Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE), Incentive Research Foundation (IRF), and Financial and Insurance Conference Professionals (FICP) are proud to announce the release of the first joint study of the global incentive travel industry.
Incentive Travel Industry Index Powered by SITE Index, IRF Outlook and FICP is a landmark for the industry, providing unprecedented, consolidated insights into the current state of incentive travel and where it is headed.
“Never before have three associations, all with a focus on incentive travel, come together to release a pan-industry study of the global incentive travel sector. It is the biggest research project ever conducted on incentive travel, by volume and geographical spread, and the results demonstrate unequivocally that our industry is continuing to thrive and grow,“ said SITE CEO Didier Scaillet, CIS, CITP.
Conducted in association with J.D. Power, the study is a wide-ranging analysis of business conditions, attitudes and expectations impacting the incentive travel and motivational events industry worldwide. With over 1,000 respondents from more than 80 countries, it is the largest survey ever conducted of senior players in the incentive travel industry, doubling responses from past individual efforts and netting new insights based on combined questioning.
Survey respondents were balanced between incentive travel buyers and suppliers, with buyers representing incentive agencies and corporate users, while more than half of the sellers are DMCs. The majority are tenured industry professionals with an average of 17.3 years of experience – approximately half are located in the US with the other half outside the US.
“For 2018 we increased the number of corporate end-user respondents by a staggering 80 percent. Of these, 40 percent were from the financial and insurance industry, traditionally a big user of incentive travel, said Steve Bova, CAE, FICP executive director.
While the survey findings show that incentive travel is on the rise, growth isn’t happening unchecked. For instance, costs to operate an incentive travel program are going up.
“Although the findings show that incentive travel is growing, the reality is that there are counter-currents such as rising costs that may temper growth,” added IRF president, Melissa Van Dyke. “Over two-thirds of planners are taking steps to contain costs such as less expensive destinations or less expensive amenities. Fortunately, the nature of incentive travel programs allows companies to adjust them to to reflect concerns with costs.”
Key highlights from the study include:
Budgets for 2018 are Up
More Qualifiers Than Ever
Incentives as a Builder of Workplace Culture
Increase in Use of All Inclusive Destinations
Wellness is the New Golf
This important research project would not have been possible without the support of the following sponsors:
The full study will be released at IMEX America during a Smart Monday session at 11:15 AM. A panel of industry experts representing SITE, FICP and IRF will discuss the findings with Lori Cioffi, Senior Vice President/Chief Content Director, Northstar Meetings Group. The session will be streamed live on the SITE Facebook page.