SITE
Sun, sea, sand and … meaning
PÁDRAIC GILLIGAN, HEAD OF RESEARCH & CONSULTANCY, SITE WORKS UP A HEAD OF STEAM ON THE QUESTION OF MEANINGFUL INCENTIVES
O nce the ice was broken in
the sauna, the conversation flowed like hot lava.
My companion, probably in his thirties, was an automotive dealer principal on Ireland’ s west coast and I asked him whether he went on incentive trips?
“ Oh I do”, he replied,“ but, at this stage I could take them or leave them.”
“ These trips are not what they used to be. The new global CEO cut out partners so now it’ s like going on a stag where you don’ t know anyone.”
Unknowingly, my naked companion cogently nailed one of the worrying signs highlighted in this year’ s Incentive Travel Index, released in October at IMEX America: incentive travel is increasingly reductive, focused on sun, sand and sea locations.
For the 5th year in a row, US buyers continue their love affair with all-inclusive Caribbean resorts with the lion’ s share of programme budget consumed by air and accommodation. When it comes to“ must haves”, top tier accommodations, direct air and resort setting are the top three choices. Activities with historical or cultural significance languish in 7th position. A new line of inquiry in 2026 is particularly instructive in this regard. We asked how well today’ s incentives are delivering on incentive travel’ s broad objectives to be motivational( a strong desire to qualify), memorable( a high quality destination experience) and meaningful( long term and transformative).
One“ experience”, beach and sunshine, was a clear outlier with a 72 % rating for its“ motivational” qualities. Only two other scores reached 50 % or higher: international incentives rate at 50 % for their motivational qualities, while adventure travel rates at 51 % for its memorability.
Below: The draw of the beach resort is still king for incentives
Read that again. Beach and sunshine makes people want to qualify, but only 21 % of buyers think it delivers anything transformative. Historical locations show the reverse: a lowly 17 % for motivation, more than double that, 35 %, for meaning.
The data reveal a widening chasm between what makes people want to go and what stays with them after they have gone. We have become exceptionally good at designing the trophy and noticeably less interested in what happens once it has been lifted.
The problem is not the beach. It’ s the beach as default, the answer before anyone has asked the question. When“ programme sponsor excitement” registers a mere 9 % among must-haves and“ presence of a good DMC” just 19 %, the incentive has quietly migrated from sales and marketing to procurement. It has become a sanitised logistics exercise wearing Factor 50 and a sun hat.
Yet meaning is what creates loyalty, what binds a high performer to an organisation long after the tan has faded. Meaning is the return on the investment. Motivation is merely the deposit. And meaning is rarely made alone. It is made in company: in shared astonishment at a cathedral ceiling, in the long dinner that runs into the small hours.
Which brings me back to the sauna. My companion had not fallen out of love with travel. He had fallen out of love with a trip that no longer included the person he would most want to share it with. The new CEO had removed the element that made it meaningful and replaced it with a resort. A very good one, no doubt. Top tier accommodation, direct air access, the full set.
“ So what would get you excited about them again?” I asked.
“ Let me bring my other half and take us somewhere I couldn’ t have booked myself.”
Meaningful company, meaningful place.
Otherwise it ' s just sand. n
ISSUE 145 / CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD / 13