THIS YEAR'S Worldwide Exhibition for Incentive Travel, Meetings & Events, or IMEX, held in May in Frankfurt, was the place to get new ideas for sites and venues for incentive travel programs. Here are our top five:
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AUTOSTADT — This theme park in Wolfsburg, Germany (one hour from Berlin and half an hour from Hamburg by train) pays homage to the automobile. To call it a theme park doesn't do it justice, because Autostadt is so much more, with museums, restaurants (all available for exclusive hire), a Ritz-Carlton hotel with conference facilities, the Volkswagen manufacturing facilities, and, best of all, hands-on driving training.
Various types of driving training are available, but the favorites for groups are an all-terrain course, where guests drive a VW Touareg with a trainer on an obstacle course, and safety training, where they learn to keep cars under control in extreme conditions. www.autostadt.de
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YACHTS DE PARIS — As if a cruise on the Seine weren't enough, Yachts de Paris goes one step further. The evening combines a stop at one of the many wonderful art museums downriver from the Yacht de Paris base at Port Henry IV with a dinner by two-star chef Jean-Pierre Vigato. On board, guests sip champagne and listen to a private lecture about the art exhibit they will view. The ships accommodate 15 to 650 attendees. www.yachtsdeparis.fr
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BARGAIN SHOPPING IN EUROPE — Chic Outlet Shopping Villages are on the outskirts of major cities such as Brussels, Cologne, London, Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Bologna, Barcelona, Madrid, Düsseldorf, and Dublin. The stores in the villages take 33 percent to 60 percent off retail prices on designer clothing. Each shopping village includes restaurants and cafes, venues for private dining, and VAT refund services. www.ChicOutletShopping.com
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PAU — One of the four IMEX Wild Card winners (a contest that highlights emerging destinations), Pau is a jewel of a city in southwestern France, close to the Pyrenees. Its location gives it a microclimate with palm trees growing in the city and snow-covered mountains in the background.
Most of the year, guests can visit wineries, castles (the 12th-century castle, which is available for gala dinners, is the birthplace of Henry IV), or the local stud farm. In the summer, the beaches of Biarritz are only an hour's drive away; in the winter, there is skiing nearby. Pau Le Palais Beaumont, the city's conference center, dates to 1899 and is a member of Historic Conference Centres of Europe. Hotel Parc Beaumont, the city's new four-star hotel, is just a walk through the park from the convention center. www.pau.fr
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CAMEROON — For a small, well-traveled group that desires a trip off the beaten path, Cameroon has taken its place on the incentive map. With National Parks in the north, a rain forest and Pygmy tribes in the southeast, and beach resorts in the southwest, this is a place where winners can take tours that include trekking and sleeping in tents. Cameroon has remained somewhat isolated from the world, so outside the larger cities, visitors will still find traditional houses, clothing, and markets. (With more than 260 ethnic tribes from which to draw their wares, the village markets are colorful and exciting experiences). camerounsafari@tin.it
