SITE
The island and the icon
PÁDRAIC GILLIGAN, RESEARCH & CONSULTANCY, SITE REFLECTS ON NEXTGEN’ S ATTITUDE TO INCENTIVE TRAVEL
E very February SITE and
the Incentive Research Foundation( IRF), joint custodians / producers of the Incentive Travel Index( ITI), meet with research partners Oxford Economics to discuss the forthcoming edition, decide on the lines of inquiry and draft the new survey questions.
With the standing, ever green questions already decided, this year’ s session turned toward the future demographics of incentive travel, specifically, whether the next generation of qualifiers will value it as deeply as Boomers once did. Would Gen Z still see a trip as a trophy – or just another notification on the company intranet?
Andy Schwartz, VP Marketing at the IRF, supplied the money-moment:“ Gen Z would rather see Taylor
Swift than Hawai’ i.”
The room cracked up – then nodded. It was a perfect metaphor for the emerging zeitgeist, the shifting values, so we slipped it straight into the 2026 ITI questionnaire.
And how did our 2,700 global respondents react?
Turns out 39 % of all respondents agreed with the statement, with 32 % disagreeing and another 30 % unsure.
Maybe that’ s not as flippant as it sounds. In 2024, 9.7 million people visited Hawai’ i – impressive, until you remember 10.1 million bought tickets to Taylor Swift’ s Eras Tour. Swift played 149 shows in 51 cities across five continents. By contrast, 75 % of Hawai’ i’ s visitors came from the US, with Japan and Canada supplying most of the rest.
So, who’ s the real global destination here – the island or the icon?
For decades, incentive travel’ s emotional power came from geography: the far-flung, the exclusive, the“ you had to be there.” But Gen Z’ s world isn’ t defined by distance; it’ s defined by meaning and purpose.
Above:
Pádraic Gilligan
Hawai’ i broadcast its dream through surfside sunsets and the brass section of Hawai’ i Five-O. Taylor Swift streams hers through TikTok, friendship bracelets, and three-hour live epics that feel like a communal rite of passage. One is static paradise; the other, participatory spectacle.
The shift matters. The next generation still craves reward and recognition: they just want it wrapped in relevance. A front-row ticket to something that mirrors their identity may now carry more motivational weight than a five-star stay on a tropical shore.
Aligning up Another new ITI question probed whether“ younger generations of qualifiers are more likely to refuse an incentive trip if the destination doesn’ t align with their personal values.” Over half of all respondents – 56 % – agreed. In Europe, that figure rose even higher, to 62 %.
That’ s a seismic signal. The next wave of talent isn’ t just asking where a reward takes them, but what it stands for. And the filters are likely to be sustainability, inclusion, diversity, cultural authenticity.
For planners, that’ s both challenge and opportunity. Incentive design now has to move beyond prestige to purpose: experiences that resonate ethically as well as emotionally. The new qualifier wants to see themselves reflected in the journey.
The‘ Taylor Swift vs. Hawai’ I’ line wasn’ t a joke at all. It was a parable. Gen Z still wants to travel, to connect, to celebrate but they want to do it on their own terms. The next era of incentive travel will belong to brands and planners who understand that recognition without relevance is noise, and the future incentive might not be a postcard from paradise. It might be a shared chorus under stadium lights, proof that reward, like music, hits hardest when it feels like yours. n
ISSUE 139 / CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD / 15