Are We Leading With the Experience — or the Impact?

Behind the extraordinary experiences we create lies a more important question: how do we show their impact?

When was the last time you scrolled through LinkedIn and saw one of our industry’s case studies? Chances are the images stopped you mid-scroll: a five-star resort perched over turquoise water, gala dinners under the stars, private concerts, excursions described as bucket list, once-in-a-lifetime, unforgettable.

Beautiful, yes. Our work deserves to be celebrated for the experiences, the moments, the memories it creates. Yet when celebration becomes our primary language, it narrows how others understand what we do. Experiences become the whole identity and it’s easy for others to miss the deeper outcomes these programs deliver.

Which is why, when Condé Nast Traveler showcased our work earlier this year (full article here), it was a mixed moment. On the one hand, mainstream recognition matters. To its credit, the article made space for ROI and even acknowledged that incentive travel fosters motivation and connection. Yet those notes felt secondary, tucked beneath vivid descriptions of champagne receptions and skydiving in Dubai. In the end, what readers were left with was extravagance, not strategic value.

It’s a dilemma Padraic Gilligan captured perfectly when he asked in his own commentary:

“Are incentive trips strategic tools for human flourishing and organizational performance, or glorified giveaways for high-earning sales teams?”

It’s a question worth asking — and sitting with. Because it gets to the heart of how others still see us. Nearly two decades after the AIG effect, the backlash following AIG’s 2008 incentive travel program, which the media portrayed as an indulgent luxury retreat (Forbes), incentive travel is still misunderstood. Too often it’s remembered only for highlight-reel moments, rather than recognized as a driver of performance, retention, and alignment.

What Our Stories Really Say

Why does this persist? In part because of the story we tell about ourselves. Think about the narratives we lean on most often:

• Destination highlights and luxury amenities.

• Unique activities and flawless logistics.

• Testimonials filled with once-in-a-lifetime and unforgettable.

• Photos polished enough for a travel magazine spread.

Even our award-winning case studies often tell the same kind of story:

“An agency crafted an unforgettable trip at a newly opened luxury resort in Cancun for 1,100 participants. The experience featured Cirque-style performances and fireworks, every detail designed to impress. The result: memories guests said they would never forget.”

Reading it, you can almost feel the wow-factor. And that’s the point — it was designed to dazzle.

“A rockin’ time in Los Cabos featured private concerts headlined by chart-topping bands. More than 50 winners were recognized with personalized touches, including private meet-and-greets with the performers. Attendees later rated it the best President’s Club to date.”

What’s missing? These case studies do not connect to the real impact incentive travel delivers inside an organization. None mention performance improvement, increased retention, or the collaboration that happens when top performers are brought together. These are the results that matter most, yet too often they’re absent from the stories we tell. And when that happens, even our most impressive programs risk being remembered for the marquee moments rather than business outcomes they deliver.

What if our stories evolved? Instead of a case study that only describes “an unforgettable week in the Maldives, complete with private catamaran excursions and gala dinners under the stars,” what if it also revealed the impact those experiences created? Post-program surveys might show participants felt 73% more valued by leadership, a factor directly linked to retention. Or that 75% of attendees said the experience strengthened their commitment to next year’s goals. Same trip. Same experiences. But told as impact…not just itinerary.

How Leaders Really Hear It

We know these programs work. The question is whether others can see what we see. The experience matters. It’s what differentiates incentive travel from other rewards. But here’s the crucial distinction:

The experience isn’t the story, it’s the mechanism.

Think about how our usual stories sound to an executive. The dinners, the logistics, the once-in-a-lifetime excursions — they’re impressive, but they don’t sound business-critical. To them, it comes across more like this:

• “Unforgettable experience” = employee happiness (nice to have).
• “73% feel more valued by leadership” = business performance (need to have).

The second phrase is what resonates at the executive table. It begins to shift how incentive travel is perceived — no longer as a perk, but as a strategic lever.

And we feel that difference when budgets don't move but costs keep climbing, and every line item is scrutinized.

The Squeeze We All Feel

David Peckinpaugh of Maritz put it bluntly in a recent Northstar Meetings Group roundtable (full discussion here): incentive costs have risen more than 40% since 2019, while most client budgets remain flat.

Costs climb while client spending limits hold steady, even as expectations rise higher every year.It’s the same squeeze we all recognize: deliver more with less or risk the client moving on.

We can feel that strain in conversations and the data confirms it. The 2024 Incentive Travel Index shows warning signs that leaders don’t always see incentive travel as strategic:

• Those who see incentive travel as non-essential (a nice-to-have, a trim, or even a necessary evil) grew from 53% in 2023 to 67% in 2024.

• More clients are also discussing ways to consolidate or reduce programs, up five points from 2023.

The perception of incentive travel value simply isn’t keeping pace with the rising costs.

We all know the trips work, that’s never been in question.The issue is how they’re positioned. As long as we lean on the details of dinners, staged moments, and logistics, leaders will see expense. But when we connect those choices to retention, engagement, and results, they start to see investment. Framing the story matters just as much as delivering the program, and that’s the shift we need to make first.

The Challenges That Open the Door

If bridging experience and impact were simple, we’d have mastered it long ago. Instead, we keep running into three familiar challenges, and with each comes an opportunity.

The Measurement Challenge. According to Deloitte’s 2024 Global Human Capital Trends, only 3% of organizations say they’re truly measuring the value their people create. Too often, the insights we need simply aren’t tracked, which leaves us with outcomes we feel, but can’t prove.
Opportunity: We can lean in here, helping clients define what matters and spotlighting impact where it exists.

The Access Challenge. Without executive input, we don’t know which story to tell. Without the right story, it’s hard to earn executive input. It’s a chicken-or-egg problem we all know well. Do we need leaders at the table to frame the right story, or do we need the right story to bring them to the table? The truth is, it’s both.
Opportunity: This is where we step up as translators, connecting program outcomes to the language executives already use.

The Audience Challenge. Too often, we’re speaking to procurement or planners whose priorities are cost and logistics. That’s understandable — it’s their role. But it means the larger story of engagement, retention, and results doesn’t always get airtime.
Opportunity: We can shift the lens, showing how the very design and logistics choices we make connect directly to engagement, retention, and results.

These hurdles are real, but they’re not roadblocks. They’re the openings where our leadership matters most; the moments that invite us to step forward differently.

Clients Want the Bigger Story Too

Some encouraging news: clients are already signaling they want the bigger story too.

The 2024 Incentive Travel Index shows senior leaders are looking for incentive travel to do more than deliver an experience. They want it to strengthen culture and engagement, up eight points from last year. They’re also connecting it to real business needs like retention (81%), hiring advantage (62%), and next-gen talent development (51%). In other words, they’re not pushing incentive travel aside; they’re looking for proof that it delivers on the things they care about most.

This isn’t about participant satisfaction scores or whether people had a good time. It’s about whether award winners came back more committed, more engaged, and more connected to senior leaders and their vision — because that’s what executives want proof of. They’re asking for a value story, not just an experience story, and that’s our opening to lead the conversation differently.

The Vision: Changing the Narrative Together

Imagine what changes if we start leading with impact:

• Incentive travel is recognized as a strategic driver of retention, performance, and collaboration, not just a perk.

• Our conversations with clients focus first on the change they want to guide, with destinations and logistics flowing naturally from that purpose.

• Executives see the programs as a proven lever for shaping future results, not just celebrating past wins.

This vision doesn’t pretend the challenges aren’t real; we all know they are. It is about changing the lens. When incentive travel is seen as a catalyst for business impact, the conversation naturally turns from “what does it cost?” to “what return are we getting?”

It doesn’t require abandoning what makes us great. It requires reframing what we already do, asking sharper questions, and using data we already collect.

Other fields have done it. HR leaders tied engagement to retention savings. Marketers linked brand equity to revenue growth. Both evolved from “support functions” to “strategic drivers.” We can do the same.

The path forward doesn’t start with complex frameworks; it starts with small, deliberate choices.

Because in the end, executives don’t buy trips; they buy outcomes. And we can prove we deliver them.

In the next article, we’ll look at those first small shifts — practical ways to reframe the story, spark deeper client conversations, and show impact using what’s already at hand.

When you describe your next program, will you lead with the experience… or with the difference it made?