The Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) and SITE, in partnership with Oxford Economics, have announced the launch of the 2026 Incentive Travel Index (ITI), the most comprehensive and longest-running annual study of the global incentive travel industry.
Now in its seventh edition, ITI is a joint initiative of IRF, SITE and Oxford Economics. Its global sample includes corporate end users, agencies, destination management companies (DMCs), suppliers and destination marketing organisations (DMOs) across more than 90 countries. The 2026 edition builds on the Index’s longitudinal view of the sector, helping the industry distinguish enduring shifts from short-term market conditions, while introducing new lines of inquiry that reflect the issues practitioners are navigating now.
The 2026 survey retains the four established pillars that have anchored the Index since its inception: budgets, benefits, programme design and destination selection. These provide the year-on-year comparability that makes ITI a strategic planning tool for organisations across the incentive travel supply chain.
For 2026, the survey adds dedicated new questions on destination risk and geopolitics, the role of the qualifier voice in destination evaluation, how teams are using artificial intelligence in practice, and the future of the DMC sector. It also introduces more refined budget granularity and a closing Lightning Round of sixteen short, candid prompts designed to capture the unvarnished view from the practitioner’s desk.
Stephanie Harris, IRF President, said: “ITI is the only research instrument that examines the global incentive travel market from every angle, taking in source markets and destinations, end users and intermediaries, suppliers and DMOs. Its value lies in that completeness and in its continuity. Seven editions now give us a longitudinal view that allows us to separate enduring industry shifts from passing weather. For 2026 we have built carefully on that historical foundation, while making space for the questions our industry is genuinely wrestling with right now.”
Annette Gregg, CMM, MBA, CEO of SITE, added: “Working with Oxford Economics, we have sharpened the 2026 survey considerably. Budgets, benefits, programme design and destination selection remain core, but we have opened up new lines of inquiry that reflect where the industry’s attention is actually focused. Practitioners are being asked not just how they feel about disruption, but what concrete actions they have already taken in response to risk and geopolitical uncertainty. We are also asking whether the destinations we choose are aligned with what qualifiers themselves would choose if given a free hand, and how teams are using AI in practice across destination research, sourcing, content, personalisation and programme design. These are no longer theoretical questions. They are practical ones.”
Hasan Dinc, President of SITE, said: “Speaking with SITE members across more than twenty-nine chapters and affiliates, the conversations have changed materially over the last eighteen months. Members are navigating destination risk in real time, weighing geopolitical signals against the commercial reality of programmes that have been months or years in the planning. The 2026 ITI gives them a structured way to share that experience, compare notes with peers across markets and bring a global evidence base back into the rooms where destination decisions are made. I encourage every SITE member to contribute, and I encourage chapter presidents to make this a priority conversation at their next chapter meeting.”
The 2026 ITI survey has opened is available in English, Spanish and Chinese until 31 July. The survey takes approximately 15 to 20 minutes to complete and is fully anonymous.
Further details are available on the ITI website and on the home pages of IRF and SITE.
Related
