How UK event agencies should shortlist an overseas destination

Twenty candidate destinations is not a shortlist. It is a stalling tactic. Here is the filter we use with UK event agencies to get to three defensible options, and the order it has to be applied in.

Most destination shortlists fall apart for the same reason. They are built from what looks good, then filtered by what is feasible. Reverse the order and the process takes a fraction of the time, and the shortlist survives contact with the client.

We sit between UK event agencies and a portfolio of vetted overseas partners, which means we see the same shortlisting conversation several times a month. The agencies that move quickly are not the ones with the best destination knowledge. They are the ones applying constraints in the right sequence.

Filter one: the travel window and programme length

Start with the two numbers the client has already fixed, whether or not they have told you: how many nights the group is away, and which weeks of the year are available.

A three-night programme and a ten-hour flight are close to incompatible. You lose the best part of two days to travel, and the delegates who most need to be impressed are the ones arriving least able to enjoy it. If the trip is three nights, the realistic set is short-haul. If it is five or more, long-haul opens up and the calculation changes entirely.

The travel window then does the second cut. Season is not just a weather question. It determines whether a destination is operating at capacity around a major public event, which affects everything from accommodation availability to how long it takes a coach to cross a city.

Filter two: the objective, not the destination

The second filter is the one most often skipped. Ask what the programme is actually for, then test each destination against that rather than against its general appeal.

A top-performer incentive, a sales kick-off and a leadership offsite are three different briefs that happen to arrive in the same format. A destination that is superb for the first can be actively wrong for the third. Reward programmes want contrast with everyday life and a sense of access. Conference-led programmes want efficiency, a manageable footprint and reliable connectivity. Leadership programmes want privacy and space to talk.

Filter three: getting the group there

Air access is where promising shortlists quietly die. The question is not whether there are flights, it is whether there are flights that work for a group departing from where your delegates actually are.

If the group is drawn from several UK cities, a destination served well from London and poorly from everywhere else creates a scheduling problem that will land back on your desk. Check direct services from the relevant UK airports, the realistic connection options, and how tightly clustered the arrival times can be.

Filter four: what the destination can actually deliver

By this stage you should be down to four or five candidates. This is the point to check capability rather than assume it, and to do it before the destination reaches the client.

We would always rather have this conversation with a UK agency early than watch a client fall for a destination that cannot support the programme. What we check with our partner in the destination is straightforward: whether the type of experience the brief calls for genuinely exists there at the standard implied, whether the ground team has delivered comparable programmes, and whether the proposed dates are workable.

Filter five: the reason to drop two of them

You should now have four or five viable destinations, all of which would work. The final filter is editorial rather than operational: which three tell the clearest story, and which two are variations on a theme?

If two candidates are effectively the same proposition, keep the stronger one. A shortlist where each option represents a genuinely different answer to the brief gives the client a real decision to make. A shortlist of near-identical options gives them a reason to defer.

What the shortlist document should contain

1. The objective, in one sentence, at the top.
2. Three destinations, each with a short rationale tied back to that sentence.
3. Flight profile from the main departure points, with realistic timings.
4. The proposed travel window and why it works for each destination.
5. The shape of the programme in outline, without committing to specific suppliers before the ground partner has confirmed them.
6. A note on what was considered and dropped, and why. Clients trust a shortlist more when they can see what did not make it.

Frequently asked questions

How many destinations should be on a client shortlist?

Three. Two gives a client no sense of the trade-offs; five or more turns the decision into a comparison exercise and stalls it. Three lets you show a clear rationale for each, and a clear reason the others were dropped.

Should flight time or budget lead the decision?

Flight time and programme length, every time. They are the hardest constraints to negotiate. A destination that does not fit the number of nights available cannot be rescued by a stronger ground offer.

What is a destination management company?

A locally based operator that plans and delivers the ground programme in its own destination: venues, transport, activities, guides and on-site management. UK agencies work with them either directly or through a UK representation office.

Why work through a UK representation office rather than going direct?

One contact point across multiple destinations, working in UK hours and to UK commercial norms, with the overseas partner already vetted. Pricing is the DMC’s own, as our commercial relationship sits with the represented partner rather than with the buyer.

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Written by Alia Saunders, Sales Director at Cashel Representation.