Gifting Is the First Thing Incentive Travel Buyers Cut, the 2026 Incentive Travel Index Finds: What It Means for 2027 Reward Budgets
The 2026 Incentive Travel Index, published on October 12 by SITE Foundation and the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) with Oxford Economics, shows companies spending more per qualifier than a year ago. It also shows more of them preparing to trim in 2027. When buyers trim, the gifts and merchandise that go with the trip are cut first. The study covers travel programs, but the trade-off it describes is the one every sales-incentive and recognition budget will face next year.
Spending is up, and so is caution
This is the eighth year SITE Foundation and the IRF have run the Index. Buyers here means corporate program owners and the incentive houses that run trips for them. Sellers means hotels, cruise lines, destination management companies and tourism boards. Spend per person rose 7.8% to $5,500, almost double the 4% rise in the 2025 report, according to Skift Meetings' account of the launch at IMEX America. Technology-sector buyers spend the most, about $6,000 a head. North America averages $6,100, well above the $4,900 reported for Western Europe and Asia-Pacific.
Budgets for next year look tighter. Of 538 buyers who gave a 2027 plan, 30.7% intend to trim per-person spend and only 17.2% to improve it. North American buyers lean the most negative, at 33.2% trimming against 16.0% improving. The Index expects that to flip by 2028, when 32.1% plan to improve and 19.0% to trim. By industry, manufacturing and finance and insurance show the largest net cuts, at −22.3 and −21.3 points. Direct selling is the only industry with more buyers raising budgets than cutting them.
Uncertainty runs through the whole report. Overall, 60.5% of buyers say geopolitical instability is already disrupting destinations they use. Among all qualified respondents, 64% agree the US will see a decline in inbound incentive travel because of recent political events. SITE president Hasan Dinc summed it up at the launch press conference:
“Disruption is no longer the exception, it's the norm.”
— Hasan Dinc, president of SITE, as quoted by Skift Meetings
Where the cuts and upgrades go
Buyers who plan to change their 2027 budgets were asked how. The answers show gifting as a budget valve: it is the first thing cut when money is short, and it gains ground when money is added.
| Lever | 2026 survey | 2025 survey |
|---|---|---|
| Buyers planning to trim (n = 148) | ||
| Reduced gifting | 55.4% | 44.7% |
| Less expensive destination | 47.3% | 41.6% |
| Shorter duration | 39.9% | 39.1% |
| Reduced accommodations | 38.5% | 27.3% |
| Less distant destination | 22.3% | 34.2% |
| Buyers planning to improve (n = 82) | ||
| Improved activities | 59.8% | 58.2% |
| Improved accommodations | 57.3% | 59.5% |
| Improved gifting | 40.2% | 34.2% |
| Improved food and beverage | 40.2% | 31.6% |
The money involved is small. Gifting takes 4.5% of the average 2027 program budget, behind hotels (25.1%) and airfare (21.4%). Here is our own rough illustration: 4.5% of the $5,500 average is about $250 per qualifier ($5,500 × 0.045 = $247.50). That mixes the 2027 allocation with 2026 spend, so treat it as an order of magnitude only. Cutting that line saves little next to a hotel downgrade. It is also the part of the reward a qualifier takes home, and the part a CFO notices least.
The launch deck adds two findings that sit closer to HR. 58% of US buyers had problems moving goods across borders in the past 12 months, including gifts, branding and equipment. Only 21% of buyers say incentive travel is fully integrated with their organization's HR or employee-experience strategy, and 47% run it entirely separately. Asked about a provocative statement, 35.9% of respondents agreed that most qualifiers “would still take the cash equivalent of the trip.” Agreement was 27.9% in North America and 51.0% in Asia-Pacific.
What it means for reward, sales-incentive and procurement teams
- Expect the “extras” line to be challenged in 2027 budgets. If finance asks for cuts, gifts and small awards are the easiest line to remove. Before that conversation, decide what the gift is for. A thank-you to everyone who qualified is a different line item from a consolation award for people who missed the trip.
- Price the per-person value, not the program total. At roughly $250 a qualifier, gifting is a small share of a trip but a large share of what non-travelling employees ever see. A gift card or digital reward of the same value can reach people who did not qualify, or who cannot travel.
- Cross-border gifts are a logistics problem. With 58% of US buyers reporting trouble moving goods across borders, shipping branded merchandise to a destination or to an international team carries real risk. Digital codes delivered by email avoid customs. In the US, a gift card from an employer is a cash equivalent and taxable wages; see are gift cards taxable to employees.
- Connect incentives to HR data. Most programs still run separately from HR. That makes it hard to show a program is worth its cost when budgets are reviewed. Tie awards to the same records your recognition and payroll teams use.
For a full rewards budget, see our CFO framework for building an employee rewards budget. To compare program designs, read the sales incentive programs guide and our roundup of employee incentive program statistics. The recognition budget calculator turns headcount and award frequency into an annual figure and a per-award size. Rewordin's global rewards send gift cards to employees in 150+ countries with local brand catalogs. The bulk gift card API sends digital cards to named recipients through a REST API or a CSV upload. On the consumer side, NRF's holiday survey put gift cards at the top of 2026 wish lists.
Sources
- SITE Foundation and Incentive Research Foundation, with Oxford Economics, “Spending more, worrying more: The Incentive Travel Index 2026” (siteglobal.com, published October 12, 2026), the primary source. It links two downloadable decks. The Oxford Economics “2026 Survey Highlights” master deck is the source for the methodology, spend per person, 2027 and 2028 budget plans, the trim and improve levers, budget allocation and the “cash equivalent” statement. The IMEX America launch deck is the source for US-buyer gifting share, cross-border goods, HR integration and US inbound findings. siteglobal.com
- “5 Key Statistics About the State of Incentive Programs,” Skift Meetings (October 14, 2026). Source for the 4% spend increase in the 2025 report, the IMEX America press conference and Hasan Dinc's quote. meetings.skift.com
This article summarizes an industry survey. It is not tax, legal or financial advice; check how gifts and awards are taxed in each country before you budget for them.
About the author
Maciej has worked in the digital gift card and rewards industry for over 5 years. For this story he read SITE's October 12, 2026 Incentive Travel Index page and both decks it links, and checked the headline figures against Skift Meetings' report from the launch. He compared the gifting figures across the two decks and calculated the per-qualifier gifting illustration.