics to consider:

1. Employee Engagement Scores

Before and after the incentive trip, conduct surveys to measure employee engagement levels. Look for improvements in areas such as job satisfaction, commitment to the company, and enthusiasm for their roles.

2. Performance Metrics

Analyze performance data to determine if there is a noticeable improvement in key business metrics. This could include sales figures, customer satisfaction scores, productivity rates, and project completion times.

3. Employee Retention Rates

Track employee turnover rates before and after implementing the incentive travel program. A successful program should contribute to higher retention rates, indicating that employees feel valued and motivated to stay.

4. Feedback and Testimonials

Collect feedback from participants about their experience. Positive testimonials can provide qualitative evidence of the program’s impact on morale, motivation, and overall job satisfaction.

Top Considerations for Planning an Incentive Trip

Planning a successful incentive trip involves several critical factors. Here are the top considerations to keep in mind:

1. Define Clear Objectives

Establish clear, measurable goals for your incentive travel program. Determine what you want to achieve, whether it’s increasing sales, boosting employee engagement, or fostering team collaboration. Clear objectives will guide the entire planning process.

2. Choose the Right Destination

Select a destination that aligns with your goals and appeals to your target audience. Consider factors such as travel accessibility, cultural attractions, and available activities. The destination should be exciting enough to motivate employees but also practical in terms of budget and logistics.

3. Set a Realistic Budget

Determine a budget that covers all aspects of the trip, including travel, accommodation, activities, and meals. Be realistic about what you can afford while still providing a memorable experience. It’s important to balance cost considerations with the quality of the trip.

4. Plan Engaging Activities

The success of an incentive trip largely depends on the activities planned. Offer a mix of leisure and team-building activities that cater to different interests. From adventure sports to cultural tours, ensure there’s something for everyone.

5. Consider Health and Safety

In today’s world, health and safety are paramount. Ensure the destination and activities comply with all health and safety regulations. Provide clear guidelines and support for participants to ensure a safe and enjoyable trip.

6. Communicate Clearly

Effective communication is key to a successful incentive trip. Keep participants informed about the itinerary, travel arrangements, and any special requirements. Clear communication helps set expectations and ensures everyone is on the same page.

Useful Tips for a Seamless Incentive Travel Experience

To ensure your incentive trip runs smoothly, consider these practical tips:

1. Partner with an Experienced Event Planner

Working with a professional event planning company like J.Shay Event Solutions can make a world of difference. We have the expertise and resources to handle all aspects of your incentive trip, from planning and logistics to on-site management.

2. Personalize the Experience

Tailor the trip to meet the unique preferences and interests of your employees. Personal touches, such as customized itineraries and special recognition events, can enhance the overall experience and make participants feel truly valued.

3. Prepare for Contingencies

Despite careful planning, unexpected issues can arise. Have contingency plans in place for potential disruptions, such as flight delays or weather changes. Being prepared will help you handle any challenges with ease.

4. Collect and Share Success Stories

Document the trip and collect stories from participants about their experiences. Share these success stories with your broader organization to highlight the impact of the incentive travel program. This can generate excitement and encourage future participation.

Learn More About Incentive Travel

To explore more insights and tips on incentive travel, check out our other articles:

• Understanding Sales Incentive Programs: Why Sales Incentive Trips are the Ultimate Reward
• Top Destinations for Incentive Travel in 2024
• Unveiling Insights From the 2024 Incentive Travel Study  

Ready to Plan Your Next Incentive Trip?

At J.Shay Event Solutions, we are dedicated to helping companies create unforgettable incentive travel experiences. Our team of experts is here to support you every step of the way, from initial planning to execution. If you’re ready to boost employee motivation and drive business performance, visit our contact page to start a conversation with us today.

Incentive travel is not just a reward; it’s a powerful tool that can transform your organization. Let J.Shay Event Solutions help you harness its full potential and achieve your business goals.

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Corporate Incentive Travel

Thanking your most important stakeholders with the intrinsic value of travel.

Incentive Travel recognizes your company’s top performers or most valuable customers with rewards, incentives, and gifts that inspire high performance, create customer loyalty, and build employee engagement. But don’t be mistaken—crafting incentive travel programs is much more than booking a vacation. When done right, these monumental experiences create a crescendo of strategic moments that weave your organization’s goals and celebrations fluidly through your itinerary to drive impact far more than just your sales figures, they impact your bottom line. 

We understand the complexities of booking large group travel, but even more importantly, we understand the need to curate meaningful moments that bond your team and inspire unwavering loyalty. Lean on Fox for all things incentive travel, including:

• Promoting and communicating your incentive program to ensure team engagement and loyalty
• Optimizing your budget and sourcing the industry’s best properties and partners that share your culture and elevate your mission
• Consulting on program details such as themes, timelines, in-room branded gifting, on property experiences, excursions that matter and rewards that are meaningful
• Evaluating and analyzing the results to the goal of the program
• Hosted site inspections to review properties, outline and define space needs and solidify best fit partners and events
• Traveling onsite with you to support every detail, mitigate any challenges and support travelers as an extension of your team

Associate Rewards

Recognition for intentional results is a proven way to motivate further and inspire others to push their limits. Consider a rewards program as a piece of your total incentive program to elevate and celebrate your best performers.

Sales Incentives

Top sales professionals are motivated by more than just personal goals but by recognition and appreciation from their organization and leaders. While gifts, bonuses, and raises influence sales achievements, meaningful experiences such as incentive travel give a more lasting gift of memories, connection, and engagement.

Corporate Gifting

Surprise travel packages are unexpected, exciting, and inspiring. Plus, it is a wonderful way to show associates how much you appreciate all their efforts. Surprise and delight your associates with those little extras before, during, and after your event or as an inspiration token to drive results before the event.

Gain access to experts who know the properties and industry partners. Our team’s knowledge of current negotiation terms and conditions trends, access to corporate rates, and expertise in hotel and flight inventory will assist with delivering a successful program. Our team mitigates risk and makes the contracting process easy.

Customer Reviews

Fox World Travel has done an amazing job. They truly take all of the worry and craziness out of planning a trip. They are extremely competent, listen to our needs, and make everything feel so easy. And I know this is no easy task. They are always responsive and patient. I love working with them! The entire team is amazing!

We really could tell that everyone at Fox loves what they do and cares about the customer. It’s the same culture we strive for at Bright Orthodontics, and we are so happy with our decision to work with the Fox team to plan our corporate retreat.

I wanted to pass along how happy I am with the work that Fox did for our recent “President’s Club” trip. Given the trip took place in California, had been rescheduled a couple times, people flying in from various airports, covid, etc., they never skipped a beat. My program managers represent Fox World Travel well, and I will gladly work with them on group trips anytime! There’s a reason we never deviate from Fox, you are the best!

The team offered us a full suite of ideas and options. There was such a high level of collaboration. Our program manager had been at that resort just a few weeks before and knew exactly who, what, when, where, and how to create the most meaningful event experiences… from the authentic cuisine, so the fire dancers and final beach closing ceremony. It was like they just knew us; they knew our expectations and they really knew our culture.

There was such a high level of collaboration. Our program manager had been at that resort just a few weeks before and knew exactly who, what, when where and how to create the most meaningful experiences…. from the authentic cuisine to the fire dancers and final beach closing ceremony…it was like they just knew us; they knew our expectations and they really knew our culture.

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6 Benefits of Incentive Travel Programs

• March 7, 2022
• Incentive Travel

Corporate travel incentive programs are cost-effective rewards for top performers . They benefit the company by promoting revenue growth and customer acquisition and increasing sales .

Travel incentive programs create these benefits by using the reward of company-funded travel to a gorgeous and activity-packed destination to boost employee morale, stimulate employee productivity, aid employee retention , and improve ongoing recruitment efforts. These benefits lead to success for the program, revenue growth for the company, and higher reported job satisfaction of the employees.

1. They Pay for Themselves

While it might seem like incentive travel programs have a high price tag, it’s important to consider that cost in the proper context: as a benefit to employees that will incentivize them to do their best work and result in greater benefits to the company over time.

If you haven’t considered an incentive travel program before, it may also be less expensive than you imagine. MTI Events has options available for all different budgets and different types of incentive travel so that any company, big or small, can offer this benefit to employees and see impressive returns!

2. They Boost Employee Morale

When employees feel genuinely appreciated by their managers and the company in general, they’re more likely to have a better attitude that improves all aspects of their work life. You can show employees that their work is appreciated by awarding regular raises and bonuses, but if you want employees to go above and beyond, it’s best to lead by example!

3. They Boost Employee Productivity

Besides increased morale and higher job satisfaction, one of the most significant predictors of employee productivity is stress. While you can’t remove all your employees’ stressors outside of work, you can use incentive travel programs to provide them an opportunity to truly get away from it all for a while.

Being physically away from work and home will allow them to relax. Activities offered at the travel location will help them reenergize by enabling them to try something new or do something they enjoy but don’t have the opportunity to do at home because of time or budget constraints.

It’s also impossible to travel with other people without bonding with them. Incentive travel programs set up a scenario where you’re putting all your top performers in a casual environment where they can get to know each other better and informally discuss business matters. This almost always results in employees returning to work with fresh perspectives and improved tactics for doing their jobs.

4. They Improve Employee Retention

One of the biggest expenses for any company is churn—the cost of training replacements when employees leave the company and paying for coverage while replacements are brought up to speed. While some of this is an inevitable cost of doing business, much of it isn’t.

When employees are happy with their situation, feel competent in their role, get along with coworkers and management, and believe their pay and benefits are generous, they’re more likely to stay with a company for longer. Being generous with employees and sharing the revenue they bring to the company persuades them to stay with you longer.

5. They Improve Ongoing Recruitment Efforts

When you do need to hire new employees, it will be much easier to recruit top talent if you have a workplace full of satisfied employees and a track record of unique benefits like incentive travel programs .

Think about it! If you were a top sales performer with a stellar resumé, which company would you want to work at? The company with the annual Christmas party or the company that sent their top sellers to the Caribbean? (Trick question: you’d want to work at the company that sent their top sellers to the Caribbean for Christmas.)

6. They Increase Revenue

Employees who are satisfied with their company and work at peak productivity will increase revenue for the company. Incentive travel programs aren’t only an excellent way to boost morale and engagement; they’re also a great way to motivate employees to achieve stretch goals well beyond your sales targets.

When people are appropriately incentivized, they’ll work harder to achieve the expectations that have been set for them. There’s no better way to incentivize working professionals than with an incentive travel program .

Reap the Benefits of Incentive Travel with Help from MTI Events!

Planning a travel incentive program involves event planning, location selection, contract negotiation, event production, and related logistics, including negotiating with airlines, hotels, and transportation providers. That’s a lot of work, which is where MTI Events comes into play!

Our hard-working and dedicated representatives are skilled in all aspects of travel incentive programs. We cover all the details and logistics so that you can focus on the most important part of your company’s program: the benefits you’ll experience from the start of the program to the end of the vacation and beyond.

We can build individual incentives , team incentive travel programs , or both. The best part is that you don’t have to set aside time to build, establish, and manage these programs. We’ll take care of them for you! Give us a call at (913) 521-8680 if you have any questions.

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• next post: The 7 Best Corporate Retreat Locations in the U.S.A.

Incentive Event Management For Corporate Travel 

How does incentive event management benefit corporate cultures? Creating incentive travel programs within your place of business is a great way to boost company morale and encourage staff members to put maximum effort into their projects and tasks. However, planning large-scale group travel can be cumbersome if you do not have extensive travel planning experience. Organizing flight, hotels, events, destinations, themes, and team-building activities for groups is a bigger undertaking than most companies who are looking to implement incentive travel realize. This is where working with an incentive travel management company like Incentive Travel Solutions becomes a major asset. 

Corporate travel and event management is a time-consuming task, better served by a dedicated and experienced team with industry knowledge and contacts across the market. Working with corporate events and travel experts allows you to focus on your business and ensures that your travel plans will go off without a hitch. If you are looking for a dedicated incentive event management firm to help you plan your company travel and event planning, Incentive Travel Solutions is here to help. 

Benefits of Working With Incentive Travel Solutions: 

• Domestic and International Destination Knowledge expertise 
• Flight Booking and Hotel reservation management and control 
• Effective Cost Negotiation experience 
• Theme and Destination Planning 
• On-Site Event and Trip organization managers 
• Simplified Event registration and Online Travel Management Portal 
• Incentive Event Management program creation and establishment 
• Promotional marketing assistance system. 

Want To Learn More About Corporate Incentive Event Management? 

If you are interested in learning more about working with an incentive event management company Contact Incentive Travel Solutions here! Incentive Travel Solutions has years of knowledge and experience to share with their clients and ensure your event and travel experience will be unforgettable. Contact us today to speak with a corporate travel expert and get started with your incentive travel journey.

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How to plan incentive events that WOW! 

Incentive events motivate top performers to exceed their goals. Check out these incentive event planning tips to WOW your attendees.

Updated on: Apr 14, 2022 | 4 Min Read

About the author

Caitlin Barrett

Caitlin is a Content Marketing Manager at Webex Events (formerly Socio). As a copywriter turned graphic designer turned content marketer, she loves combining engaging content and good design to create best-in-class experiences for brands and their customers.

Perks like performance bonuses and extra paid time off inspire employees to exceed their business goals, but what about an all-expenses-paid trip to the Caribbean?

As companies compete for top talent and look for exciting new ways to motivate and reward their all-star employees, they often turn to incentive events to show gratitude for a job well done. 

How do incentive events work?

An incentive event is an exclusive trip, excursion, or event employers host to incentivize employees to go above and beyond. The employer sets the parameters in advance and clearly communicates the goals an employee needs to meet to qualify for the recognition program .

Incentive trips can be as simple as a single-day excursion to a theme park or local winery, or as extravagant as a vacation at an all-inclusive resort. The only rule is the incentive trip needs to motivate employees to go the extra mile.  

Nonetheless, if you’re an HR leader, benefits manager, executive assistant, or corporate event planner, keep reading to learn the ins and outs of incentive event planning.

​​Planning a successful incentive event

Create your goals and vision .

As you design your recognition program, make sure to clearly define the goals of your incentive event and what you want attendees to take away. Take advantage of gathering your top performers together and think about how you can create moments to strengthen relationships and encourage cross-department synergies.

Most likely, your incentive event goals will include a mix of:

• Employee recognition
• Team building and networking
• Training and professional development
• Relaxation and fun! 

Define your budget and technology needs

Enlist sponsors to offset costs.

Depending on the size of your organization and the scope of your incentive trip, you may need to raise funds to cover expenses. Sponsors provide the perfect solution.

Incentive event sponsors can help by covering the entire expense (best-case scenario), picking up a portion of the tab, offering cost-reducing services like travel or lodging, or providing relevant swag like hiking backpacks or swim flippers.  

Just make sure to clearly communicate how your incentive event will deliver value to potential sponsors. We recommend designing tiered sponsorship packages to make it easy for brands to fully understand your offerings and choose an option to best serve their needs.

Need help securing event sponsors? Check out The ultimate guide to event sponsorship

Use event technology to simplify everything

If you’re planning a large-scale incentive event, complete with meetings and seminars as well as fun activities, consider an event management platform to automate processes, improve communication, house event materials, and ultimately make YOUR life easier.

With an event management platform, you can go completely paperless! Store event agendas, hotel maps, transportation information, and other key documents in the cloud. Plus, easily communicate with your event attendees and sponsors via push notifications, group and one-on-one messaging, and in-platform social media postings.

An event management platform can help you:

• Power registration, check-in, and onsite badge printing
• Save on paper and printing costs
• Work on the go via a mobile app
• Enhance attendee networking and connection
• Showcase event sponsors in impactful ways
• Level up engagement via gamification, polling, and Q&A

For more planning tips: Event management planning strategies: how to execute a flawless event

Make your incentive event fun 

Effective incentive events inspire employees to strive for their best, so don’t skimp on the fun. Otherwise, it will feel like a typical corporate event, not an exclusive outing for your elite performers.

Popular examples of fun incentive travel include cruises, ski trips, beach vacations, and hiking adventures. For smaller events, you could offer a day trip to a casino or theme park, purchase box seats or a suite to a professional sporting event, or book a private room at the hottest restaurant in town.

The fun should also translate to any meetings, training, or seminars. Your top employees will all be at the event together, and it’s a perfect time to plan activities to boost morale and inspire your people to learn from each other. Use event gamification , such as trivia and other challenges, to make education sessions fun and competitive. Include a dedicated social wall in your event platform for attendees to post pictures, connect, and engage with your content.

Maximizing fun is important, but be careful to not go overboard and fill every waking minute with activities. Giving attendees time to relax and do their own thing can help them feel refreshed and return from the event feeling even more inspired. 

In-person events are back! Watch our on-demand webinar, The new playbook for in-person events .

Make your incentive event easy

Most importantly, incentive events shouldn’t feel like work for your attendees. As the event planner, make sure all of the details are clearly laid out and easily accessible. Provide travel info and communicate key dates, times, and agendas as soon as possible.

Again, this is where an event management company takes your event to the next level. If you use a mobile event app, you can easily store and update event materials in real time. It ensures attendees always have the most pertinent information at their fingertips, no matter on the beach or the golf course. 

Level up your employee incentive events with Webex Events

Ready to simplify incentive event planning with the events industry’s top-rated event management company and platform? 

Schedule a free demo to see how Webex Events can take your incentive event planning to the next level!

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An Introduction to Corporate Incentive Travel and Events

The Key to Planning Effective Employee Incentives

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An incentive event, also sometimes known as an incentive program or incentive trip, is a planned event or tripthat is used to encourage people to achieve a specific business goal. An incentive event is often a program organized to recognize a specific individual or individuals who achieved certain goals whereas incentive travel or an incentive trip is a term usually used to describe a multi-day trip that is awarded to an individual or individuals who achieved specific goals. Most often the goals set are related to sales and business development, but executives and managers have utilized these sorts of incentives for any number of profitable business goals.

How Incentive Events and Travel Work

While these incentives can range from a dedicated local program to an employer-sponsored vacation, when it comes to driving sales, many companies have found that destination-based reward programs (that is to say incentive travel) are some of the most effective forms of employee incentives. Incentive trips can serve as powerful motivation and improve your team’s morale and performance. Who wouldn't want to spend a few days away from work in a beautiful location all on their company's dime?

When it comes to incentive travel, corporate event planners will generally organize an incentive program with a trip to a world-class destination or resorts with the sole purpose of encouraging employees to achieve the specific goals that will qualify them for the trip. The company will promote the incentive travel and the explicit goals that must be met to be eligible, and those who qualify are rewarded with an all-expenses-paid trip.​

What Makes Incentive Events Effective

When executed well, incentive events and incentive trips should both motivate and reward. Good incentive events will inspire employees to reach specific goals as well as serve as a reward for those who accomplish them. While incentive travel can vary from organization to organization and even year-to-year for the same company, the most effective incentives are those opportunities that will pique the interest of your employees.

Ensuring that an incentive trip is incentivizing enough is the first step. The next step for an effective incentive event or trip is to promote the incentive travel and the eligibility criteria (such as sales goals). If employees are not aware of the goals, their deadlines, and the specifics of the incentive, the incentive cannot do its job to motivate performance. While most corporate event planners and the executives or managers involved generally do a great job with the promotion of the incentive travel, they typically fall short in the execution.

Planning Successful Events

One of the most common mistakes with incentive travel and events is in planning the event itself and the follow-up. An effective incentive event should be an interactive and engaging method of inspiring employee morale and performance before, during, and after the event. That is to say that great incentives will motivate employees to attain the goals and the event itself should continue to motivate those high performers.

While incentive events should always have fun and enjoyable components that don't feel like work (it should feel like an award), the most effective events and trips include activities and agenda items that teach and inspire. What better way to reach higher goals next year than to have your top performers learn from one another? In the words of one great event management company, without "fanning the flames of motivation [your incentive event becomes] nothing more than a subsidized business party."

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15 Corporate Incentive Travel Program Tips

By: Angela Robinson | Updated: May 01, 2023

You found our list of the best corporate incentive travel program tips !

Corporate incentive travel programs are initiatives that offer all-expenses paid trips and experiences in exchange for extraordinary performance. For example, a trip to Thailand or Mexico. These programs aim to motivate employees and raise morale, loyalty, and productivity.

Travel incentive programs are one example of employee incentives and employee engagement ideas , and can be a popular employment benefit .

This article includes:

• incentive travel examples
• incentive trips for employees
• group travel incentive programs
• corporate incentives besides travel

Here is the list!

Incentive travel examples

When it comes to destinations and trip experiences, possibilities are endless. Here are a few examples of incentive travel programs to give you inspiration:

• A stay in the British countryside complete with castle tours
• A food tour through Italy or France, or through your home city
• Museum crawl through New York City
• Hotel and tickets to a Broadway or West End show
• A Seine River expedition through Germany
• Weeklong country-hopping tour
• Hiking excursion in the mountains
• Wildlife interaction at a sanctuary
• Wine country visits
• Behind the scenes tour of a nearby brewery
• Weekend stay at a local bed and breakfast
• Tropical beach escape
• Historical tour of a prominent city
• Hot air balloon rides
• Passes and accommodation to a cultural festival
• Company cruises
• Glamping or camping
• Team building retreats

The items on this list provide a solid baseline for program structures, but there are many possibilities for irresistible trips that will drive employees to perform at their best.

Corporate incentive travel program tips

From soliciting suggestions from staff to leveraging social media, here are the steps for creating an effective corporate incentive travel program.

1. Ask your staff for ideas

A travel program is only an incentive if your staff wants to take the trips you choose. Instead of outright guessing, or stealthily scanning your staff’s Instagram vacation posts, ask your staff for destination and activity ideas.

First, gather plausible options for countries, cities, accommodations, excursions, and activities. Then, distribute a survey, and use the feedback to inform your selections. Consider including a write-in option on your questionnaire so employees can point you towards any useful travel resources or discount programs.

2. Determine the goal of your program

The point of an incentive program is to achieve a particular result or encourage a certain behavior. Thus, when designing your incentive trips for employees, it is important to outline the goal.

Corporate incentive travel program objectives may include:

• Specific sales targets
• Increased client satisfaction scores
• Decrease in paperwork errors
• Shorter customer wait times
• Quicker production turnaround time

The goal of the program may include multiple aims, and targets may vary by position or department.

Trips are a significant investment, and organizations expect a worthwhile return on such a weighty investment. By outlining clear goals when introducing the program, you justify the expenditure and link the reward to a clear result.

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3. Provide clear guidelines to staff

Higher management are not the only parties that benefit from having accurate expectations for the program. When announcing the initiative, provide clear guidelines to the staff so employees understand how to earn the rewards. For best results, communicate the necessary targets, performance period timeline, methods of measurement, and ultimate prizes.

You may also want to mention:

• The level of date flexibility for trips. Can attendees choose from multiple months or weekends, or will there only be one date for the trip? If the latter, then disclose the date upfront.
• Whether or not family members and guests can join the trips.
• Included amenities vs add-on options.
• Accommodations the company can make for staff with special circumstances.

Misunderstanding requirements could lead to staff missing out on the opportunity, causing disappointment. Employees want to feel that managers are upfront and honest, and clear communication fosters trust.

4. Consult a travel expert

Corporate travel programs require a great deal of planning and logistics management. Coordinating such a program alone can feel overwhelming, but travel and events companies that specialize in running incentive programs can simplify the process.

Here are some recommended travel incentive companies:

• American Express Meetings & Events
• Creative Group Inc.
• First Incentive Travel
• Peak Performance Meetings & Incentives
• Bishop McCann
• Bi Worldwide
• Fox World Travel
• Maritz Global Events
• George P. Johnson Experience Marketing
• World Travel Inc

Even if you decide not to hire a third-party vendor to manage incentive trips, consider consulting a travel agent or other professional who has experience planning and executing group trips. If nothing else, then read HR blogs for advice. You do not need to reinvent the wheel; you can rely on the guidance of professionals who have seen success with incentives to shape your program.

5. Research multiple vendors

While destination management companies often advertise packages that remove the hassle from corporate travel planning, these all-inclusive offerings are not always the best options for your needs. Working with multiple event providers may be a more cost-effective solution that results in better experiences for your employees.

Consider branching out and enlisting different companies for transportation, accommodations, catering, and experiences such as museum tours or adventure sports outings. At minimum, research and compare multiple destination management companies to ensure you find the best deal and optimal level of service.

6. Negotiate exclusives

Most travel incentive companies work with organizations to create tailored, customized plans. When designing trips, securing exclusive amenities and activities can make the experience even more attractive. For instance, booking an illustrious restaurant for a private party with a special menu, or receiving an after-hours, behind-the-scenes tour of a historical site with an expert. Planning experiences that attendees cannot replicate during personal visits makes the experience feel more unique, which compels employees to work harder to secure their spots on the trip.

7. Use organizational resources

While a travel incentive trip differs from a business trip, branches in other geographical regions can be a great help to your planning process. Offices in other states or countries might be able to make an introduction to a contact such as a travel coordinator, local guide, restaurateur, or hospitality professional that can help you coordinate your trip. You might even take advantage of special corporate discounts or offerings thanks to your relationship with the sister site.

Even if your organization does not have locations worldwide, you may employ a teammate who has previously worked, traveled, or lived in your destination and can offer recommendations. Tapping into your company’s internal resources improves the journey.

8. Stick to a budget

Travel programs are rarely low-cost perks. Expenses like transportation, accommodation, meals, and entertainment add up quickly, even if your group remains local. While increases in worker output and performance often justify the price of the program, it is still important to stick to a budget to ensure a balanced return on investment.

Researching beforehand helps avoid overspending. Before you commit to a destination or travel package, ensure you understand the total cost, including any additional expenditures such as insurance, service fees, non-included meals, transportation between venues, and tips for service staff.

Remember that if employees show interest in pricey experiences that the company cannot cover, then you can compensate by scheduling free time and allowing attendees to purchase optional activities.

Here is a list of ways to spend your budget at year-end .

9. Be liberal with options

Your group is a diverse bunch with a wide range of interests. One employee’s dream trip might not be another’s. To guarantee that all travelers enjoy the experience, arrange an array of activities that suit many tastes. For example, plan a bar crawl one evening and an open mic the next. Or, give attendees the choice between wine tasting, rock climbing, or touring a museum.

When planning activities, keep in mind:

• Physical ability
• Level of socialization
• Dietary needs
• Non-alcoholic options for non-drinkers
• Price, if members pay out of pocket
• Cultural sensitivity and inclusivity

Keep these considerations in mind not only when planning activities, but also when booking trip details. For instance, steer clear of destinations with recent human rights violations or recent racial tensions in favor of diverse and inclusive locations where all guests feel welcome.

10. Focus on the experience more than the destination

While the ability to travel to a foreign country or a lively city is a major draw, the location is not as important as your team’s overall happiness. Instead of fixating on the destination, focus on the experience. You do not need to pick a flashy locale to garner interest in the program. Attendees can have fun in a neighboring town or an off-the-beaten-path destination if you plan meaningful and engaging activities.

When choosing a venue for your trip, explore unconventional options and open yourself to interesting possibilities. Aim to connect your staff meaningfully with the local culture and with each other. Keep an eye out for experiences unique to your host city, and aim to be travelers rather than simply tourists. In essence, unlock the full potential of each city, neighborhood, or business instead of relying on the allure of the destination to do the heavy lifting.

11. Offer resources and assistance

Assuming that every trip member is an experienced traveler is a mistake. Travel programs generate interest among a wide range of attendees, from globetrotters to folks who have yet to step foot in an airport. Because there may be a discrepancy in the travel knowledge within your group, offering resources and assistance is helpful. Even if your package includes transportation, members may need to book plane tickets individually, in which case you should designate a helper to answer questions and resolve issues.

Consider also providing:

• Passport and visa application assistance
• Packing tips
• Applicable CDC advisories and vaccine information
• A guide to cultural norms in your destination country
• Travel medical and insurance resources
• Currency exchange services
• Safety recommendations and emergency contact information

You can equip the group with helpful literature, hold informational sessions, and create online forums where attendees can ask and answer questions, too.

12. Use trips as an opportunity to expand employees’ worldviews

While the trip acts first as an incentive and reward, the vacation can serve as an educational tool, too. By incorporating cultural experiences, you expand teammates’ worldviews, teach empathy, and develop soft skills that enhance employees’ abilities to interact with clients and colleagues.

To capitalize on the effects of the trip, select a destination that pushes staff out of their comfort zone and introduces new viewpoints and experiences. To achieve this end, the destination does not have to be a foreign country. Every country is culturally diverse, and workers benefit from visiting a new region, or even connecting with a distinct subculture close to home. The trip can be an opportunity not only for employees to relax and have fun, but also to grow.

13. Maximize team bonding

Being in an unfamiliar place together can bring a group closer together. Shared experiences are the root of team building, and group trips establish common ground and memories that form a foundation for continuing relationships. Group travel incentive programs can not only save companies time and money, but also supercharge group development. One of the best approaches to travel programs is to maximize team bonding potential by planning group excursions and team building activities and scheduling time for group reflection.

By dedicating Slack channels, social media groups, team chats, pre and post trip sessions, and shared online photo albums to the trip group, you can further fuel interactions between members.

Here is a list of team building ideas to try.

14. Leverage employee testimonials and social media

Organizations devote significant resources to travel programs. One way to optimize return on investment is to leverage employee testimonials and social media as a way to market company culture and motivate colleagues to strive for future travel incentives.

A few suggestions:

• Distribute a survey at the end of the trip. Make the survey completion a scheduled activity, or incentivize feedback by holding a prize drawing in tandem.
• Ask employees to submit photos and captions to the marketing team for the company social media page
• Coordinate a social media takeover campaign where trip attendees schedule content for company social media channels
• Encourage attendees to tag posts on personal accounts with the company handle and a specific hashtag.
• Dedicate blog posts to the experience
• Compile a highlights reel of the trip by editing together video clips
• Allow participants to speak about the trip on a company podcast
• Invite attendees to speak at information sessions for future trips

Most folks appreciate having a platform to share their stories and experiences. This user-generated content has many uses both internally and externally, such as in recruitment materials, marketing projects, and employee engagement campaigns .

15. Offer alternatives to travel

Although travel is an enticing incentive, it is not a universal motivator for all employees. Familial obligations, health complications, fear of flying, or a distaste for travel are examples of conditions that might prevent staff from reaping the rewards of the program. To better suit the needs of your entire organization, offer alternatives to trips, such as material bonuses or more localized experiences. Examples might include a chartered day at a nearby winery, tickets to the hometown sports team game, or extra paid time off. Read the next section for more suggestions on non-travel incentive rewards.

Other corporate incentives besides travel

Travel is not viable to every employee’s circumstances. For a more universally appealing incentive program, consider offering alternatives to travel. The following list offers a few suggestions.

Bonuses are the most common employee incentive. Monetary rewards give employees more autonomy over their winnings, since staff has the discretion to use the extra cash as they see fit. Not to mention, a financial award sends the message that the organization shares extra profits with staff, thus compelling employees to generate more revenue for the company.

When introducing financial incentives, it is important to explain a clear bonus structure so that the staff has a solid understanding of expectations and performance metrics.

2. Extra paid time off

Instead of scheduling a trip for employees, you could offer extra paid time off so that employees can travel when, where, and with whom they prefer. Through this method, your staff may opt for a staycation instead, choosing to use the extra time to catch up on errands, develop side hustles, spend time with family members, or relax at home. This approach signals that the company values employees’ personal time and appreciates work life balance. Plus, offering extra time awards employees more freedom to customize their prize.

3. Concerts

Concerts are close-to-home adventures. Music and nightlife enthusiasts love the chance to attend live performances. Access to sold-out or exclusive events, good seats or entry into VIP areas, and other perks like complimentary food or merchandise sweeten the deal. Partnering with a corporate-facing event company or local concert venue can help you net discounts and special offers for your employees.

4. Sporting events

Tickets or company box seats at a sporting event are an enticing prize for sports fans, salespeople, and anyone who relishes the energy of a live game. Best of all, since seasons consist of many games, you can divide the performance period into multiple benchmarks, and employ ticket giveaways as an ongoing motivator. Also, sports inspire attitudes of camaraderie and teamwork which you can channel into your workplace.

5. Technology

New gadgets and upgrades hit the technology market daily. Keeping all gadgets updated can be a challenge, so technology rewards are tempting incentives.

A few suggestions for technology incentives:

• smartphones
• video game systems
• action cameras
• smartwatches and fitness trackers
• wireless earbuds
• 3-D printers

Consider offering technology upgrades for personal use, work use, or a mix of both. For example, promise to buy high-tech printers for the winning department.

6. Parking spots

Parking can be a surprisingly effective employee motivator, especially if you work in a city with scarce or expensive parking options. Even if the office building houses a company garage, employees may eye a desirable spot. Winning a prized parking spot or a complimentary pass checks one box off of the proverbial to-do list and makes the morning commute less hectic. If parking is not part of your employee benefits package, then consider offering the amenity as a prize.

7. Fitness classes

Fitness is important, but not always inexpensive. While many companies offer wellness credits, gym memberships, or exercise classes as perks, bonus fitness services can make attractive prizes.

Here are some ideas for fitness incentives:

• Home gym equipment
• Subscription to online Yoga classes or Peloton
• Personal trainers
• Workout wardrobes
• Fitness trackers and smart devices
• Unusual exercise classes like parkour or circus aerobics

Even if your company provides regular exercise options, an upgraded fitness experience can serve as extra motivation.

8. Charity donations

Monetary gain is not a universal motivator, and at times philanthropy can drive efforts more effectively than cash rewards. One alternative to material prizes is to donate an agreed amount to a charity of the awardee’s choice.

Pro tip: Allow employees to suggest charities that fall within prescribed guidelines instead of picking from a limited list to ensure that workers can raise money for a cause they are passionate about.

9. Task management services

While you may not be able to give your employees extra hours in the day, gifting task services is the next best option. Hiring professional errand-runners frees up time in your employees schedules for relaxation, self-care, and self-improvement.

Suggestions for task services:

• Grocery deliveries
• Laundry and dry cleaning services
• Cooks or professional meal preppers
• Cleaners or organizing consultants
• Childcare services

Consider gifting credit towards multiple-service providers like TaskRabbit and Thumbtack so awardees can choose the most useful options.

10. Meals with executives

Lunch or dinner with a member of the C-suite serves the dual function of providing a complimentary meal along with quality time with higher management. For best results, offer one-on-one meetings or small group experiences so that every awardee has ample opportunity to interact with the executive. Similar bonding opportunities include golf games, tennis matches, hikes, creative classes, winery or brewery trips, or video game showdowns.

11. Massages and self-care

Some workers might not treat themselves to massages, spa-days, and other self-love splurges, but will indulge if gifted an activity. Pampering experiences inspire employees to achieve a goal while emphasizing the importance of self-care.

Here are some examples of self-care incentives:

• Manicures and pedicures
• Salon appointments
• Meditation session
• Career consulting or meeting with a life coach

These prizes send the message that companies care about employee wellbeing as well as performance.

12. Extraordinary events

Though some folks use the term incentive events interchangeably with incentive trips, at-home events can offer the excitement of travel minus the forms, transportation costs, or downtime at the airport. Extraordinary events give employees opportunities to socialize, participate in new experiences, and make memories with colleagues.

Some examples of event incentives include:

• Improv or standup comedy shows and workshops
• Cooking classes with renowned chefs
• Laser tag tournaments
• Winery or brewery tours
• Cocktail party at the CEO’s house
• Amusement park trips
• Early access to a new venue
• Special sales or product trials

Limiting the number of spots at these events and awarding entry only to high-achieving employees makes the occasion feel more special and motivates staff to strive towards a goal.

Final Thoughts

Travel is one of the most common bullet points on bucket lists, which means that trips serve as a powerful motivator. By affording employees opportunities to travel, you expand their world views and supercharge their relationships with teammates, all while rewarding extraordinary efforts and results and assigning great value to your workers’ contributions.

Next, check out this list of employee wellness program ideas and this list of incentives to return to the office .

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FAQ: Corporate incentive travel programs

Here are answers to the most common questions about corporate incentive travel programs.

What are corporate incentive travel programs?

Corporate incentive travel programs are motivational campaigns that reward top-performing employees with trips or special experiences. The aim of these programs is to increase staff loyalty, morale, and productivity. Incentive programs typically target specific goals such as fulfilling sales quotas, meeting product development deadlines, or raising customer satisfaction scores.

What are some good corporate incentive travel program tips?

Some good corporate incentive travel program tips include:

• Ask your staff for ideas
• Determine the goal of your program
• Provide clear guidelines to staff
• Consult a travel expert
• Research multiple vendors
• Negotiate exclusives
• Use organizational resources
• Stick to a budget
• Be liberal with options
• Focus on the experience more than the destination
• Offer resources and assistance
• Use trips as an opportunity to expand employees’ worldviews
• Maximize team bonding
• Leverage employee testimonials and social media
• Offer alternatives to travel

Though travel programs require extensive planning and organization, following the proper steps can ensure that your program pays off by raising employee output and morale.

What are good companies to use for corporate incentive travel programs?

There are many providers who offer and arrange trips and engaging events for corporate incentive programs.

Here are some recommended companies to use for corporate incentive travel programs:

When selecting a partner organization, research multiple providers and choose an option that fits your company’s budget, company culture, and particular needs.

Do corporate incentive travel programs work?

Travel programs can be powerful motivators. Employer-sponsored trips are an attractive reward, especially when the experiences include exclusives such as exclusive tours, private accommodations, and company parties. Travel programs are an especially compelling incentive for sales teams, though the perk can motivate a vast variety of positions and departments.

Though travel is a hefty investment for organizations, the corresponding rise in productivity is significant. Plus, funding trips signals that employers value their workers efforts and personal growth.

What makes incentive travel programs effective?

Clear goals and benchmarks, measurable metrics, smart internal marketing, meaningful experiences, and attractive awards are all factors that make incentive travel programs effective. The best determinant of the operation’s success is the level of foresight, consideration, and communication that goes into the planning and execution of the program.

Besides travel, what can employers offer in incentive programs?

Some non-travel incentive program rewards include:

• Extra paid time off
• Sporting events
• Parking spots
• Fitness classes
• Charity donations
• Home services
• Meal with an executive
• Massages and self-care
• Extraordinary events

Not every team member is able to travel, yet providing alternate rewards allows dedicated employees to reap the rewards of their efforts.

What is the difference between a corporate incentive program and an employee benefits program?

Organizations offer employee benefits across the board to all workers, although benefits packages might vary depending on position and band level, and individual candidates may be able to negotiate a more attractive package. While benefits programs are ongoing, built-in rewards, incentive programs are auxiliary, often limited-time offers. Corporate incentive programs exist to motivate employees to hit specific targets within a particular time frame.

Author: Angela Robinson

Marketing Coordinator at teambuilding.com. Angela has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and worked as a community manager with Yelp to plan events for businesses.

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Marketing Coordinator at teambuilding.com.

Angela has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and worked as a community manager with Yelp to plan events for businesses.

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How event planners can ensure successful incentive programs.

by Brenna Adkins

January 05th, 2023

Travel | Incentive Programs

Even without a crystal ball, HR experts were predicting that the pandemic would have a huge  impact on how we view work. Suddenly, employers (and employees) realized the daily commute wasn’t really necessary. Doors opened up for positions across the country that didn’t require an expensive move or major life upheaval. This put employees in a powerful position. With labor shortages in many industries, an uptick in the gig economy , a rise in entrepreneurship , a retiring baby boomer generation , and a wide-open job market , suddenly attracting and keeping talent became even more difficult. Business owners and leaders are increasingly looking for ways to not only keep existing employees happy but also to fill open positions with top applicants. To accomplish this, research shows that recognition matters; 63% of employees who feel their employer recognizes their hard work are more likely to stay. Plus, great perks attract more applicants. In addition, the benefits of rewards go well beyond that, and one of the most appreciated rewards is an incentive program. These programs are a great way to tempt talent and reward existing employees, especially when that incentive is travel.

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What Are Incentive Programs?

Incentive program examples, why choose destination events for incentive programs, top incentive travel considerations, top reasons to hire an event planner for your incentive programs.

Incentive programs are designed to motivate employees, customers, or partners to fulfill goals or reach targets within a specific time frame. Their goal is to provide both recognition and a desirable reward. Incentive programs can be offered for:

Sales Teams - Motivate sales reps to surpass sales goals.

Existing Employees - Motivate teams, departments, or all employees to exceed performance expectations or reward them for loyalty (marking a significant milestone of time with the company).

Potential Employees - Word of mouth (or social media) can be very revealing when it comes to how businesses treat their employees. Seeing trips and travel online can pique a potential employee’s interest and move you to the top when it comes to consideration. 

Customers - Reward customers for a variety of reasons, such as order size and frequency; advocacy, promotion, and spokesmanship; and loyalty. 

Dealers and Vendors - Motivate dealers or resellers of your products to sell more or to hit specific targets.

For ages, cash was king. It was the primary way to motivate employees and reward both loyalty and performance. However, times are changing (as is the workforce), and when it comes to a multigenerational workforce, non-monetary rewards are the most popular. Further, incentives can be tailored to meet the needs of all your workers who have various preferences when it comes to benefits and rewards . For that reason, incentives take many shapes but can include:

• Destination events and travel
• Profit-sharing/stocks
• Tuition reimbursement or professional development opportunities
• Classes for enrichment or enjoyment
• Memberships to gyms, museums, or theaters
• Monetary rewards 
• Local experiences (dinners, massages, performances)

Again, the goal here is to find what drives your team, and it doesn’t have to be a single incentive. In fact, some businesses use a point system for incentives and rewards, allowing team members and employees to accrue points and choose their own reward. In this way, they are given the opportunity to work toward several smaller incentives or save points for a larger reward.

74% of Americans prefer experiences over material goods, so gone are the days of a watch or fancy pen as a reward. That means for most employees, the opportunity to share an amazing experience with others will garner the most return on your investment.

Incentive programs also benefit businesses. All of those employee benefits? They also help businesses, translating into a boost in sales productivity (nearly 20%) and a boost in sales themselves (nearly 115%). Further, destination events and incentive travel offer other benefits, including:

Employee retention

Employee recruitment

Team building

Enhanced corporate culture

Productivity perks across teams

Not all destination events need to involve jet-setting to exotic locales, though those are fantastic. There are benefits to just getting team members out of their everyday spaces. That means incentive travel can include a closer weekend retreat that doesn’t require air travel (though travel logistics will still be part of that plan).

No matter the location of your event, guests and hosts alike benefit from travel incentive programs. Travel increases creativity, lowers stress, boosts happiness, and more. Plus, when we consider that millennials ( who love to travel ) make up the largest portion of the workforce at approximately 35%, travel begins to make more sense when it comes to keeping your employees engaged and satisfied. However, planning off-site or destination events can be challenging. There’s so much more that goes into the planning beyond choosing an amazing destination .

Off-site event planning isn’t easy. Whether traveling near or far, there are quite a few things you’ll need to factor in.

1. Determine Your Goal

We mention goal setting often because we cannot stress this enough. Knowing why you’re hosting your event is essential to planning your program. It is the guiding principle that will drive many of your other decisions. First and foremost, it’s a reward and celebration of an achievement; however, it’s perfectly acceptable and suggested to have secondary goals as well.

One of the biggest considerations you’ll need to make is your budget. Knowing what you can spend will likely determine the location, venue, and any vendors you’ll be able to work with. It’s one reason why working with an event planner is a great choice, as their established relationships with venues and vendors can help stretch your budget.

3. Location and Venue 

The reward should match the goal, so factoring in both location and event venue will be huge considerations. If it’s a major milestone, the setting should reflect that, but you’ll want to be careful not to overdo should a more significant milestone or goal be achieved. You’ll also want to make sure you’re factoring in travel time and accessibility. Further, consider your audience. Different demographics prefer different types of travel (for example, millennials prefer adventure!).

A corporate event theme is more than just decorations; it can and should be what brings together your event and your goals. The theme can be tied into various elements (such as your location or gifts) and should reflect your brand, messaging, or achievement. This is another aspect in which an event planner can help. Keeping everything cohesive amplifies the message you’re seeking to convey.

5. Entertainment

While some venues have entertainers they work with or even entertainment on site (depending on the location and venue), securing engaging entertainment can be challenging. Not only do you want to find acts that will delight your guests, but those acts also need to fit within your budget and be able to perform at the location. If you’re going to include entertainers, talk to the venue (and talk to an event planner!).

6. Technology

When hosting events off site, you want to make sure your tech game is top-notch . In contrast, on site means you likely have near or total control over the technology available and its functionality. Some venues may offer more or different technology options than you’re used to (or less), but the bottom line is that you should know what you’re getting and how to use it.

7. Excursions 

Excursions are bonus opportunities for your guests, but because of the planning required, they add to the logistics. Depending on the destination and venue, transportation to excursions may be provided. However, in other situations, you might have to arrange transportation, as well as taking into account other considerations (waivers, etc.). 

Planning an event can be time consuming, but when you add in the logistics of travel, venues, dining, excursions, entertainment, and gifts, there are tons of moving parts. In addition to the arrangements made before the trip, there’s management and oversight that must occur both during and after the trip. Event planners:

• Provide years of expertise in event planning, logistics, and management
• Advise on creative aspects that add value and create memorable experiences
• Create event promotion and marketing plans 
• Leverage existing relationships with venues and vendors to stretch your budget and provide opportunities 
• Guide your guests through the entire process and address problems as they arise
• Handle travel needs throughout the trip
• Negotiate entertainment and live performances
• Ensure technology not only works but also enhances the experience
• Ensure that you and your team enjoy the event and interact with guests

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Tips to Improve an Incentive Travel Program

Improving upon your incentive trip year after year is a daunting task. Coming up with fresh ideas and finding new experiences that your audience gets excited for is a monumental project of its own. This eBook to improve an incentive travel program breaks down nine tips from the experts to breathe new life into your trip.

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How to Start an Incentive Travel Program

Whether your company is about to start an incentive travel program or revamping your current one, download the complete incentive travel how-to guide as your roadmap to creating an unforgettable program. The seven keys to success covered in this eBook are necessary pieces of every incentive trip.

Incentive Program How-To Guide

Packed with 70 pages of incentive tips, actionable advice, and industry research, this free download will guide you through progressive steps of incentive design, administration, and measurement. Be sure to take advantage of the Planning & Design Worksheet you can use as a guide.

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17 Ideas for Your Future Incentive Events

September 5, 2019

Home - Blog - 17 Ideas for Your Future Incentive Events

Your employees work hard for you all year long. To thank them and acknowledge their accomplishments, you may hold  internal  or incentive events, programs or trips.

To help you celebrate your employees, we’ve researched the best corporate event ideas, and curated a list of the top 17 ideas for your next incentive event. Check them out.

Top 17 Ideas for Your Next Incentive Event

Give your employees the tools they need to improve their own wellness, by choosing yoga as your next incentive event. An Stova-employee-approved and continually requested incentive event, yoga is a great way to de-stree employees and promote wellness.

2. Managers and Executives Cook for Employees

Treat your employees to a special breakfast, lunch, or happy hour by having their managers or executives host and cook for them. This is a great way for managers and executives to display their appreciation for their employees.

3. Cooking Class

One of Stova’s go-to incentive events, Cooking Classes are a great way to  engage employees , while teaching them something new. You can hire a professional chef and hold the cooking class at their restaurant or in your office.

4. Stand Up Comedy

Raise your employees’ spirits by visiting a local stand-up comedian or improv group. Stand-up comedians not only will make your employees laugh, but they will also interact with them throughout the whole experience.

5. Ice Cream Social

Put on a sweet event, by holding an ice cream social for your next incentive event. You can have an ice cream sundae bar, boozy slushies, and more. Stova recently did this in our Norwalk office and our employees were melting over the homemade treats.

6.  Laser Tag

Get your employee’s adrenaline pumping by hosting your next incentive event at your local laser tag studio. Not only will laser tag help your employees break a sweat, it will promote team building and trust among peers.

7. Theme Lunches

Channel your employees’ inner foodies, by holding a theme lunch for your next incentive event. Some popular themed lunches that Stova employees have loved are breakfast for lunch, pizza parties, nacho party, Shake Shack, and more.

8. Dress-up the Boss

Give your employees a reward they’ll never forget by dressing up their boss for your next incentive event. Based on survey results from your employees, the boss and executive will have to dress up in a particular costume, a Disney princess, a tutu, an animal costume, etc., and employees can pose with them.

9. Sports Game

Whether it’s a major or minor league football, baseball, or other sporting events, gather your team and take them to the local stadium for a sports game. Whatever the event, employees can enjoy stadium food and bond with each other in team spirit and competition.

10. Mystery Murder Dinner

Mystery Murder Dinners are a beloved classic, and perfect for incentive events. Not only will this event keep your employees engage, but your employees will be randomly assigned to a group, so they can work and solve the murder mystery with peers in the company they normally don’t get to work with.

11. Hiking Trip

Take the event and adventure outdoors, by taking your employees for a hike. Pick a local, scenic location and reward employees after with some good food and drinks. Stova’s Pune office just did this and trekked to Torna Fort Castle in India.

12. Rent an Airbnb for the Day

Utilize your local  Airbnb  mansions, and host your next incentive event at one of them. Not only are there often great deals on Airbnb but renting an Airbnb for employees allows them to relax and connect with each other.

13. Hatchet Throwing

Let your employees blow off some steam and de-stress by taking them to your local hatchet throwing studio. According to Stova’s Reading office, the hatchet throwing as an incentive event was a “hit”.

14. Golf with the Boss

Treat a select group of employees to a round of golf with their manager or executive at a local course. If no one plays golf, mini-golf is still a good option. Both activities get employees out of the office and allow employees to spend quality one-on-one time with their boss.

15. Trampoline Park

Channel your employees’ inner kids, by hosting your next incentive event at a Trampoline Park. Not only are Trampoline Parks a ton of fun (according to our own employees), they are also a great workout!

16. Winery or Brewery

Travel to your local winery or brewery and treat your employees to a tasting, vineyard tour, and winemaking demonstration. Afterwards, you can host a company picnic overlooking the vineyard.

17. Company Field Day

Find a local park or field and host a company field day for your next incentive event. You can create teams and have employees play each other in an array of games like volleyball, water balloon toss, obstacle courses, sack races, and more. Stova’s  offices across the globe  love to do this. It’s competitive, fun, and relaxing!

What do you think of these top 17 incentive event ideas? Have you held any of these incentive events? How did they go?

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Harris to embark on a seven-state campaign blitz with her VP pick

Vice President Kamala Harris will set out this week on a swing-state campaign blitz, giving her a far heavier travel schedule than her opponent, former President Donald Trump.

It will be a critical week for Harris, who is rushing to introduce herself to voters with just three months until Election Day. It will also be the first time she will appear with her yet-to-be-announced running mate.

Starting Tuesday, Harris will campaign across seven swing states over five days, one of the heaviest weeks of campaign-related travel in the general election.

Her team has vetted six contenders to be her running mate: Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Walz, Shapiro and Kelly each met separately with Harris on Sunday, according to a source familiar with the meetings.

Harris is set to appear alongside her running mate for the first time Tuesday in Philadelphia , where the pair will kick off the cross-country tour.

Her travel swing is a stark contrast to the pace of Trump and President Joe Biden. Trump has delivered remarks in 10 states since the June 27 debate, while Biden traveled to campaign stops in eight states during the final 24 days of his candidacy. Harris’ travel this week will take her to seven states in less than a fourth of the time.

Harris will visit five states that she and Biden flipped blue in 2020: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia and Arizona. She will also make stops in North Carolina, which Biden lost by a slim margin, and Nevada, where Democrats won narrowly.

The trip highlights the generational gap between Harris compared with Biden and Trump, Democratic allies said.

Biden’s candidacy was consistently plagued by voter concerns about his age, and his final weeks as the presumptive nominee were punctuated by a stream of congressional Democrats urging him to pass the torch to a new generation.

“Age really does matter” when it comes to a candidate’s ability to commit to long campaign trips, said Amanda Renteria, who was the national political director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.

Harris, 59, is a generation younger than Trump, 78, and Biden, 81.

In 2020, Biden was the oldest presidential winner in history. If elected, Trump would be the oldest sitting president by the end of his term.

“It is amazing what candidates can do when they’re traveling around, and you don’t know what time it is, and you don’t know what day it is, but everyone’s in it,” she said. “And you can only sustain that for so long. And when you’re at the age of Trump, I don’t know how you keep up with that.”

Trump is scheduled this week to hold a rally Friday and deliver remarks at a dinner in Montana, a state he won in 2020 with 56.9% of the vote. He is also scheduled to hold a fundraiser Saturday in Colorado, which Biden won by a similar margin in 2020. Neither state is considered to be a swing state.

Reached for comment, Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung pointed to the overall difference in the number of Trump and Harris campaign trips.

"In this cycle, President Trump has by far visited more battleground states, held more rallies, held more fundraisers, done more interviews and engaged with local reporters," Cheung said of Trump, who launched his campaign more than a year and a half before Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee.

"Kamala Harris can’t even give a simple media interview since she was anointed the Democrat nominee," he continued. Harris has not held a sit-down media interview since Biden dropped out of the race on July 21, though she has answered journalists' questions in media gaggles.

In the days after Biden's widely panned June debate in Georgia, his campaign was in damage control mode. Biden spoke at a North Carolina rally and traveled to fundraisers in New York, New Jersey and Virginia before he held a rally in Wisconsin.

His next campaign trips were to Pennsylvania, Michigan and Nevada, the last of which was cut short when he contracted Covid. Days later, he dropped out of the race.

Democratic National Committee spokesperson Abhi Rahman said that if Biden had stayed in the race, "I'm sure that there would have been blitzes like this, as well."

But now "there's definitely a lot of desire to make sure that the vice president is defining herself and her VP before Republicans get a chance to," Rahman said. "So the timing of this definitely goes with that."

When Biden was the presumptive nominee, the Trump campaign aimed many of its attacks at his cognitive ability, leaning into voters' concerns about his age. But with Harris' being a generation younger than Trump, Republicans have had to pivot their approach.

"I think she's making a point of her relative youth and vitality," said Bill Galston, a Brookings Institution fellow and official in President Bill Clinton's administration. "It's a point that she doesn't have to talk about because she's just showing it."

Harris' campaign swing is also consistent with how candidates typically pick up the pace as the election draws closer, said Aleigha Cavalier, a Democratic strategist at the strategy and marketing agency Precision Strategies. But she said Harris' travel pace compared to Trump's and Biden's is "a real advantage."

"I think the fact that she's willing and able to do this many events in a small amount of time is something that can make a real difference, especially when we're less than a hundred days out" from the election, Cavalier said.

Traveling for campaign events can create more opportunities for local media coverage, accelerate fundraising and identify potential future volunteers, said Eric Jaye, a Democratic consultant at Storefront Political Media, a campaign consulting firm. But most important, candidates are activating thousands of "micro-influencers" at rallies, he said.

"They're all holding up their phones, and they're all publishers," he said, adding that when rallygoers post pictures of themselves with a candidate, "that will go out to their networks, which is an endorsement for their networks."

"If you can get 10,000 people to share that they trust Kamala Harris, that has an impact as a form of media and communication in and of itself," Jaye said. "So essentially these are conventions of micro-influencers."

Already, the Harris campaign has touted a groundswell of volunteer support, noting in a memo released Saturday that over the previous 12 days, volunteers had placed 2.3 million phone calls and knocked on 172,000 doors.

The seven-state tour “shows that she has a ton of energy,” Renteria said. “It shows that her campaign is ready to go and is thinking through things and able to execute well. So it’s super exciting.”

Megan Lebowitz is a politics reporter for NBC News.

Where are the 2028 Summer Olympics? What we know about Los Angeles 2028

The 2024 Paris Olympics will officially hand over the Olympic flame to Los Angeles for the highly anticipated 2028 Summer Games , marking a significant return of the historic event to LA for the first time since 1984.

The Olympics have a rich history in Los Angeles, having hosted the games for the first time in 1932 and again in 1984. The 2028 event, like the 1984 Summer Games, will continue the tradition of sustainability by relying on existing venues to host competitions.

Los Angeles' bid for the Olympics began in 2015, and in 2017, the International Olympic Committee announced Los Angeles as the host of the 2028 Summer Games, according to LA28.org .

Here is everything we know about the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad, which will take place in Los Angeles in 2028.

Paris Olympics closing ceremony: How to watch the farewell to the 2024 Games

2024 Paris Olympics: Follow USA TODAY’s coverage of the biggest names and stories of the Games.

When is the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games opening ceremony?

The opening ceremony for the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games will be held on July 14, 2028 and the Paralympic Games opening ceremony will be held on August 15, 2028.

When is the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games?

The 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games will begin on Friday, July 14, 2028 and conclude on Sunday, July 30, 2028. This will be the first time the world event returns to the United States since Atlanta hosted in 1996.

What sports will be featured in the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games?

The 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games will feature iconic Olympic events such as gymnastics, swimming, track and field, and basketball, to name a few events. The IOC executive board has approved the addition of five sports that include men's and women's flag football, cricket, lacrosse, squash, baseball, and softball.

A total of 36 sporting events have been approved for the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games.

Election Highlights: Harris and Walz Rally in Las Vegas to End Their Introductory Tour

Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota were in Nevada for the final rally of their tour of battleground states. Former President Donald J. Trump tested a new attack at an event in Montana.

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Chris Cameron Michael Gold and Simon J. Levien

Here’s the latest on the presidential race.

Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, campaigned in Las Vegas on Saturday night, the final stop on their introductory tour of battleground states that began in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

Earlier on Saturday, new polls by The New York Times and Siena College showed Ms. Harris ahead of former President Donald J. Trump by four percentage points in the critical battlegrounds of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan. The surveys of likely voters in each state were conducted from Aug. 5 to 9.

The polls were the latest sign of Ms. Harris’s political momentum since she announced that she had chosen Mr. Walz to be her vice-presidential candidate. The new ticket has been drawing large crowds, including at a rally in Glendale, Ariz. , on Friday that the Harris campaign claimed had more than 15,000 people in attendance, which would have been its biggest rally yet.

Mr. Trump was scheduled to attend fund-raisers in Jackson Hole, Wyo., and Aspen, Colo., on Saturday. On Friday, he unveiled fresh attacks against Ms. Harris during a campaign event in Bozeman, Mont., twice interrupting his speech to play compilations of some of her past remarks that his campaign hopes will portray her as overly liberal and inept.

Mr. Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, rallied near Las Vegas last week , denouncing the vice president’s role in the Biden administration’s border policies. At her Arizona rally, Ms. Harris said she supported “strong border security and an earned pathway to citizenship.”

Here’s what else to know:

A twist on that helicopter tale: Mr. Trump spent Friday doubling down on his story of nearly crashing during a helicopter ride with Willie Brown, the notable Black politician from California. Another Black politician from California, Nate Holden, said in an interview with The New York Times that he had been on a helicopter ride with Mr. Trump around 1990 when the aircraft experienced mechanical trouble and was forced to make an emergency landing in New Jersey.

A first-time endorsement: A Latino rights group backed Ms. Harris , breaking with its 95-year history of abstaining from formal presidential endorsements. The League of United Latin American Citizens, known as LULAC, said its members were stirred to action by concerns over the potential negative impact on Latinos if Mr. Trump were elected again.

Not an endorsement: Joe Rogan, the world’s most popular podcaster, backpedaled on comments he made on Thursday that seemed to throw his support behind the independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. After backlash from Mr. Trump’s supporters, Mr. Rogan, the podcaster with a large, devoted following that leans young and male, posted on X that what he said was not “ an endorsement. ” Another podcaster, Tim Pool, also expressed his support for Mr. Kennedy before quickly switching his support to Mr. Trump in the face of withering criticism from Trump supporters.

A tale of two very different bank accounts: Mr. Vance and Mr. Walz both came from modest backgrounds in the Midwest, but their personal fortunes have wildly diverged since then. Mr. Vance is a multimillionaire. Mr. Walz has much less than that, and is already emphasizing that contrast on the campaign trail .

Generating buzz: A high school class lesson that Mr. Walz gave 31 years ago is getting new attention online . As a geography teacher in Nebraska in 1993, Mr. Walz asked his students to take what they had learned about the Holocaust to predict which nation was most at risk for genocide. “They came up with Rwanda,” Mr. Walz said, talking about the project at a conference last month . “Twelve months later, the world witnessed the horrific genocide in Rwanda.”

David E. Sanger and Michael Gold

David E. Sanger reported from Wellington, New Zealand. Michael Gold reported from Bozeman, Mont.

The hacking of presidential campaigns begins, with the usual fog of motives.

For the third presidential election in a row, the foreign hacking of the campaigns has begun in earnest. But this time, it’s the Iranians, not the Russians, making the first significant move.

On Friday, Microsoft released a report declaring that a hacking group run by the intelligence unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had successfully breached the account of a “former senior adviser” to a presidential campaign. From that account, Microsoft said, the group sent fake email messages, known as “spear phishing,” to “a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign” in an effort to break into the campaign’s own accounts and databases.

By Saturday night, former President Donald J. Trump was declaring that Microsoft had informed his campaign “that one of our many websites was hacked by the Iranian Government — Never a nice thing to do!” but that the hackers had obtained only “publicly available information.” He attributed it all to what he called, in his signature selective capitalization, a “Weak and Ineffective” Biden administration.

The facts were murkier, and it is unclear what, if anything, the Iranian group, which Microsoft called Mint Sandstorm, was able to achieve.

Mr. Trump’s campaign was already blaming “foreign sources hostile to the United States” for a leak of internal documents that Politico reported on Saturday that it had received, though it is unclear whether those documents indeed emerged from the Iranian efforts or were part of an unrelated leak from inside the campaign.

The New York Times received what appears to be a similar if not identical trove of data from an anonymous tipster purporting to be the same person who emailed the documents to Politico.

Either way, the events of the past few days may well portend a more intense period of foreign interference in a race whose sudden turns, and changes of candidates, could have thrown the hackers off their plans.

Russia has so far played a relatively minor role, investigators and cybersecurity experts say, focusing instead on seeking to undermine both the Olympics, from which it was barred from fielding its own team, and support for Ukraine. And while American intelligence officials say they have little doubt that Russia wants to see Mr. Trump return to office, Chinese hackers, they say, seem uncertain how to play the election; they have reason to dislike both Mr. Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

There is little doubt, investigators say, that the Iranians want to see Mr. Trump defeated. As president, he withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal, reimposed economic sanctions on Iran and then, in January 2020, ordered the killing in Iraq of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani , the commander of the Quds Force, a clandestine wing of the Revolutionary Guards responsible for foreign operations.

Four years later, the Revolutionary Guard Corps appears still determined to avenge Suleimani’s death, and just last week the Justice Department announced it had charged a Pakistani man who had recently visited Iran, accusing him of trying to hire a hit man to assassinate political figures in the U.S. , most likely including Mr. Trump. (There is no evidence that Iran was involved in the July 13 attempt on Mr. Trump’s life in Butler, Pa.)

Mr. Trump often casts his actions against Iran as evidence of his strength, despite the fact that his exit from the Iran deal gave Tehran an opening to rebuild a nuclear program that had been hobbled by the 2015 agreement. Still, the combination of the hack and the hit men looking for Mr. Trump and his former aides gave the former president an obvious foil, and he was using it over the weekend to make the case that the Iranians would prefer a continuation of the Biden-Harris administration.

Microsoft stopped short of saying that the hacking effort it detected was focused on Mr. Trump’s campaign, though the campaign itself said that was the case. In an interview, Tom Burt, the head of the company’s customer security and trust team, said that in June, “the Iranian team associated with Iranian intelligence” operations of the Revolutionary Guards successfully breached the email account of a former campaign adviser, whom the company did not name. From that account, he said, the Iranians sent a spear phishing email to an official of a presidential campaign.

While it would have appeared to the recipient to have come from the former campaign adviser, Mr. Burt refused to say whether the targeted campaign was also Mr. Trump’s. By long-established practice, Microsoft says, it can reveal such details only with the permission of the victim of an attack.

In many ways, the effort was similar in technique to what Iran attempted when it sought to interfere in the 2020 presidential campaign . This time, however, the Iranian effort looks to have been more sophisticated — namely, through the hacking of a trusted intermediary — suggesting the hackers learned something from what the Russians accomplished in past campaigns, notably in 2016.

But Mr. Burt said the company could not determine if the effort was successful in penetrating the campaign it targeted.

The documents sent to Politico, as it described them, and to The Times included research about and assessments of potential vice-presidential nominees, including Senator JD Vance, whom Mr. Trump ultimately selected. Like many such vetting documents, they contained past statements with the potential to be embarrassing or damaging, such as Mr. Vance’s remarks casting aspersions on Mr. Trump.

In a statement on Saturday, Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, preemptively chastised outlets that reported on any information that was improperly obtained.

“Any media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America’s enemies and doing exactly what they want,” he wrote.

The 2016 election that Mr. Trump won was marked by similar “hack and leak” efforts after Russian hackers broke into the email accounts of top Democratic officials. Leaked emails showed the internal workings of the party and of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and also revealed criticisms of Mrs. Clinton by aides, and a trove of them was published by WikiLeaks in the final weeks of the presidential race.

Seeking an edge then, Mr. Trump’s campaign seized on the emails — many of them from Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chair, John Podesta. “We love WikiLeaks,” Mr. Trump declared at the time.

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Nicholas Nehamas Reid J. Epstein and Kellen Browning

Nicholas Nehamas reported from Las Vegas, Reid J. Epstein from Washington and Kellen Browning from Phoenix.

Rallying in Las Vegas, Harris pledges to end federal taxes on tips.

Vice President Kamala Harris said on Saturday that she would seek to end federal income taxes on tips if she were elected president, mirroring a policy proposal that former President Donald J. Trump made earlier this year.

The proposal from Ms. Harris — which she announced in Las Vegas, where thousands of casino employees depend on tipped wages — is a priority of Nevada’s influential Culinary Workers Union. Both Ms. Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, recognized the union in their remarks to a packed basketball arena on Saturday night.

“When I am president,” Ms. Harris told the Las Vegas crowd, “we will continue our fight for working families of America, including to raise the minimum wage and eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers.”

The “no tax on tips” pitch has garnered bipartisan support since Mr. Trump first floated it in June , including from Senator Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican, and both of Nevada’s Democratic senators, Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen. Mr. Trump also announced his support for the policy in Las Vegas.

The former president responded immediately to Ms. Harris’s proposal on Saturday night, posting on his social media website, Truth Social, that she had “copied” his own. “This was a TRUMP idea,” he wrote. “She has no ideas, she can only steal them from me.”

The Las Vegas stop was the last public event of a five-city introduction of the Harris-Walz ticket. As with the other rallies, Ms. Harris and Mr. Walz drew a crowd many times larger than any that had shown up for President Biden while he was seeking re-election.

By Saturday, there were signs that some of the Democrats’ good vibes may have an expiration date. The Harris campaign said Mr. Walz “misspoke” when he said he had carried weapons of war “in war” in a video articulating his views on gun control. And Ms. Harris, before her event in Las Vegas, answered several questions from reporters for the first time since becoming the Democratic nominee — a development that took place after pressure from Mr. Trump and his campaign.

But overall, the week’s rollout was widely viewed as a success. Ms. Harris has engendered more enthusiasm than any Democratic nominee since Barack Obama in 2008. The appointment of Mr. Walz as her running mate took place without any significant grumbling from the party — a bit of a surprise after a two-week vice-presidential audition that surfaced ideological divisions in the party, particularly over the war in Gaza.

On Saturday, Mr. Walz urged the crowd at the arena on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas — which the campaign said included more than 12,000 people — not only to vote for the Democratic ticket but also to work to ensure their friends and neighbors did, too.

“I know very clearly that I am preaching to the choir,” Mr. Walz said. “But here’s my words for you: The choir needs to sing. The choir needs to sing.”

During stops in Philadelphia , Wisconsin , Detroit and Arizona , Ms. Harris and Mr. Walz spoke to capacity crowds. By the end of the week, the high points in their stump speeches had become familiar enough to audiences that people in the crowd shouted them along with the candidates. All told, the new running mates drew more than 64,000 attendees to their rallies, according to estimates from the campaign.

“Aren’t they a breath of fresh air?” Representative Susie Lee, Democrat of Nevada, asked attendees in Las Vegas.

Mr. Biden had trailed Mr. Trump badly in Nevada, where inflation is a top concern for many voters. But Ms. Harris has tightened that gap significantly since Mr. Biden dropped out.

On Friday, the vice president secured the backing of the Culinary Workers Union, an endorsement that will likely add to her campaign’s organizing operation and eventual voter turnout.

The culinary union is a 60,000-member organization that represents casino and hotel workers and has been a key part of the coalition that has helped Democrats win in Nevada.

Mariana Swanson, a culinary union member who worked as a restroom attendant at a Las Vegas nightclub where she depended on tips, said Ms. Harris’s announcement came as a “shock,” though a welcome one.

“It’s more money for taking care of your family,” said Ms. Swanson, 43, a Democrat and one of many attendees wearing a red culinary union T-shirt. “It’s more money for paying your bills.”

With her promises to raise the minimum wage and eliminate taxes on tips, Ms. Harris seemed to preview the planned release of her policy platform next week. She had told reporters earlier on Saturday that the platform would focus on the economy and lowering costs for working families.

In addition to rank-and-file Democrats, wealthy donors are also responding to the new ticket. On Sunday, Ms. Harris was scheduled to attend a fund-raiser in San Francisco that drew more than $12 million in contributions, her campaign said.

Ms. Harris’s crowd in Las Vegas would have been larger than it was, but law enforcement officials closed the doors as people fell ill while waiting outside the arena in temperatures that reached 109 degrees. Roughly 4,000 people were in line at that point and had to be turned away, the Harris campaign said.

“Don’t worry,” a hoarse-voiced Mr. Walz promised those who had made it inside. “We’re going to be back a lot.”

Before the rally began, thousands of attendees stood and danced in their seats waving Harris-Walz signs, as disco remixes, hip-hop and Latin pop blared over the speakers and the arena’s lights flashed in multicolored rhythm.

“We’ve got a party up in here,” D-Nice, a D.J. and the event’s M.C., shouted to roars of approval. “Let’s light this place up.”

Nicholas Nehamas

Harris has wrapped up here in Las Vegas. She made news by endorsing a “no tax on tips” proposal that has wide bipartisan appeal and had previously been proposed by Trump.

Vice President Harris just said that as president she would support making tipped income tax-free, a major issue in Nevada, where much of the economy is service-based. It’s a proposal that has already been floated by her Republican opponent, former President Donald J. Trump.

Harris also expressed support for raising the federal minimum wage. She told reporters earlier today that she would release her policy platform next week, with a focus on the economy and on lowering costs for working families.

Michael Gold

Donald Trump accused Harris of copying his “no taxes on tips” policy. In a post on his social media site, Truth Social, he wrote that Harris “has no ideas, she can only steal from me” and insisted that she would not follow through on the pledge. “This was a TRUMP idea,” he wrote.

Harris is now joining Walz onstage to deafening cheers from the crowd.

Walz is telling the story of his decision to join the National Guard at 17. Republicans have raised questions about his decision to retire from the Guard more than two decades later when it was rumored his unit would be deployed to Iraq.

Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota has taken the stage, his first visit to the crucial swing state of Nevada as Harris’s running mate. “I’m melting like a snowman outside,” the Minnesotan says of the Las Vegas heat.

Tilly Torres, a Las Vegas teacher, is introducing Harris. She said she had $87,000 in student debt forgiven through the Biden administration’s actions, one of its more popular initiatives. “For the first time,” Torres said, “I have financial freedom.”

Torres also has kind words for Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, Harris’s running mate, saying that if he can “handle a high school lunch room,” then the vice presidency will be a piece of cake.

Beyonce’s song “Freedom” is blasting through this packed college basketball arena in Las Vegas, meaning Harris will soon appear.

Vice President Kamala Harris is 35 minutes and counting behind schedule for her remarks in Las Vegas tonight.

Reid J. Epstein

The Harris campaign said it was set to raise $12 million at a San Francisco fund-raiser on Sunday. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to speak to some 700 people.

Theodore Schleifer

Fun fact — that $12 million is precisely the amount that former President Donald J. Trump raised in San Francisco at an event this summer. But Trump raised it from only about 100 people.

The Harris campaign says that more than 12,000 people are attending her rally in Las Vegas tonight. But law enforcement officials closed the doors as people fell ill while waiting outside in temperatures that reached 109 degrees. Roughly 4,000 people were in line at that point and had to be turned away, the campaign said.

Don’t expect to hear this later from Vice President Kamala Harris, but one of her warm-up speakers, Representative Dina Titus, a Nevada Democrat, just made a joke about a false rumor circulating on the internet about Senator JD Vance of Ohio, former President Donald J. Trump’s running mate. “You better hide behind that sofa because we’re coming for you,” Titus said to laughter from a crowd of thousands.

The crowd here quickly joined Representative Steven Horsford, Democrat of Nevada, in a chant of “We’re not going back,” a rallying cry in Harris’s stump speech. The easy recognition shows how familiar Democrats are growing with her applause lines.

Nicholas Nehamas Jazmine Ulloa and Shane Goldmacher

Nicholas Nehamas reported from Las Vegas, Jazmine Ulloa from Washington and Shane Goldmacher from Phoenix.

Harris hopes a new playbook will neutralize G.O.P. attacks on immigration.

For weeks, Republicans have pummeled Vice President Kamala Harris on immigration, blaming her for President Biden’s policies at the border.

Now, Ms. Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, is seeking to neutralize that line of attack, one of her biggest weaknesses with voters, running a playbook that Democrats say has worked for them in recent elections and staking out her clearest position yet as a tough-on-crime prosecutor focused on securing the border.

This week, she has hit back by promising to heighten border security if elected and slamming her Republican opponent, former President Donald J. Trump, for helping kill a bipartisan border deal in Congress. And her campaign has walked back some of the more progressive positions she took during her bid for the Democratic nomination in 2019, including her stance that migrants crossing the U.S. border without authorization should not face criminal penalties.

“I was attorney general of a border state,” Ms. Harris, who was once California’s top prosecutor, said on Friday at a rally in Arizona, a swing state where immigration is a top concern for voters. “I went after the transnational gangs, the drug cartels and human traffickers. I prosecuted them in case after case, and I won.”

A day earlier, the Harris campaign released a television advertisement highlighting her pivot. The ad, targeted to voters in the battleground states, promised that Ms. Harris would “hire thousands more border agents and crack down on fentanyl and human trafficking.” It made no mention of undocumented immigrants already in the United States — a top priority for many progressives and immigration activists — although in her Arizona speech Ms. Harris stressed the importance of “comprehensive reform” that includes “an earned pathway to citizenship.”

No other Democratic nominee has taken a position this tough on border security since Bill Clinton. Her stance reflects a change in public opinion since Mr. Trump left the White House in 2021. More Americans, including many Democrats and Latino voters, have expressed support for hard-line immigration measures.

The shift in public opinion comes as Republicans have escalated their rhetoric against migrants. Border crossings skyrocketed during the Biden administration, though more recently they have sharply declined since a Biden executive order designed to clamp down on the border. The question for Ms. Harris is whether her new message as the party’s standard-bearer will come too late for voters who have already formed opinions of her record.

Senior Trump campaign officials have ranked immigration as among Ms. Harris’s deepest vulnerabilities and sought to pin responsibility for the Biden administration’s policies on her, calling her the “border czar.” The title far exceeds the actual policy portfolio given to her by Mr. Biden, who asked her to address the root causes of migration from Latin America.

Democratic polling has raised similar concerns about Ms. Harris’s immigration record. Blueprint, a Democratic group, recently tested six potential Republican lines of attack on Ms. Harris — including labeling her the “border czar” — and found that those involving immigration were the most effective, even more so than attacks related to the economy and inflation.

Other polls have shown that voters place more trust in Mr. Trump’s ability to handle border issues than in Ms. Harris’s. But if Ms. Harris can at least counter Republican arguments on immigration, she may be able to sway voters on issues more friendly to Democrats, such as abortion, her allies say.

The decision for the Harris campaign to frame her record as California attorney general as a “border-state prosecutor” stands in contrast to how she ran in the 2020 Democratic primary.

Then, during a debate, she raised her hand in response to a question about whether people who are here illegally should be eligible for public health care.

For his part, Mr. Trump has attacked Ms. Harris over the border in dark terms, engaging in fear-mongering about migrants and using dehumanizing language to falsely paint them as a threat to Americans .

“Every day, Kamala is letting migrant criminals roam free to assault, rape, mutilate and kill our citizens,” the former president said at a rally in Montana on Friday.

Chris DeRose, a Republican who served as a clerk of courts in Arizona’s Maricopa County, said many swing voters would be dubious of Ms. Harris’s rhetoric.

“She’s part of the Biden-Harris administration,” Mr. DeRose said. “There’s going to be some skepticism.”

But Ms. Harris and her allies have tried to make Mr. Trump’s immigration record into its own campaign issue. This year, Mr. Trump successfully convinced Senate Republicans to kill a bill supported by Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris that would have effectively mandated that the border be shut down to migrants when numbers reached certain levels and that vastly expanded detentions and deportations.

“Donald Trump tanked the deal,” Ms. Harris said in Arizona as a crowd of more than 15,000 supporters booed. “Because he thought by doing that it would help him win an election.”

Jen Cox, a senior adviser for the Harris campaign in Arizona, said Democrats in that state, including Senator Mark Kelly, had won elections with tougher messages on immigration.

“Voters want to see folks be serious about actually fixing the broken immigration system and securing the border,” Ms. Cox said in an interview. “They don’t want to see folks play politics with it.”

In a closely watched special election in New York this year, Tom Suozzi, a Democrat, won a competitive House race after slamming Mr. Trump over the scuttled border deal and taking unusually hard-line stances for a member of his party, including calls to temporarily shut down the border and deport migrants who assault the police.

“The most effective politician is the one that says what the people are thinking already,” Mr. Suozzi said. “And people are talking about this issue. They are very much concerned about it. And the vice president can continue to emphasize that, yes, we recognize this is a problem and we are willing to compromise to solve the problem, unlike the other side.”

Harris campaign aides say her move to the center since the 2020 primary had been shaped by her time as vice president.

Mike Madrid, a longtime G.O.P. consultant focused on Latino voters, said Ms. Harris’s pledge to sign the border security bill, which did not include protections for undocumented immigrants already in the United States, and the security-focused message of her new television ad reflected wider changes among Democrats.

Since the Obama years, Democrats had sought to fuse efforts to increase border security with calls to establish permanent paths to legal residency and citizenship for the roughly 10 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, many of whom have lived in the country for years, holding jobs, paying taxes and starting families.

But the Latino electorate, the fastest-growing slice of the voter bloc, now tends to be third- and fourth-generation voters more removed from the immigration experience, Mr. Madrid said.

“This doesn’t mean you have to go all Donald Trump on immigration,” he said. “It means you have to lead with border security and then weave in the elements of immigration reform later.”

Michael Gold contributed reporting from Bozeman, Mont., and Reid J. Epstein contributed reporting from Washington.

Hundreds of people are waiting outside to get into a Harris campaign rally at a basketball arena in Las Vegas, where the temperature is 107 degrees.

Inside, it’s a full celebration, with thousands of people standing and dancing in their seats to disco remixes. “We’ve got a party up in here,” the D.J. D-Nice, the event’s M.C., says over the speakers. It cannot be said enough how different the energy at Harris’s rallies has been from that at President Biden’s.

Vice President Kamala Harris took five questions from the traveling press pool on Saturday. It was the first time since she became the Democratic presidential nominee that she engaged with journalists even to that degree. She said she planned to deliver a policy platform next week.

Harris has faced criticism — including from former President Donald J. Trump — for not holding a news conference or sitting for interviews with journalists.

The singer Celine Dion, in a statement on social media, said she and her management team did not authorize or endorse the playing of “My Heart Will Go On,” her hit song from the movie “Titanic,” at a Trump rally in Montana on Friday. The Trump campaign has played the song at multiple rallies recently, and Trump has over the years received several requests from artists asking him not to use their music at his political events.

Neil Vigdor

The Harris campaign says Walz “misspoke” in a comment about his military service.

Officials for Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign are trying to clean up remarks made in 2018 by her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, that gave the impression that he had served in combat, just days after the campaign had inadvertently drawn attention to them to illustrate Mr. Walz’s views about responsible gun ownership.

In a clip from a political event in 2018, when he represented Minnesota in the House, Mr. Walz referenced his 24 years in the Army National Guard and background as a hunter while discussing his views on gun control. He spoke of supporting common-sense gun legislation that also protects Second Amendment rights, including background checks and restrictions on high-powered firearms.

“We can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons are at,” Mr. Walz said in the clip, which the campaign had shared Tuesday on social media, just hours after Ms. Harris named him as her running mate.

Mr. Walz deployed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, but not in a combat zone.

Lauren Hitt, a spokeswoman for the Harris-Walz campaign, said in a statement on Saturday that Mr. Walz’s remarks had been a misstatement and that he had not tried to mislead anyone about his military service.

“In making the case for why weapons of war should never be on our streets or in our classrooms, the governor misspoke,” Ms. Hitt said.

Mr. Walz, who is in his second term as Minnesota’s governor, has come under intense scrutiny from Republicans over his military record . They have accused him of exaggerating his record and also of quitting the Army National Guard two decades ago to avoid being deployed to Iraq, rekindling claims made by two retired command sergeant majors during Mr. Walz’s first campaign for governor in 2018.

Leading that criticism is Senator JD Vance of Ohio, former President Donald J. Trump’s running mate, who has accused Mr. Walz of “stolen valor.”

Mr. Vance served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2003 to 2007 during the Iraq war. He was deployed to Iraq in 2005 and 2006 with the aircraft wing but was not a frontline combatant. His official military occupation, known as a combat correspondent, meant he was tasked with basic communication roles such as writing articles about the happenings in his unit.

The Republican broadsides against Mr. Walz resembled the “Swift Boat” attacks in the 2004 presidential election that created a cloud of uncertainty over the military record of Senator John F. Kerry, then the Democratic presidential nominee. Chris LaCivita, who is a senior strategist for the Trump campaign, was an architect of those attacks, which were highly effective.

The conservative-leaning editorial board of The Wall Street Journal spurned comparisons this week between Mr. Kerry’s situation and Mr. Walz’s military service, which it wrote was “far different.” It said that there were plenty of reasons to criticize Mr. Walz, but that his military record was not one of them. It quoted a New York Sun editorial that described the attacks as “thin gruel.”

On a number of occasions, Mr. Walz has emphasized that he did not serve in combat. During a CNN interview last month, when the anchor Jake Tapper said that Mr. Walz had deployed to Afghanistan, Mr. Walz corrected him and said that he had served in Europe in support of that war.

In an interview with Minnesota Public Radio in 2018, when he was running for governor, Mr. Walz said of his military career: “I know that there are certainly folks that did far more than I did.”

And when Mr. Walz was running for re-election as governor in 2022, The Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote that he had shied away from dramatic accounts of his time in the National Guard, framing himself instead as a former high school teacher and football coach.

The 2018 clip of Mr. Walz saying that “those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons are at,” was not the only one that Mr. Trump’s allies seized on this week.

They also pounced on a 2007 C-SPAN clip from a Capitol Hill news conference when Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker at the time, thanked Mr. Walz for his service “on the battlefield.” Mr. Walz was identified by C-SPAN as an “Afghanistan war veteran” at the time.

Reid J. Epstein , Michael C. Bender , Thomas Gibbons-Neff and John Ismay contributed reporting.

In a memo, Tony Fabrizio, the Trump campaign’s chief pollster, argued that new polls by The New York Times and Siena College “dramatically understated President Trump’s support.” Fabrizio cited polls conducted in the days before the 2020 election that accurately predicted President Biden’s victory but overestimated the margin.

Donald Trump will attend two fund-raisers today in mountain resort towns favored by the wealthy. First, he’ll attend a lunch event in Jackson Hole, Wyo., then he will travel to a dinner fund-raiser in Aspen, Colo.

A former Trump administration official and climate change denier, appearing in a leaked training video for Project 2025, emphasized that the next Republican president must be focused on reversing the federal government’s current environmental policies. “If the American people elect a conservative president, his administration will have to eradicate climate change references from absolutely everywhere,” said Bethany Kozma, a former deputy chief of staff at the United States Agency for International Development. The video is one of several that were obtained by ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom, and the journalism project Documented.

Former President Donald J. Trump has tried to extricate himself from the negative attention surrounding Project 2025, the right-wing policy playbook prepared for the next Republican president that Democrats have used as a political cudgel.

Adam Nagourney

As a rule, candidates who think they are ahead do not challenge their opponent to three debates, as Donald Trump did with Kamala Harris the other day. So it’s a pretty good bet that Trump’s own polling — or at the least, his political gut — had picked up on what Times/Siena college poll reports this weekend: that Harris could be a much tougher opponent than Biden.

Michael Gold and Simon J. Levien

Reporting from Bozeman, Mont.

Fine-tuning his attacks on Harris, Trump tries using her words against her.

As former President Donald J. Trump continues to reach for attacks on his new opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, that might halt her political momentum, he unveiled a new tactic at a rally in Bozeman, Mont., on Friday night, aiming to use Ms. Harris’s own words against her.

Interrupting his typical pattern of a digressive and lengthy speech, Mr. Trump played two video compilations of past remarks by Ms. Harris that his campaign hopes will portray her as overly liberal and inept.

The first video drew on statements that Ms. Harris made during the 2020 presidential campaign, when she tacked to the left and backed progressive ideas on criminal justice reform. The second was a montage of interviews and speeches that Mr. Trump’s campaign used to mock her speaking style and insult her intelligence.

The videos did little to alter the message that the Trump campaign has deployed against Ms. Harris for weeks and that Mr. Trump summed up during his speech on Friday.

“America cannot survive for four more years of this bumbling communist lunatic,” Mr. Trump told thousands gathered in the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse at Montana State University. “We cannot let her win this election.”

Mr. Trump and his allies have repeatedly tried to portray Ms. Harris as more liberal than President Biden in the three weeks since he ended his campaign and cleared the way for her to be the Democratic presidential nominee.

The video compiling her past positions accused her of supporting a ban on fracking, mandatory gun buybacks and a single-payer health insurance system like “Medicare for all.”

Ms. Harris has backed away from those policy positions, which largely stem from her time in the 2020 presidential race. But Mr. Trump — who has been known to flip-flop or equivocate on hot-button issues like abortion — argued that her early statements were the only ones that mattered.

Mr. Trump’s rally on Friday was his first since Ms. Harris chose Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota as her running mate, and he used the selection to bolster his portrait of the Democratic ticket as overly liberal. Effectively likening Mr. Walz to a socialist, he accused the governor of being too lax in his response to protests that turned to riots in Minneapolis after the police murder of George Floyd and for signing a law giving access to menstrual products to transgender children.

Referring to Mr. Walz as “Comrade Walz,” Mr. Trump argued that Ms. Harris tapped him for his progressive bona fides. “This is her ideology,” he said.

Mr. Trump also acknowledged that he has frequently mispronounced Ms. Harris’s given name in recent speeches, though he added that he “couldn’t care less” how it should be pronounced. He admitted that he has in the past “done a lot of bad name-calling” in which he has purposefully mispronounced a person’s name. “They say, ‘Sir, you made a mistake,’” Mr. Trump recounted. “I said, ‘No, I didn’t.’”

Still, Mr. Trump’s speech offered continued evidence of the growing pains he has faced as he tries to shift years of attacks against Mr. Biden toward Ms. Harris.

Even as he argued that Ms. Harris was more extreme than Mr. Biden, he tied her to the president’s policies on immigration and the economy.

At one point, he said she was the one running the country the past four years, even as he repeatedly argued that she was too unintelligent or incompetent to do so effectively. Mr. Trump has long made the same argument about Mr. Biden.

Mr. Trump's rally is part of a western swing that includes fund-raisers in mountain resort towns favored by the wealthy. Before he took the stage in Bozeman, he attended an event in Big Sky, Mont., and on Saturday he will travel to fund-raisers in Jackson Hole, Wyo., and Aspen, Colo.

Montana is not an obvious site for a presidential campaign rally. Mr. Trump won the state handily in both 2016 and 2020, and he is expected to do so again in November. But with Republicans keen on flipping Democrats’ narrow edge in the Senate, Mr. Trump traveled to Montana to support his party’s Senate candidate there, Tim Sheehy, who is looking to unseat the Democratic incumbent, Senator Jon Tester.

At one point, Mr. Trump, whose flight to Bozeman was diverted to another city after his plane suffered a mechanical issue, reflected on how long it takes to travel to Montana.

“I’ve got to like Tim Sheehy a lot to be here,” he said.

Shawn Hubler Maggie Haberman and Heather Knight

Yes, Trump was in a scary helicopter ride, but not with that politician.

Donald J. Trump was doubling down on Friday about his story of nearly crashing during a helicopter ride once with Willie Brown, the notable Black California politician.

He was so adamant that it had happened that he threatened to sue The New York Times for reporting that the story was untrue , then posted on his social media site that there were “‘Logs,’ Maintenance Records, and Witnesses” to back up his account.

“It was Willie Brown,” Mr. Trump, who spent much of the last year hoping to make gains with Black voters, posted. “But now Willie doesn’t remember?”

Mr. Brown, 90, who was mayor of San Francisco and speaker of the California Assembly, gave several interviews on Thursday and Friday saying such a trip never occurred.

Turns out, however, that there was a Black politician from California who once made an emergency landing in a helicopter with Mr. Trump. It just wasn’t Mr. Brown.

Nate Holden, 95, a former Los Angeles city councilman and state senator, said in an interview with The Times that he had been on a helicopter ride with Mr. Trump around 1990 when the aircraft experienced mechanical trouble and was forced to make an emergency landing in New Jersey.

Recounting an episode that he had described earlier on Friday to Politico, Mr. Holden said Mr. Trump had been seeking to develop the site of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles when it was part of Mr. Holden’s district. Mr. Trump wanted him to see his Taj Mahal casino, Mr. Holden said, so on a visit to Manhattan, he rode with Mr. Trump from his Midtown skyscraper to a helipad, where the two took off for Atlantic City, accompanied by Mr. Trump’s brother Robert and by his executive vice president of construction and development, Barbara Res.

“He was trying to impress me,” Mr. Holden said. “We start flying to New Jersey. He said, ‘Look at the skyline! Look at how beautiful it is! And I’m part of it!’”

Mr. Holden said he wasn’t impressed. “I grew up in New Jersey,” he said. “It ain’t nothing new to me.”

“Anyway,” he continued, “we start flying to Atlantic City. He’s talking about how great things are. And about 15, 20 minutes in, the pilot yells, ‘Shut up! Shut up!’”

The hydraulic system had failed, he said. “Donald turned white as snow,” Mr. Holden recalled. “He was shaking.”

Mr. Holden said that as the helicopter’s crew worked frantically to set the aircraft down safely, his own thoughts ran to a helicopter crash in 1989 that had killed three senior executives of Mr. Trump’s casinos over Forked River, N.J.

“I just thought, how the hell do you let your staff not maintain your aircraft after you just had a crash that killed some of your staff? How could you let this happen again? I thought, if we go down, this is your fault.”

The helicopter ultimately landed safely in Linden, N.J., Mr. Holden said.

Ms. Res wrote about the episode in a memoir and corroborated Mr. Holden’s account in a brief interview late Friday. Ms. Res, who also spoke to Politico, recalled that Mr. Trump liked to say that Mr. Holden had “turned white” from fear, but that it was actually Mr. Trump whose face was ashen.

A spokesman for Mr. Trump did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Mr. Holden said he was in his living room watching Mr. Trump’s news conference on TV on Thursday when the former president told of experiencing a brush with death on a helicopter ride with Mr. Brown.

“I said, ‘What the hell is this?’” Mr. Holden said. “‘Was he in two near-fatal helicopter crashes? He didn’t fix those damn helicopters yet?’”

Mr. Holden said that he called Mr. Brown to compare notes. Mr. Brown told him he had never been in a helicopter with Mr. Trump.

“I said, ‘Willie, you know what? That’s me!’” Mr. Holden said. “And I told him, ‘You’re a short Black guy and I’m a tall Black guy — but we all look alike, right?’”

Mr. Holden gave his own height as 6-foot-1. “Willie has to be about 5-foot-6. Maybe 5-foot-5. He comes up to about my shoulders. And he’s bald. And I’m not bald.”

Mr. Brown, he said, “just laughed and laughed.”

Mr. Holden, summing up his assessment of Mr. Trump’s recollection, said: “I just think he makes things up. That’s what I think. He never thought anybody’s going to check.”

Mr. Trump told the story about nearly dying in a helicopter crash with Mr. Brown after a reporter at Thursday’s news conference asked him a leading question about Vice President Kamala Harris’s long-ago relationship with Mr. Brown and whether it helped her career trajectory.

The two dated in 1994 and 1995 when she was a prosecutor in Alameda County, which includes Oakland, and Mr. Brown was the Assembly speaker. Mr. Brown appointed Ms. Harris to two state boards before she ended their relationship.

“Well, I know Willie Brown very well,” Mr. Trump responded. “In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him.”

He recounted how the two had a close brush with death — “We thought maybe this was the end” — and that Mr. Brown used the frightening ride to tell him “terrible things” about Ms. Harris. “He was not fan of hers very much, at that point,” Mr. Trump said.

Mr. Trump had previously told the story, saying it was Mr. Brown on a helicopter with him, in his book, “Letters to Trump,” which was published in 2023.

Reached again Friday night, Mr. Brown reiterated that he had never flown in a helicopter with Mr. Trump and that he had not denigrated Ms. Harris to the former president because he admires and respects her.

“Those are the two things I am certain of,” he said. “All the rest of this is amusing.”

Asked if Mr. Trump might have confused the two California politicians because they are both Black, Mr. Brown said, “I wouldn’t want to conclude that he can’t tell Black people apart, because I’d hate for him to think that I’m Beyoncé.”

And then he burst out laughing.

Kellen Browning and Shane Goldmacher

Reporting from Glendale, Ariz.

Harris rides momentum to Arizona, for what her campaign says is largest rally yet.

Vice President Kamala Harris rolled into Arizona on Friday evening with the same political momentum that has infused her first swing across the country this week, drawing a crowd that her campaign estimated at more than 15,000 — her largest yet — in a Western state that not long ago appeared to be falling off the battleground map.

Along with her newly minted running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, Ms. Harris delivered a stump speech that is barely a week old, and yet familiar enough to an impassioned new following that some shouted her lines before she did.

The rally was her fourth in four days with an arena-filling crowd that demonstrated the degree to which her candidacy replacing President Biden’s had remade the 2024 race.

Mr. Walz relished the crowd that filed into the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Ariz., in 100-degree heat as he poked fun at Mr. Trump’s obsession with rally crowds.

“It’s not as if anybody cares about crowd sizes or anything,” Mr. Walz said to knowing cheers.

Despite her momentum, Ms. Harris faces an uphill battle in Arizona , a longtime Republican stronghold that flipped to Mr. Biden in 2020 but, according to polling, had been drifting back to former President Donald J. Trump this year.

To win, she will need to reunite the diverse coalition of voters who delivered the state four years ago, and she made an explicit appeal to one part of that group on Friday: Native American voters.

“As president, I will tell you, I will always honor tribal sovereignty and respect tribal self-determination,” she said. The first speaker at the rally, notably, was Stephen Roe Lewis, the governor of the Gila River Indian Community, south of Phoenix.

In her speech, Ms. Harris zeroed in on two issues that are especially pertinent to Arizonans: immigration and abortion.

Crossings from Mexico into Arizona have remained high this year even as they have dropped elsewhere, and Ms. Harris positioned herself as supporting both an “earned pathway to citizenship” and tougher border restrictions, pointing to her record as California’s attorney general.

“I went after the transnational gangs, the drug cartels and the human traffickers,” Ms. Harris said. “I prosecuted them in case after case, and I won. So I know what I’m talking about.”

By contrast, Ms. Harris said, Mr. Trump was playing politics with the issue. She highlighted his opposition to a bipartisan bill this year that would have beefed up border security.

“He talks a big game about border security,” she said, “but he does not walk the walk.”

The comments come as her campaign began to air a tough-on-immigration ad that labeled her a “border-state prosecutor.” Senior Trump campaign officials see the border and immigration as one of Ms. Harris’s deepest areas of vulnerability, and his campaign has repeatedly labeled her, inaccurately , as Mr. Biden’s failed “border czar.”

Ms. Harris did add a new riff to her speech, responding to Mr. Trump’s muddled comments on Thursday at a news conference in Florida, in which he did not rule out directing the Food and Drug Administration to revoke access to abortion pills.

Ms. Harris said Mr. Trump’s agenda “would ban medication abortion in every state,” adding, “But we are not going to let that happen — because we trust women.”

Mr. Trump has previously supported the Supreme Court’s ruling on the abortion drug mifepristone. Karoline Leavitt, a Trump spokeswoman, said in a statement the former president’s position on mifepristone “remains the same — the Supreme Court unanimously decided on the issue and the matter is settled.”

The abortion rhetoric could prove especially potent in Arizona, where the State Supreme Court reinstated a near-total ban on the procedure this year. The State Legislature eventually repealed it, but abortion is still banned after 15 weeks, and voters will have a chance to enshrine the right to an abortion until fetal viability in the state’s Constitution through a ballot measure in November.

The speakers who preceded Ms. Harris on Friday made a number of appeals to independents and moderate Republicans, another segment she will need to win over.

“I do not recognize my party,” said John Giles, the mayor of Mesa, Ariz., who is a prominent Republican backing Ms. Harris. “We need to elect a ticket who will be the adults in the room.”

Senator Mark Kelly, the Arizona Democrat who is also a Navy veteran and former astronaut, introduced Ms. Harris and Mr. Walz. It was the second time this week that a finalist in Ms. Harris’s running-mate sweepstakes introduced her at a rally. Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania did the same in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

Mr. Kelly said Mr. Trump had “zero respect for any of us who have worn the uniform.” Mr. Trump’s allies have raised questions about Mr. Walz’s decision to leave the National Guard in 2005 to run for Congress.

Attendees and speakers said the enormous crowd braving scorching desert temperatures on Friday was a sign that, after months of dreariness among Democrats, momentum in Arizona was finally on their side.

“It may be a little warm outside,” Kate Gallego, the mayor of Phoenix, said, “but based on the energy in this arena, I know it’s Donald Trump who’s feeling the heat.”

Maggie Haberman

Trump claims he has helicopter trip records and threatens to sue.

Former President Donald J. Trump on Friday afternoon vehemently maintained that he had once been in a dangerous helicopter landing with Willie Brown , the former mayor of San Francisco, and insisted he had records to prove it, despite Mr. Brown’s denial.

In an angry phone call to a New York Times reporter as he landed several hours away from his planned rally in Bozeman, Mont., because of a mechanical issue on his plane, Mr. Trump excoriated The Times for its coverage of his meandering news conference on Thursday at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and home, during which he told of an emergency landing during a helicopter trip that he said both he and Mr. Brown had made together.

Mr. Trump was expected to keep his rally schedule on Friday as planned, boarding a smaller plane to complete the journey.

Mr. Brown denied on Thursday that he had ever flown in a helicopter with Mr. Trump.

It appeared Mr. Trump may have confused Willie Brown with Jerry Brown, the former governor of California, with whom Mr. Trump traveled by helicopter in 2018 while surveying wildfire damage in the state. But Jerry Brown, who left office in January 2019, said through a spokesman, “There was no emergency landing and no discussion of Kamala Harris.”

Willie Brown, who was a boyfriend of Vice President Kamala Harris during the 1990s, knew Mr. Trump as a potential business associate during those years, when Mr. Trump, then a New York developer, was working on new projects. A biography of Ms. Harris, “Kamala’s Way: An American Life,” reported that Mr. Trump had sent his private plane for Mr. Brown and Ms. Harris in 1994 to fly them from Boston to New York City.

“We have the flight records of the helicopter,” Mr. Trump insisted Friday, saying the helicopter had landed “in a field,” and indicating that he intended to release the flight records, before shouting that he was “probably going to sue” over the Times article.

When asked to produce the flight records, Mr. Trump responded mockingly, repeating the request in a sing-song voice. As of early Friday evening, he had not provided them.

Mr. Trump has a history of claiming he will provide evidence to back up his claims but ultimately not doing so.

He has also told the helicopter story before, in his 2023 book, “Letters to Trump,” in which he published letters to him from a number of people, including Mr. Brown. In the book, Mr. Trump wrote, “We actually had an emergency landing in a helicopter together. It was a little scary for both of us, but thankfully we made it.”

Two rivals in Michigan’s crucial Senate contest say they were both swatted.

The two leading contenders for Michigan’s open Senate seat disclosed that they had been targeted in separate “swatting” incidents in a span of less than 24 hours, just days after winning primaries in a crucial contest that could determine which party controls the chamber.

The first incident, involving Representative Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat, happened on Thursday night at her home in Oakland County, north of Detroit. The second one occurred on Friday at an address that had been listed on public records under the name of Mike Rogers, the Republican candidate and former House member, in neighboring Livingston County.

Politicians on both sides of the political aisle have increasingly been the target of swatting in recent years. The hoaxes — when false threats are deliberately made to law enforcement to draw a heavily armed response to a person’s home — have added to a climate of intimidation and the harassment of public officials.

Ms. Slotkin was not home at the time of the incident, according to a spokeswoman for her office, Lynsey Mukomel, who said in a statement that Michigan State Police troopers went to the residence after a false threat was emailed to a local official. She did not elaborate on the nature of the false threat. Michigan State Police confirmed they responded.

“Michigan State Police checked the property and confirmed no one was in danger,” Ms. Mukomel said, adding that U.S. Capitol Police would investigate the incident.

Mr. Rogers, a former longtime House member who was endorsed by former President Donald J. Trump, experienced a similar incident around 12:30 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, said Chris Gustafson, a spokesman for his campaign.

A person reported that a man was holding a woman at gunpoint at the property in Livingston County connected with Mr. Rogers, according to Mr. Gustafson, who said that Mr. Rogers currently does not live there but that other members of his family do. (Mr. Rogers now lives in Oakland County, Mich., according to his campaign.)

Shanon Banner, a Michigan State Police spokeswoman, said that a sergeant had responded to a report about a domestic situation at a residence in Livingston County on Friday and determined that it was false. She was not immediately able to confirm whether it was the same property.

Mr. Gustafson, in a statement, said that it was the second time that Mr. Rogers had been targeted in a swatting incident. The first was in 2013, when he was a member of Congress.

“This kind of violence cannot be tolerated, and it is our hope that those responsible will be quickly prosecuted and held accountable,” Mr. Gustafson said.

The rivals are running for a seat that is being vacated by Senator Debbie Stabenow, Michigan’s senior senator and a Democrat, who announced last year that she would not seek a fifth term . Democrats control the Senate by a thin 51-49 seat majority.

Ken Bensinger

Joe Rogan would like to clarify: He did not endorse Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The world’s most popular podcaster has, sort of, but not really, thrown his support to one of the 2024 presidential race’s least popular candidates.

On Thursday, Joe Rogan said he preferred Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running as an independent, for president. “He’s the only one that makes sense to me,” Mr. Rogan said, as a guest on a podcast hosted by Lex Fridman, and called Mr. Kennedy a “legitimate guy.”

Mr. Rogan’s devoted following, one that leans young, male and numbers in the tens of millions, is highly coveted. His remarks about Mr. Kennedy, uttered on a show with a far smaller reach than his own, nonetheless set off a frenzied response.

Supporters of former President Donald J. Trump, worried that Mr. Rogan’s stance could carve off voters and hurt his electoral chances come November, quickly turned on the podcaster, standup comic and U.F.C. announcer. They questioned his intelligence and even mocked his height , a spectacle that was greeted with something akin to joy — or, at least, schadenfreude — among Democrats who have long written off Mr. Rogan as helpful to their cause.

By Friday morning, Mr. Rogan was backpedaling. “This isn’t an endorsement,” he posted on the social media platform X, and advised that he is “not the guy to get political information from.”

Mr. Trump himself weighed in on Friday afternoon, pondering “how loudly Joe Rogan gets BOOED the next time he enters the UFC ring” in a post on his social network that seemingly reflected his concerns that the influential podcaster could tip the scales against him.

“This takes straight from the Trump base,” said Mike Madrid, a Republican political consultant. A New York Times/Siena poll in battleground states in May found that 54 percent of respondents who said they planned to vote for the former president had a favorable opinion of Mr. Rogan.

Mr. Kennedy, long before Mr. Rogan’s unwinding act, had already taken credit for the perceived nod, posting on social media: “From one ‘legitimate’ guy to another, thank you.”

Even if it’s not a true endorsement, Mr. Rogan’s praise could come as a huge shot in the arm for Mr. Kennedy, who has seen his polling average drop from as much as 15 percent in early June to somewhere around 6 percent as of late last month.

While Mr. Kennedy drew national attention this week after acknowledging that he dumped a dead bear cub in Central Park a decade ago, such headlines have not helped ease his struggles raising money . He’s also fighting to get his name on the ballots in critical states, or, in the case of New York , keep it there.

“He doesn’t attack people. He attacks actions and ideas, but he’s much more reasonable and intelligent,” Mr. Rogan said of Mr. Kennedy on the “Lex Fridman Podcast,” which has 4.1 million subscribers on YouTube.

Mr. Rogan’s fan base is much bigger. In March, Spotify said that “The Joe Rogan Experience” had 14.5 million followers , almost triple the platform’s second most popular program. He also has 19 million followers on Instagram and 17 million followers on YouTube.

A poll by YouGov last year found that 81 percent of his listeners are male and 56 percent are under 35 years old , feeding the perception that he has a direct line to a cohort that polling suggests tends to support Mr. Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris.

“This is a group Trump needs strong performance with,” Mr. Madrid said.

During his interview with Mr. Fridman, he said that he was “not a Trump supporter in any way, shape or form” and adding that he turned down multiple offers to have him on his show. “I’ve said no every time,” Mr. Rogan said. “I’m not interested in helping him,”

Mr. Kennedy sat for an interview on the “Joe Rogan Experience” in June 2023.

Ruth Igielnik contributed reporting.

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