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The Rise of the Values-Driven Traveller

Why purpose, people and place—not perks—will win in 2026

If the past few years were a stress test, 2026 is the strategy test. Incentive travel has steadied after the post-pandemic surge: volumes are holding, but the job is harder. Costs are up, attention is scarce, and participants—especially younger qualifiers—are louder about what matters. The pattern we see across The DMC Collective’s client base—and echoed by industry research from the Incentive Research Foundation, the SITE Foundation and Oxford Economics—is simple: the trips that genuinely change behaviour are the ones that reflect participants’ values. Recognition still matters. Luxury still dazzles. But the experiences people rave about—and repeat—are the ones that feel intentional, inclusive and connected to the place, not merely expensive.

The Product Is Strong; the Business Is Tough

Three truths define the moment. First, the product still works: incentive travel remains one of the most effective recognition and retention levers available to leadership teams. Second, the operating environment is tougher: inflationary pressure in hotels, air and F&B squeezes margins and agility. Third, expectations have shifted: participants want to feel seen—their needs anticipated, their values respected, their time well used.

Budgets tell the story. Average spend per person has risen, and the most resilient programmes aren’t trying to “save” their way to delight; they’re rebalancing—paring back low-impact line items (gifting for gifting’s sake, spectacle that looks good on paper but dies on arrival) to fund what actually elevates the experience: design, access, curation and care. The best incentive travel companies and event planners are already rebalancing—diverting pounds from noise to nuance and winning credit for the parts of the experience that participants actually remember.

What ‘Values-Driven’ Looks Like in Practice

“Values” shouldn’t live in a slide; they should live in the run-of-show. The incentive travel companies and event planners who get this right don’t announce values—they operationalise them. Five hallmarks separate box-ticking from the real thing:

1) Inclusion is designed-in, not bolted-on.
Accessible rooming close to lifts. Quiet floors and sensory-friendly spaces. Prayer or reflection rooms as standard. Menus that respect halal, kosher-style, vegetarian/vegan and coeliac needs without making anyone ask twice. Parallel activity tracks—high-energy, reflective, social-light—so introverts and extroverts both thrive.

2) Luxury with local logic.
The new luxury isn’t louder; it’s rarer and more contextual: private-hours access to a heritage site guided by its curator; a market walk that ends in a seat-at-the-stove lunch with a neighbourhood chef; a performance where the artist’s story matters as much as the set list. These moments are scarce, emotionally sticky and tied to community—everything a values-driven programme claims to be.

3) Safety and welcome as explicit design criteria.
Personal safety, air access and geopolitics aren’t footnotes; they’re filters. The values-driven response isn’t to ignore complexity; it’s to do the homework—publish a risk approach, be candid about mitigations, and, if the context shifts, move the programme rather than ask delegates to swallow discomfort for optics.

4) Purpose over polish (when they clash).
If you add a “CSR” component, design it with dignity. Co-create with local partners. Deliver tangible outcomes. Report back before departure. Participants increasingly ask: Who benefits from our presence? Have a credible answer.

5) Choice is the new control.
Customisation is not a perk; it’s a survival trait. Modular free time, elective micro-experiences, and short, crystal-clear content (maps, videos, notes) that help people self-author their trip—without sacrificing safety or cohesion.

Younger Travellers Are Calling the Tune

Here’s the design-changing reality: a rising share of younger qualifiers will refuse a trip if the destination clashes with their personal beliefs. That isn’t “entitlement”; it’s alignment. If a company markets values externally, the reward should reflect them internally. In post-programme surveys we run for clients, the most quoted line is some version of: “I felt like this was designed for people like me.” Notice the emphasis. Not “high performers like me.” People like me.

What creates that feeling? Thoughtful on-ramps for different energy levels. Meaningful social options without alcohol. Fitness micro-communities that aren’t performative. A studio visit instead of a queue-heavy mega-museum. The option to opt out—without being othered. For 2026, event planners and incentive travel companies that design for belonging—not just prestige—will keep their high performers coming back.

Destination Strategy: New-but-Near, Not Big-and-Far

Buyers are seeking places they haven’t used before—with a pragmatic tilt towards shorter-haul to manage cost, time and complexity. The real enemy isn’t distance; it’s friction. That’s why smart 2026 strategies pair novelty with navigability:

Bundle new with near. Choose a fresh region that still benefits from hub-and-spoke air, strong DMC relationships and dependable ground.
Use ships and rails as tools, not tropes. Interest in cruise is rising among erstwhile non-users in some regions because it solves logistics; the trick is to invest properly in off-ship content and private calls.
Design for dignity where narratives are noisy. In destinations where politics or public discourse create inclusion concerns, widen the brief: private venues; community-partnered programming; opt-in sessions that give people agency to engage, or not, without stigma.

We’re seeing leading incentive travel companies and event planners pair novelty with navigability: fresh destinations, shorter travel arcs, fewer friction points. The result is a destination portfolio that feels fresh without feeling fragile.

From Ideal to Itinerary: Designing the Programme

Values become real when they survive contact with a timeline. Here’s a blueprint we’ve pressure-tested with event planners, incentive travel companies and across luxury executive retreats, where optics matter as much as outcomes.

Arrival

Fast-track where ethical and available; discreet meet-and-greet for higher-risk travellers.
A welcome that reflects place: small-group rotations with makers, curators and conservationists—no lobby scrum.

Day 1 — Belonging

Three parallel tracks: social-forward (market walk + stove-side lunch), reflective (artist studio + garden tea), active (coastal cycle + cold-plunge spa).
Leaders host small-table dialogues—no lecterns, no rah-rah—about what the team is building, and why. People remember who listened.

Day 2 — Signature

Private-hours access to a cultural icon, contextualised by the person who tends it.
If there’s a community component, co-design it and measure it. Report the outcomes before departure.

Day 3 — Choice-rich crescendo

Micro-itineraries (90–120 minutes) that delegates string together: ceramics throws, biodiversity blitzes, coffee cuppings, zero-proof cocktail labs.
A finale dinner that tells a story: ingredients from day-one producers, artists you met that afternoon, partners seated as guests, not scenery.

Departure

Keepsakes with permanence: a photo zine by local photographers; a small, beautifully made object from a local craftsperson.
Post-trip field guide (books, playlists, maker maps) and an opt-in alumni channel—because memory is a design choice.

AI Isn’t the Wow—It’s the Workhorse

AI has gone mainstream across planning teams—used for content, destination research, programme modelling and participant communications. On our desks, it’s the backstage crew that makes front-of-house sparkle.

Three practical wins for 2026:

Bid design with constraints baked in. “What’s the plan if it pours?” “What if 10% drop on day two?” Rapid scenario iteration with budget sensitivities gives stakeholders options, not opinions.
On-site comms that are clearer and kinder. Multilingual daily notes with maps and micro-videos; inclusive copy that anticipates needs; push messaging that reduces confusion, not adds to it.
Post-programme storytelling that connects memory to meaning. Quick sizzle reels are fine; what leaders need is a crisp narrative that ties memories to metrics—belonging, community outcomes, retention—not just glossy b-roll.

AI won’t choose your taste level—that’s still the human edge for event planners and incentive travel companies alike.

Where the Data Ends and the Argument Starts

On the big picture, our client work and the latest industry research land in the same place:

Stable volumes, harder work. The brief isn’t “grow at any cost”; it’s “make each programme count”.
Spend with intent. Protect the line items that create meaning; trim the ones that don’t.
Safety, access, politics and welcome are table stakes, not afterthoughts.
Customisation is a survival trait. Give people elegant ways to choose.
Younger cohorts demand alignment. If you claim values, design them.
AI is standard kit. Treat it as capacity, not a headline.

Where I’ll push the industry is in how we operationalise “values”. It isn’t a single CSR afternoon. It’s the choreography of choice, the architecture of belonging, and the honesty to say, “We moved this programme because the context changed.” That isn’t weakness; it’s leadership.

Five Non-Negotiables for 2026

Five lines event planners and incentive travel companies shouldn’t cross next year:

Write values into the brief. Put inclusion, cultural respect, environmental care and community benefit in the RFP. If it matters, specify it.
Score venues on more than ballroom size. Accessibility plans, staff training, community relationships and energy/water transparency belong next to rates and dates.
Source community partners like headline talent. Vet, rehearse, compensate fairly. Secure consent for storytelling.
Budget with a backbone. If cuts are needed, cut noise—not the heart. Gifting and generic entertainment are the first candidates.
Close the loop. Publish what the programme achieved for participants and partners. Make it easy for executives to retell the story internally.

Luxury Executive Retreats: Signal Over Noise

A Berlin base works when it disappears on cue. You want service that behaves, load-in logic that doesn’t steal a morning and enough discretion to keep public figures unbothered. We often anchor arrivals in City West for calm and send the work east for voltage — but the point is to avoid whiplash. One neighbourhood per movement, transitions at leg-pace, and the hotel as a preposition (with, near, through), not the sentence itself.

The seams that carry the day

Executive offsites are the petri dish where tomorrow’s incentive design is born. The stakes are higher, groups smaller, optics sharper.

Clarity over theatre. If something looks lavish, it must buy privacy, efficiency or impact. Otherwise, it’s noise.
Psychological safety is the true VIP access. Facilitation, seating and sound design either widen or narrow voices. Design for candour.
Use executive time where it compounds. Small-table dialogues, mentoring breakfasts, walk-and-talks beat a stage and a script.

This is where values meet leadership: the retreat that feels honest—about context, about strategy, about people—beats the one that tries to out-gloss the last.

Measure What Matters (So Values Aren’t Vibes)

If we claim “values-driven”, we must measure beyond room-nights and smile sheets.

Belonging Index: a simple composite—felt seen; felt safe; felt able to choose; felt welcomed by the destination—plus a free-text “moment that mattered”.
Community Impact: partner-verified metrics (training hours delivered, local procurement, funds granted), with a 90-day follow-up.
Environmental pragmatics: acknowledge travel emissions; report on waste diversion and reductions achieved via design (menus, materials).
Career effect: six-month retention/advancement checks for qualifiers—because recognition should correlate with growth.

Metrics don’t kill magic. They protect it.

The Provocation: Design for What People Believe

We don’t need more expensive trips. We need truer ones—itineraries that feel intentionally of the place and unmistakably of the people who earned them. In 2026, the winners won’t be the loudest programmes; they’ll be the clearest: fewer gimmicks, more meaning; fewer lines in the run sheet, more lines people quote back at work.

So here’s the challenge to event planners, destinations, executives and the incentive travel companies who bind them together:

Design for what people believe, not just what they can buy.

Do that, and you’ll earn something inflation can’t erode and geopolitics can’t cancel: trust. And trust—not fireworks—is what keeps high performers coming back.