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World's most generous bosses spend well over £1million a year on trips for members

ended 16. October 2025

The world's most generous bosses have spent well over £1million a year on trips for franchisee members.

Paul Harrison and Steve Witt, co-founders of UK travel company Not Just Travel, say "it's a business no-brainer" to splash out on the trips.

Consultants, along with some members of staff, are entitled to two trips as part of their franchise agreement.

Currently 30 of Not Just Travel's members are in Tokyo and Kyoto on a training retreat. 

This November, it is taking 300 of its travel consultants on a corporate training cruise through the Bahamas  - complete with intensive business sessions by day and luxury entertainment by night. 

The trips, co-hosted with Not Just Travel's key trade partners, have previously involved zip-lining through jungles, snorkelling with stingrays in Antigua and Barbados, sailing on an all-inclusive luxury cruise around the Med with Virgin Voyages, and enjoying private butler service in Mauritian villas.

  • HRs, what is your reaction to the above? 
  • How important are trips abroad for team morale, and to drive extra business?
  • Everyone else, does your company do huge trips? How important are they?

Responses by 8am tomorrow.

3 responses from the Newspage community

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Kundan Bhaduri
Entrepreneur, Investor and Landlord at The Kushman Group
Not Just Travel's million pound corporate jolly budget is perhaps the most expensive team building exercise since Roman emperors discovered gladiator games. The business case for luxury incentive travel is dubious unless the ROI justifies substantial revenue increases over the next year. Motivated teams respond better to profit sharing, career advancement, and meaningful recognition than fancy corporate tourism that would probably benefits a select few at the cost of ordinary staff who will end up subsidising this wanderlust by way of a reduced bonus pools. I would strongly recommend that there are better ways to spend corporate money.
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Soulla Demetriou
Somatic, Intuitive and Transformational Coach at Soulshine with Soulla
Since Covid and the shift to home working, so many people are feeling lonelier. The natural infrastructure of daily connection that offices once provided — the chats, shared coffees, those small moments of belonging, has shifted enormously, and with it, people are feeling more dissatisfied and alone.

In this new decentralised world, we need to create spaces to connect. Retreats and away trips aren’t fluffy extras; they’re essential for building culture, supporting mental health, and nurturing the sense of purpose that fuels creativity and productivity. Investing in people and human connection is ultimately the greatest investment a company can make.
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Simon Giddins
Founder at Blackstone Consultancy
We not only provide personal safety and security to executives attending corporate training retreats around the world—including expeditions in the Sahara, langlaufing across Nordic fjords, and leadership events on rural estates—but we also invest in our own corporate experiences to continually enhance our service standards.

We have accompanied, protected, and provided comprehensive safety coverage to numerous private clients during international training events. Where clients operate in complex or remote environments, and with a strong sense of duty of care in line with the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 and broader Health and Safety obligations, we deliver detailed contingency planning supported by full operational safety, security, and medical services.

Our Senior Management Team, former senior military and police professionals are adept at making critical decisions in high-pressure, rapidly changing environments—skills relevant to today's executives.