SITE Foundation has released a white paper looking at the future of incentive travel as the world recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Based on the results of a qualitative survey of US corporations conducted by the association in April 2021, the white paper analyzes and interprets that survey’s findings, explores the extensive verbatims provided by the 50 respondents, and provides niche perspective and commentary from four key sectors of the incentive travel spectrum.

“The United States as a source market and destination is very much a bellwether for the future of incentive travel,” said Selina Sinclair, CITP, CEO, Realm and SITE Foundation’s vice-president of Content & Research. “With responses from 15 key sectoral users of incentive travel in the US, including finance and insurance, information and communications technology, automotive, pharma and direct selling, Corporate inSITEs brings us to the heart of corporate America and channels a compelling story of confidence, following almost 18 months of uncertainty. Incentive travel is highly prized as the ultimate reward and recognition tool, it’s recovering much quicker than originally expected but there are changing priorities too, with safety and risk mitigation ranked as the ultimate considerations.”

The 20-page white paper includes:

• a brief overview of SITE Foundation and the work it is doing to support the industry;
• a detailed description of the methodology of the survey—respondents, when fielded, questions, response rate, etc.;
• breakdown of key themes that emerged from the survey (commitment to travel as a reward, acknowledgment of the power of human connections and meeting face-to-face; and the new priorities for companies in a post-COVID world);
• and lessons for the incentive travel supply chain (DMC, destination, hotel, and agency viewpoints).

“As the only industry association dedicated exclusively to incentive travel, SITE and SITE Foundation have earned a reputation as the indisputable, indispensable go-to resource for quality data, information and content on incentive travel in all its myriad guises,” says Terry Manion, CIS, CITP, president, SITE Foundation. “Our Corporate inSITEs series, which will be issued three times in 2021, delivers on our mission to support research, education and advocacy projects on behalf of the incentive travel industry. Since 2017 SITE Foundation has invested over $1.25 million to drive the business case for incentive travel and support professional development within the industry.”