Incentives in Corporate America: “a Whopping, Major-League Industry”

The benchmarks are in, and the numbers are huge: U.S. companies spent $46 billion on travel and merchandise incentives in 2006, according to a study sponsored by the Incentive Federation, an umbrella organization that conducts lobbying and research efforts on behalf of the incentive industry. Of that total, $32.7 billion was spent on merchandise and $13.4 billion on incentive travel.