As businesses emerge from one of the most difficult economic stretches in modern history, investments in Incentive Travel are growing again. In its 2014 Trends Study, The Incentive Research Foundation found that one third of all incentive travel planners will increase their budgets in the coming year. Spending is expected to rise across the board on program components ranging from airline tickets, transfers, activities, events and room gifts. The Society of International Travel Executives (SITE) also declared that “travel for motivational purposes” was approaching a four-year high. They found that almost half of its member base planned to spend more in the coming year.

But as business leaders demand both meaningful and measurable returns on every dollar invested, incentive travel is no exception. Today more than ever before, incentive travel planners are under pressure to show that their programs delivered the type of performance, motivational and culture-building returns they promised.