t ’ s certainly a stretch to attempt a solid connection between that sublime poet of the Romantic era , John Keats , and a modern day survey of incentive travel , but here goes regardless !

Keats ’ stunning sonnet ‘ On First Looking into Chapman ’ s Homer ’ tries to capture the poet ’ s astonished reaction to the poetry of Homer , ( not the character from the Simpsons , for the avoidance of doubt !) as rendered into English by his translator , George Chapman .

Keats calls out how Chapman ’ s brilliant translation teases out the fascinating novelty of Homer ’ s world , making him feel like “ some watcher of the skies / When a new planet swims into his ken …”

And therein the connection . ITII Edition 2020 yields up many fascinating insights for ‘ watchers of the skies ’ anxious to discern the nature , purpose and direction of incentive travel as our global ongoing battle with Covid-19 extends into the latter end of 2020 .

As of late October 2020 , the survey is still live and heading for 3,000 submissions , making it , by far , the biggest ever study of incentive travel .

A joint venture between SITE Foundation , Financial & Insurance Conference Professionals ( FICP ) and

Global Average 67 %

USA

EU

UK

Within One

or Two Years

74 %

55 %

57 %

Incentive Research Foundation ( IRF ), interim results have already been shared during PlanetIMEX ’ s October event last week . Like Chapman ’ s Homer , ITII 2020 is full of surprise and delight but , to paraphrase George Bernard Shaw , not all the surprises are delightful and not all the delights are surprising !

It ’ s no surprise that 2020 is a disastrous year for incentive travel professionals with global averages for 2020 at 23 % of the 2019 levels – that ’ s a 77 % fall in activity . Globally , this is expected to improve in 2021 ( 59 % of 2019 levels ), 2022 ( 88 % of 2019 levels ) before full recovery by 2023 .

If we single out Europe , however , a bleaker picture emerges with recovery not happening until at least 2024 and 2021 only reaching 46 % of 2019 levels . In fact one of the striking themes of the survey is an ever widening dichotomy between sentiment in the US and sentiment elsewhere , driven , undoubtedly , by diverse views on the likely evolution of the pandemic .

To illustrate this further , the table below sets out how US , UK , EU stack up against the global average responses to ‘ Once we reach post-Covid conditions , how quickly do you anticipate incentive travel will recover ’:

Three to

Four Years

31 %

24 %

41 %

39 %

Five or

More Years

2 %

1 %

4 %

5 %

Right : Pádraic Gilligan , chief marketing officer , SITE

US incentive travel professionals are significantly more optimistic regarding recovery than other regions and countries .

On the delights side , however , buyers remain wholeheartedly committed to incentive travel albeit stating that changes are needed to mitigate any travel-associated risks . On average , only 1 in 5 buyers state that it will be necessary to re-justify each incentive travel programme on its own merits . Ever cautious , this figure is 1 in 4 when we consider EU buyers only .

And there ’ s good news for the DMC sector , too , with “ the presence of a good DMC ” ranked third out of 18 possible ways that incentive travel programmes will shift in the light of Covid-19 . If recent years were characterised by pervasive disintermediation as buyers sought to purchase direct in destinations and bypass the local expert , Covid-19 reverses this by prioritising things like overall participant safety and health security , items not so easily commoditised .

These are just some of the surprises and delights that await incentive travel professionals on first looking into … ITII Edition 2020 .