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What a President's Club Trip Costs Per Person

Travel ConnectsNovember 9, 20266 min read

Infinity pool surrounded by palm trees at a luxury resort

Short answer: North American companies spent an average of $6,000 per person on incentive trips in 2025, according to the Incentive Travel Index from the Incentive Research Foundation and SITE. That counts guests as people, so a qualifier who brings a partner averages about $12,000. The most common programs cost $3,000–$5,000 per person.

For how to design the program, set the qualifying bar and run the trip, see our corporate incentive travel guide. This post is the number.

What the industry data says

$5,100 per person globally in 2025, up 4% from $4,900 in 2024.
$6,000 per person for North American buyers, up from $5,400, and the only region above the global average.
47% of programs cost more than $5,000 per person, up from 41% a year earlier.
$3,000–$5,000 was the band buyers cited most often, by 26% of them.

So the average sits above the typical program. Nearly half of programs are over $5,000, and those pull the average up. Plan from the band, then check where your destination, length and guest policy put you in it.

Per person versus per qualifier

The survey divides total program cost by everyone who travels, qualifiers and guests together. Budget the other way round:

40 qualifiers with guests, at $3,000–$5,000 a person: 80 travelers, $240,000–$400,000, or $6,000–$10,000 per qualifier.
The same group at the $6,000 average: $480,000, or $12,000 per qualifier.

Whether guests come is the biggest single decision in the budget, and it nearly doubles the cost. It is also much of the point: in SITE Foundation's 2023 participant survey, time with a spouse or guest was one of the two activities qualifiers valued most.

Where budgets are heading

In the Incentive Research Foundation's 2026 trends report, half of buyers expected incentive budgets to keep pace with inflation and a quarter expected them to beat it. A quarter of buyers also said they plan to trim per-person spend, most often by cutting back on gifts (45% of them) or choosing a less expensive destination (42%).

Three levers that lower the cost per qualifier

Pick the destination for the group terms, not only the rate. North American buyers mostly choose the Caribbean, Western Europe and Mexico. Caribbean all-inclusives fold meals and drinks into the nightly rate and give free rooms for groups: Sandals gives one per 10 paid rooms from January to August and one per 6 from September to December, up to five. Our guide to how beach resort group packages are priced shows the other terms to compare.
Spend less on gifting. It is the line buyers say they cut first.
Travel in shoulder season. Hyatt's all-inclusive resorts give one free room per 30 paid from January to April and one per 20 from May to December.

The tax line people forget

The IRS treats a trip won for meeting sales goals as income. IRS Publication 525 lists "vacation trips for meeting sales goals" among taxable awards, valued at fair market value, and Publication 15-B says the employee achievement award exclusion does not cover vacations, meals or lodging. So the trip's value is part of each qualifier's taxable pay. Decide before you announce the trip whether the company will cover that tax, because covering it raises the cost per qualifier. Your payroll or tax adviser sets the exact treatment.

Why companies still choose a trip

In SITE Foundation's 2023 participant survey, 55% of incentive participants said they prefer group travel rewards to individual ones. A trip with the rest of the top performers does something a bonus check can't: it puts the people you most want to keep on the same trip as your leadership.

Get a per-qualifier number

Tell us how many qualifiers, whether guests come, and your preferred months, and we'll price two or three destinations with the group terms spelled out. There is no planning fee: the resorts and cruise lines pay us a commission. See how we run incentive trips and President's Club programs.

Price a President's Club trip → (mention "President's Club" and your number of qualifiers in the form).

Sources: spend figures from the Incentive Travel Index 2025 Survey Highlights (IRF and SITE, October 2025) and its 2024 edition; budget outlook from the IRF 2026 Trends Report; participant preferences from SITE Foundation's Participant inSITEs, 2023; tax rules from IRS Publication 525 and Publication 15-B; group terms from Sandals' and Hyatt Inclusive Collection's own group pages. All read on November 8, 2026. This is general information, not tax advice.

Travel Connects is a Florida-based, full-service travel agency. FL Seller of Travel Reg. No. TI125330. CA Seller of Travel Reg. No. 2089491-50.