Originally seen HERE.

It’s the beginning of an entirely new industry, based around places and spaces that turbocharge employee gatherings.

Retreats, offsites, onsites — call them what you want, but team building will be big business in 2022 as company travel budgets are steered towards the Great Reconnection.

Although sales exces will likely be among the first lucky few to return to travel to win new business after a turbulent couple of years, CEOs will be preoccupied by the wholesale shift to remote work, hoping to reignite the spark and magic that happens when employees meet in person.

There’s an extra-packed calendar ahead too, as recruits who were onboarded virtually during the pandemic finally get to introduce themselves to their colleagues in real life.

But working out who gets to meet who and how often will pose a challenge for bosses. Salesforce’s Marc Benioff, for example, has contemplated building a ranch-style resort for employees, where they can spend time team-building, take training sessions or even holiday with their families. It could get confusing.

Travel managers face challenges of a more technical nature: How do they physically bring so many employees together in a safe way. And where do they meet exactly? Algorithms involving cost, time, convenient airport locations and carbon emissions all come into play. The process will be made more complex by dispersed workforces, fluid travel restrictions and hybrid meeting requirements.

The Business of Company Culture

Suppliers spot a golden opportunity here. Specialist retreat planning platforms like Troop and NextRetreat raised extra funds in 2021 to delve deeper into the market, while corporate travel agencies invested in new features — including TravelPerk (Events) and TripActions (Team Travel) — to win over meeting and event organizers.

There’ll be an equally strong pull from the employee side as well. Before the pandemic, business travel was often seen as a perk. Afterwards, larger organizations will likely clamp down on gratuitously sending dozens of employees to overseas conferences, and there’ll be more of a need to justify a business trip than ever before. So human resources departments will turn to promoting how there’s more to life than Zoom meetings at their company.

As well as retreats, booking platforms like Ukio envision a new breed of crossover between work and leisure travel, with companies incentivizing or rewarding their staff with long-term stays in their properties across a range of cities, ideally within distance of a local office.

Purpose-built resorts may also emerge, fusing high-spec meeting technology with productivity masterclasses in attractive locations. The sales team needs to rehearse for a major client pitch? Branches, a nature-themed and purpose-built retreat in New York’s Catskills Mountains, not too far from the city, is being built to accommodate these types of situations.

Accommodations like this will seek to draw employees to inspiring locations to work hard but also relax hard. Meanwhile, some organizations are hosting “offsite” events for potential clients, and inviting their families too. Airbnb is picking up the pace, too, introducing features such as hosts being able to show the Wifi strength of their properties as it witnesses average duration of stay creep higher. The line between leisure and work has never been so blurred.

Beyond the Digital Nomad

Strengthening internal collaboration and reinforcing culture are top-level activities, but further ahead the concept of digital nomad will evolve. Remote workers will inevitably push further out, logging in from beach resorts or mountain cabins with their company’s blessing. Mainstream tour operators are rethinking packages for this emerging market — in particular Germany’s TUI, which is rolling out “workcation” packages to entice families to extend their vacation by adding a week or two of remote work either side.

TUI’s goal is for this to become a company benefit, rather than a reward, in the same way gym discounts or cinema tickets are offered. Fosun’s ClubMed and Austria’s Falkensteiner Hotels & Residences are also promoting desks with a better view across their own properties, with their eyes on boosting off-season revenue. Cruise lines including Hurtigruten are also dipping their toe in the water, marketing an unusual mix of adventure and work.

Communities and cohorts will be established, with collectives of employees traveling together from location to location, adhering to company-approved programs, plans and itineraries. Dutch hotel firm Zoku is basing its business model on this, expanding its footprint across Europe and hosting groups of up to 30 people who journey and work together while Selina’s Remote Year programs offer different lengths of stay to adventurous nomads.

Many popular tourist destinations hastily developed digital nomad visas during the pandemic, providing the wider travel industry and global businesses a rudimentary framework to explore more opportunities and avenues to reunite dispersed workforces. But of course not everyone will be won over. Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank, one of the world’s biggest investment funds, said he now prefers talking business deals on Zoom — over dinner and a glass of wine. Old pandemic habits may die hard, but for the majority of people a chance to reconnect will be welcome.