IRF Releases 2026 European Top Performers Study

How Leading Companies Leverage Incentive Travel to Boost Performance

Washington, DC (March 25, 2026): The Incentive Research Foundation announces the release of The 2026 European Top Performers Study. The white paper provides a comprehensive view of how leading companies across Europe design, implement, and manage incentive travel programs that drive measurable business outcomes.

“With the 2026 European Top Performers Study, we applied and refined our proven top performer research framework for the European incentives market,” said Stephanie Harris, President, Incentive Research Foundation. “The study reveals how leading European organizations use incentive travel as a strategic tool to drive engagement, performance, and measurable business results. These findings help European program owners and partners strengthen strategy, improve design, and increase the business impact of incentive travel and broader reward portfolios.”

The 2026 European Top Performer Study summarizes findings from data collected from European participants in the technology, financial services, and manufacturing / automotive sectors. It also presents the data by program type, including employee, sales, and channel. To be considered a top performer for this study, companies met benchmarks in revenue growth, achievement of performance goals, customer trends, and employee attraction, and retention. Of the 450 companies reviewed, 25% of participating firms qualified as top-performing companies.

The 2026 European Top Performer Study reveals that high-performing companies demonstrate a clear commitment to innovation, personalization, and alignment with broader business objectives. It also examines program design strategies that drive intended outcomes, and how top performing organizations assess and report on the success of their incentive programs. Key insights include:

• Incentive travel is consistently rated the most impactful reward type for boosting engagement, performance, and business outcomes, especially in the technology and financial services industries
• Belief that incentive travel improves overall business performance is markedly stronger for Top Performers (58% vs. 35% for Comparator companies)
• High-achieving organizations take a focused approach to incentive travel, qualifying a smaller share of participants while offering higher-value rewards
• Prioritizing participant preferences show up in Top Performers’ program design, including perceived value (56%), unique experiences (55%), and flexibility (55%)
• Top Performers track a wide range of metrics, including ROI and business performance (62%), customer satisfaction and loyalty (61%), sales or revenue performance (57%), consistently outperforming Comparators in most areas

To download a copy of the full study and white paper, please visit the 2026 European Top Performer Study webpage.

The 2026 European Top Performer Study was supported by IRF Research Advocacy Partners Ovation Scandinavia, Tivoli Hotel & Congress Center, and Copenhagen Convention Bureau.

Thank you to our Research Advocacy Partners