The New Rules for the Next Era of Incentive Travel

The incentive travel landscape is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by a younger workforce with different expectations, values, and definitions of reward. Programs that once felt luxurious and exclusive now risk feeling generic, predictable or, even worse, disconnected from  attendees’ values. 

Incentive travel professionals are rethinking their design strategies, shifting from standardized trips to highly personalized, meaningful, and responsible experiences. 

On the Skift Meetings Backstage Briefing webinar "The Next Era of Incentive Travel,” we uncovered what lies ahead for the sector with incentive experts Nicole Raudabaugh, senior customer success manager at Meetings & Incentives Worldwide, and Emily Thibodeau, vice president, event management at Maritz.

1. Build Your Case With Concrete Data

Data is crucial to get leadership buy-in. "The first step is data gathering, benchmarking across the industry, across your vertical market, to find out how you're comparing," said Raudabaugh.

Beyond the overall cost, measure the program’s financial impact by tracking new business written and revenue generated in the months immediately following the event. Raudabaugh said this is a “very clear indicator to anybody who's looking at the metrics on the books that incentives work if done right.”

A strong program is built on communication. Ensure qualifiers are excited about the incentive, understand the parameters, and feel a strong sense of anticipation throughout the entire process. During the qualifying process, it’s worth thinking beyond ROI or monetary returns, and considering the return on experience (ROE). Using intermittent surveys and assessments throughout the entire life cycle of the program — from announcement to post-trip — enables planners to gauge interest, measure value, and inform future design. Thibodeau said this will help track the excitement levels and allow planners to “tweak what we're [they’re] doing in the next phase of design to get them more excited.”

The 2025 Incentive Travel Index highlighted a historical lack of alignment with human resources. Thibodeau suggested that involving HR “gives them a seat at the table and lets them be in a design session from the very beginning.” Raudabaugh encouraged the use of continuous engagement strategies including gamification, complementing the incentive travel rewards.

2. Personalization Is a Must

Incentive trips must offer choices that cater to the individual desires of the attendees, moving away from a one-size-fits-all model. This includes providing a range of options for activities with different tiers of difficulty or engagement. Not every attendee wants a jam-packed schedule. Personalization should also include low-key options, such as simply relaxing with room service, especially for attendees who are parents or have demanding daily lives.

While younger attendees may be driving the trend, personalization appeals to everyone. “This customization effort may have started targeting a younger generation but is definitely playing toward how we operate in our daily lives as well,” said Thibodeau. 

The key, she said, is understanding the audience and allowing them to have a choice in certain elements. This customization applies to everything from dining to activities, ensuring the reward feels truly relevant to the recipient. 

Raudabaugh said she is “starting to uber-customize incentive programs” but warned that implementing a high degree of customization comes with budgetary and logistical implications.

Some companies recognize the desire of travelers, especially younger attendees, to extend their stays for personal vacation or remote work, and rely on incentive professionals to offer logistical assistance, such as hotel or travel partner recommendations. Raudabaugh said attendees “want to be able to make this their own experience,” and recommended that companies help make that possible, if they have the resources.

3. Embrace Different Reward and Engagement Strategies

Incentive travel is evolving beyond being tied to sales targets. Companies are increasingly using travel to recognize and reward the support system — those in non-sales roles — that contribute to overall success. By including non-sales employees, companies are looking to improve morale, foster better collaboration, and create a more unified corporate culture. “Figuring out a way to continue to incentivize those non-metric employees also brings the soft rewards to the company over time,” said Raudabaugh. She suggested companies might use measures such as customer satisfaction as a qualifier for a non-sales incentive.

Equally, incentive travel can be part of a larger, year-round employee engagement program that offers constant praise and rewarding opportunities for all employees, which also aligns with the younger generation's desire for more frequent feedback.

The most effective rewards programs emphasize "experience value" over monetary compensation, making the incentive trip the pinnacle of a continuous, gamified reward structure.

4. Seek Out Hidden Gems

“We're always on the hunt for that new place that's going to make people sit up and be like, ‘I want to go there,’” said Raudabaugh. To counter the predictable, incentive planners are continuously searching for fresh and unique destinations, often “tier-two, maybe even tier-three destinations that a lot of attendees haven't been to before.”

According to Raudabaugh, following the Covid pandemic, incentives stayed close to home, followed by a rush to the most far-flung destinations. Current destination trends have settled into a balance, with clients split between domestic options for easier logistics and international trips for exotic appeal.

Meanwhile, urban destinations remain a tough sell due to high cost and safety considerations, but they can work well for some groups. Thibodeau highlighted some advantages for groups that look to have more free time and self-directed activities. The additional airlift is also a benefit that can make the difference budget-wise.

Ultimately the most important factor guiding destination selection is alignment with client objectives and careful consideration for the desired event experience.

5. Factor Geopolitical and Security Risks from Day One

Safety and security come first and foremost for destination planning, but this goes beyond selecting travel to places that are deemed safe. Reviewing entry requirements has become a critical logistical and budgetary factor. Proactively identifying potential challenges with visas or documentation will help ensure a seamless travel experience.

As destinations are being considered, Raudabaugh recommended proactively engaging the client's internal security team early, and being prepared to take a destination off the table if the environment shifts. “If they have a robust security team internally, they'll have thoughts upon the initial conversations related to destination.” 

Raudabaugh also advised leaning into supplier partners. Reliable, on-the-ground contacts are essential sources of an “up-to-the-minute, boots-on-the-ground, first-hand testimonials" She recalled a lead up to a program in Hawaii when there was a volcano eruption on a completely different part of the island. “We literally had to have people on the ground with video cameras showing the beautiful day at the beach live, knowing that the volcano eruption was a hundred miles away.”

6. Minimize Environmental Impact and Maximize Social Benefits

The long-haul travel involved in many incentives is a concern for some companies. Maritz offers tools to support clients measuring their carbon footprints, but “obviously it's a priority for some clients more than it is for others,” said Thibodeau. “We do have clients that make decisions to stay closer because they want people either within driving distance or they want shorter flights.”

In addition to offering a carbon footprint analysis or carbon offset options, Raudabaugh highlighted a growing trend, the notion of incentive travel as a give-back opportunity through the infusion of CSR initiatives. But cookie-cutter CSR won’t cut it. Thibodeau reinforced the value of working with local partners including convention bureaus to identify the best way to give back and make the greatest impact on the community where the incentive is taking place.

Raudabaugh said, "It's a two-way conversation. One, what does the destination need? What do they lack? And two, what does the company like to support as a whole from an overarching concept?” She offered two examples that may be aligned to a given company, supporting military veterans or supporting the health and wellbeing of children through Ronald McDonald House.

Raudabaugh went further, suggesting that finding ways to connect human-to-human with locals can be incredibly powerful and memorable for attendees. “Some of the highest-rated experiences we've had across any of our programs were where someone literally got to go to someone else's home and meet them and see their family and their life, and understand what their world looks like on the other side of the globe. So I really encourage everyone to continue to develop those types of experiences and find ways to connect people to one another, to show that we live in a very, very small space, despite the distances that separate us. In the end, we're all humans with wants, needs, loves, desires, and there's just great stories to tell one after another.”