New research from the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE) reveals that human relationships and local expertise remain the absolute priorities for incentive travel professionals when selecting a DMC.
The May 2026 SITE Pulse survey, which polled 286 industry professionals, found that “Local Expertise and Authentic Insight” (3.47 weighted points out of 5) and “Reputation and Relationships” (3.32 points) are the dominant decision-making factors.
When asked for their absolute number-one priority, 42.3% of respondents chose reputation and 33.6% chose local expertise – meaning no other single factor was chosen first by more than 7.7% of the industry.
The data reveals a clear middle tier focused on execution, led by Responsiveness and Agility (1.95 points) and Service Breadth and Creativity (1.82 points). Conversely, corporate metrics like Financial Stability (0.62 points), Technology and Systems (0.47 points), and Scale and Organizational Reach (0.40 points) sat at the very bottom of the spectrum, indicating that infrastructure cannot replace local nuance and trust.
Commenting on the findings, SITE CEO Annette Gregg said: “Technology, systems and scale all have a role to play, but they do not replace the depth of local knowledge, judgement and relationships that make incentive travel programmes genuinely memorable and effective.”
The full report, including responses per organisation type is available here.
