New survey finds rising optimism for incentive travel activity in 2027 and 2028. Photo Credit: iStock/juan Aizpuru
Asia Pacific is emerging as the most optimistic region for incentive travel, with buyers expecting activity to increase over the next two years even as sentiment weakens in North America and Western Europe, according to the Incentive Travel Index.
The survey found that 36.8% of APAC buyers expect incentive travel activity, measured by the number of participants, to exceed 2026 levels in 2027. That is up from 32% in the 2025 survey, indicating an improvement in near-term confidence.
Looking further ahead, 58.5% of APAC respondents expect activity to be higher in 2028 than in 2026, the strongest two-year outlook among the regions surveyed. The figure places APAC ahead of the Rest of the World, at 55.8%, North America, at 33.7%, and Western Europe, at 22.7%.
The Rest of the World also recorded an improvement in near-term sentiment, with 34.8% of buyers expecting greater activity in 2027, up from 30% in the 2025 survey. Its two-year outlook stands at 55.8%.
By contrast, expectations have softened in North America and Western Europe. In North America, 22.9% of buyers expect activity to rise in 2027, down from 29% in the previous survey. Western Europe recorded a slight decline, from 25% to 24%.
Western Europe is also the only region where expectations for 2028 are lower than for 2027, with 22.7% anticipating higher activity over the longer term, compared with 24% for the following year.