Every office has a drawer full of branded water bottles, notebooks, and USB sticks that nobody remembers receiving. Traditional corporate gifts get forgotten fast because they leave no mark: they sit in a cabinet, go missing, or end up in the year-end donation box. An experience, on the other hand, gets remembered for years. It becomes a story someone tells, a photo they share, a memory they tie directly to the company that gave it to them. That's the shift more HR teams and sales leaders in Bogotá are making: instead of buying objects, they're designing moments.
The science behind this isn't new, but it still runs against the instincts of most procurement departments: people adapt quickly to material things, while the anticipation and memory of an experience stay vivid for much longer. When a team member receives a voucher for a private dinner on the shore of the Tominé Reservoir, or a day at a thermal spa, they're not just getting a gift — they're getting permission to switch off, something in short supply on any high-performing team. And unlike a cash bonus, which quietly disappears into groceries and bills, a well-designed experience feels like a personal gesture, not a transaction.
For companies, the return is measurable too: a stronger employer brand, higher redemption rates on incentive programs (nobody skips a sailboat dinner or a horseback ride), and organic social content when teams share what they experienced. An incentive people actually want to use — and want to talk about — does more for employer branding than any product catalog ever could.
What makes experience gifting work at corporate scale isn't the experience itself — it's the logistics behind it. The companies that do this best use a simple tiered structure, similar to an internal loyalty program:
Each tier translates into a voucher with a generous validity window (ideally twelve months), which employees book directly and the company pays for in bulk. This simplifies invoicing, makes budgeting precise, and removes the burden of organizing each event individually.
Not every experience makes an equally good corporate gift. The ones that work best combine three things: they're easy to book, they don't hinge critically on the weather, and they feel exclusive. Some examples companies in the region are already using:
The key is offering a curated menu of options, not a single choice. That way every part of the company — from sales to the executive team — finds the experience that fits the moment being celebrated.
Ultimately, an experience-based incentive program says something about a company's values: that it prizes rest, nature, good food, and human connection over whatever object happens to be on trend. It's a gift that feels considered, not bought in bulk at the last minute.
If your company is looking to replace the year-end gift catalog or build an incentive program tied to performance milestones, we'd be glad to help design the tiers, the experiences, and the booking logistics around your team.