Milton Segarra On Next-Level Incentive Experiences

October 3, 2023

Prevue sat down with Milton Segarra, CDME, the new CEO of Discover The Palm Beaches, in Delray Beach last month.

Since joining the organization in the fall of 2022 as chief marketing officer, Milton Segarra has led the widest range of promotional efforts in the history of Discover The Palm Beaches. He arrives at a time when tourism’s economic impact in Palm Beach County has just surpassed $10 billion for the first time—and that growth is expected only to continue.

“We have a very significant, profitable, viable industry,” he told Prevue Editor Barbara Scofidio. “This year, more than 75 percent of the rooms in our county will be either new or renovated within the next year or two. So that tells you the level of commitment from the ownership and management.”

Segarra has a vision for visitor experiences that extends far beyond the region’s hotels and venues. “A lot of our incentive groups use The Breakers and The Four Seasons and The Boca Raton, for example. But it’s not just about the properties. You have to create a one-of-a-kind experience for each incentive group—that’s the overarching goal,” he said. “And now we are taking that to the next level. How can we create a progression between the experience that they like and the aspirations of our visitors by providing a setting in which you can feel the well-being, feel the prosperity—prosperity not in terms of money but in terms of how your visit has enriched your life?

“We want to create an opportunity to get our visitors closer to the aspirations that they have. If we can provide that next step that will interact with the inner feeling of the visitors, to me, that’s the key to a successful incentive.”

Segarra also sees incentives that are tied to corporate social responsibility as “the next wave. When you travel is when you change. Everything’s possible, you open your mind to so many things. Those are the moments that make a mark on your life.”