Every December, somebody in your town is standing in a store trying to figure out what to get the brother-in-law who already owns everything.
That person is a customer for almost every experience business in Southwest Florida. Very few of them are being marketed to.
Deloitte's 2026 holiday survey, released October 15, found that half of shoppers plan to give an experience as a gift this year. I want to walk through what that number means for tours, attractions, and venues, and what I would have set up before Small Business Saturday on November 28.
Are experience gifts actually growing?
Yes, and fairly quickly. In Deloitte's survey of 4,000 U.S. consumers, 50% said they plan to gift an experience this holiday season, up from 47% in 2025 and 39% in 2024.
What this basically means is that roughly one in ten shoppers added experiences to their list over the past two years. (The brother-in-law problem appears to be universal.)
These are survey answers about what people plan to buy, so I'd treat the exact figure as directional. The direction itself is pretty hard to argue with.
Who is getting the experience gift money right now?
Mostly restaurants. Restaurant gift cards and in-person meals are the most popular experience gift in Deloitte's survey, at 37%.
That tells you who owns the shelf. When somebody decides to give an experience and can't think of a specific one, a dinner gift card is the easy fallback, mostly because restaurants have been selling them at the register for decades.
A kayak tour, an axe throwing lane, or a day at an adventure park makes for a far more memorable gift than a steak. The trouble is that nobody thinks of it unless you put it in front of them in November.
Why does this matter for an experience business?
A gift card sale works a bit differently than a regular booking, and most of the differences work in your favor.
The money comes in NOW, during the holidays, regardless of when the card gets used.
The buyer is usually local, which makes them one of the easier audiences to reach with ads.
The person redeeming it has often never heard of you, so each card can bring in a brand new guest.
That guest shows up already sold on the idea, since somebody they like picked you for them.
There's also a scheduling angle worth considering. If you include a small perk for weekday or shoulder-season redemption, some of those cards will land on dates you would otherwise struggle to fill.
What should the gift actually look like?
Something you can hold. Deloitte found that 79% of shoppers planning an experience gift also want to pair it with a physical item.
I believe that's the most useful number in the whole survey for your business. Most operators skip right past it. An emailed code is convenient, but it is pretty hard to wrap.
A few low-cost ways to give the card some weight:
A printed card in a small branded envelope or box
A t-shirt, hat, or koozie bundled in at a set price
A printed photo or postcard of the experience itself
A simple "you're going ziplining" card the giver can hand over at dinner
None of this needs to be expensive. It just needs to look like a present when it comes out from under the tree.
How should I price and package a gift card?
Bundle it, rather than only selling a dollar amount. Deloitte found that 47% of shoppers prefer one meaningful, higher-cost gift over several smaller ones, while 38% of shoppers fall into what the survey calls "holiday value seekers."
Those two groups want slightly different things, so my recommendation would be to offer both:
A premium package, such as a two-person experience plus merchandise, for the one-big-gift crowd
A clear bonus offer, such as buy a $100 card and get a $20 bonus card, for the value seekers
The bonus card has a quiet side benefit. It gives the buyer a reason to come back as a guest themselves.
When should I start marketing gift cards?
Now, ideally. I'd want the gift card page live and tested well before Black Friday on November 27 and Small Business Saturday on November 28.
A rough timeline I'd suggest:
Early November: build or clean up the gift card page, and confirm it works on a phone
Mid November: add gift cards to your Google Business Profile, your homepage, and your social bios
Thanksgiving week: email your list and run a small Meta campaign aimed at locals within driving distance
Early to mid December: keep the reminders going on social and email
The final week before Christmas: push digital delivery for last-minute buyers, since a mailed card won't arrive in time
If you've been building an email list, this is the send it was made for. A holiday gift card email to past guests is about as warm as an audience gets.
How do I know if it's working?
Track gift card revenue by week, and compare it against last year if you have the numbers. Then keep an eye on how many cards get redeemed over the following few months, and how many of those first-time guests come back and book on their own.
That last number is the one I would watch most closely, since it tells you whether the program is simply moving money around or actually turning gift recipients into regulars.
If anything, run the program this season, check those numbers in the spring, and adjust the packages for next year accordingly.
The short version
Half of holiday shoppers plan to give an experience this year, and right now a large share of that goes to dinner gift cards. The operators who sell something that looks like a present, price it for both the big-gift buyer and the value seeker, and start marketing before Thanksgiving are the ones I'd expect to pick up that business.
Somebody is going to sell the brother-in-law his Christmas present. It may as well be you.
Bruno Media works with experience and recreation businesses across Southwest Florida. Kayak tours, adventure parks, axe throwing, escape rooms, ranch venues. If people book a time slot to have fun, that's the lane. If you'd like a hand getting a gift card page and holiday campaign set up before Small Business Saturday, we'd be glad to help.
Your Marketing, Simplified.
Sources
Deloitte, "Holiday Spending Set to Increase 4% While Shoppers Focus on Value," October 15, 2026. Survey of 4,000 U.S. consumers, fielded August 26 to September 10, 2026, margin of error ±2 percentage points.
American Express Shop Small, Small Business Saturday date (November 28, 2026).
