Stuff like fast passes and gift cards don’t cost Disney anything anyway. Giving a giftcard is similar to the 25% off they have going right now on
shopdisney. And the backpacks they give out cost them pennies. Go on temu and see how much that stuff costs from China. And they get it even cheaper because they negotiate deals. The backpacks are the cheapest form of advertising they could possibly get anyway. Imagine. People walk around advertising your product for free and you didn’t even have to pay them anything for it. We are the fools doing the free advertising. The fact that Disney isn’t giving out anything anymore just shows how— let’s put it nicely- “unintelligent” their management team is.
DVC has never been stingy about giving out things like backpacks, string bags and baseball caps to members, so I'm not sure why that's even a topic. I got a DVC bag on my last
Disney cruise earlier this year. It came in handy at
Castaway Cay...then went in the trash. Was also given one by
Disneyland sales rep in 2022.
Giving DVC merch to non-members as touring incentives is pointless because very few people who are not members would want to carry around a "Disney Vacation Club" bag. Also if asked about DVC by another guest, they either wouldn't know anything or would proceed to tell the questioner why they chose not to buy.
DVC has given out gift cards in the past. There's never been a standing offer. I assume they have internal reasons for deciding when / where to offer such incentives.
As for things like FastPasses and
Genie+, those are limited resources which Disney has always valued internally. If you get too generous with items like that, suddenly it becomes a headliner in clickbait YouTube videos and web searches under the heading of "Want to get Genie+ for free on your next Disney trip? Here's how!!" Meanwhile, they tie-up sales resources with non-prospects touring for the gifts.
You may get the occasional "I splurged on DVC after touring to get Genie+ for free." But DVC knows what its closing percents are. Pretty simple to use feedback from sales reps to track how activity changes in response to a variety of incentives. If your staff spends too much time catering to non-prospects, you end up missing better candidates. Or your administrative / promotional costs go up, defeating the purpose of the incentive.