Most marketing activity is forgotten within a week. An incentive trip is not. That one the person remembers and talks about for years.
Rewarding whoever hit their target with a real experience is relationship marketing at its highest level. You are not buying attention. You are building memory.
The part nobody sees
Behind a trip like this there is an entire operation. Itinerary, logistics, accommodation, experience, from departure to post-trip. Groups of around fifty people, in destinations like Dubai and Punta Cana. One loose end, and the good memory turns into a story about a problem.
I planned and produced these trips taking care of exactly that: so the experience would be flawless and the only thing left over would be the good memory.
Why this is marketing, and not tourism
Because the goal was never the trip. It was what the trip does to the relationship.
People who come back from an experience like that work differently, talk about the company differently, sell differently. Marketing that turns into memory is one of the few kinds that keeps paying off long after the campaign is over.