The SITE Crystal Awards celebrate the top achievements of incentive industry professionals, standing as the industry equivalent to an Oscar, BAFTA, or GRAMMY. 

Winning programs are exemplars of what the best and brightest companies are doing differently when crafting travel rewards, to provide truly transformational returns and lasting memories that also drive concrete business results.

Winners’ accomplishments are described each year in published case studies with highlights of the program and destination — but here are four overarching trends across this year’s winning programs. 

Making strong use of emerging destinations 

Classic “sun and fun” destinations made limited appearances, with 2025 winners instead opting for newer up-and-coming destinations — in line with findings from the 2024 Incentive Travel Index.

Destinations hosting winning 2025 incentive programs included Panama, Egypt, Türkiye; and regional picks like Delhi, India, and Banff, Canada. 

Emerging destinations offer planners many advantages, including chances to flex their creativity. Newer destinations also often mean less competition, with fewer groups competing over well-known and well-loved hot spots. 

Collaboratively building and customizing program elements

Thoughtful cooperation between planners and supplier partners make for the strongest incentives. In fact, winners across the eight 2025 award categories represent an even split between DMCs and incentive agencies: indicative of the balance required to deliver a standout program. 

Collaboration allowed 2025 Crystal winners to completely reshape spaces, whether opting for full buy-outs; tapping all-inclusive properties; or designing entirely new concepts. 

Take, for example, 2025 winner Emeco Travel. This Egyptian DMC used their strong network of in-destination contacts to transform traditional sailboats one day into a serene dining space, coordinating with the government to sign off on using the boats this way. They also embedded with kitchen staff for select meals to introduce spices recognized and appreciated by their Thai client, providing a literal taste of home during their group’s time in Cairo and Luxor. 

Another DMC winner, Spaintacular, turned challenges into opportunities, creating pop-up event spaces from scratch when the destination lacked a purpose-built venue that could accommodate their client. They also activated the host hotel throughout the incentive, getting creative to make the space feel exciting and vibrant while following mandatory client security policies that limited the use of offsite locations. 

Taking things to new heights, too, was Ovation India DMC. The team worked for five days straight to coordinate a stunning number of vendors and custom-fit a stadium in Delhi, India, to accommodate their client’s 20,000 guests. Their work was so beautifully done that India’s prime minster even asked Ovation to leave the work in place for a rally his team hosted in the same stadium immediately following Ovation’s incentive. 

Avoiding anything cookie-cutter was key for these winning programs — with teams ignoring the constraints of buy-out or all-inclusive models and going totally custom, using the talents and time of their own teams and destination partners.   

Making it personal, to make it amazingly memorable 

It’s a basic business skill that sounds simple, but can be much trickier to put into practice: winning Crystal Award incentive programs excel at listening to their clients, taking their needs into genuine consideration, and delivering programs that resonate on deeply personal levels. 

MEP DMC, another 2025 winner, did this by taking their New Zealand-based qualifiers to visit Gallipoli, a part of Türkiye with distinct ANZAC cultural significance dating back to the First World War. MEP held a solemn ceremony honoring this history — and showcasing how strong emotions of all kinds can enrich an incentive experience and leave participants incredibly moved. 

Personal touches also go a huge way in the recognition component of incentive travel rewards, a longtime staple of many programs. Part of what made Ladidadi XM Incentives and Events a winner in 2025 were the personal touches and notes incorporated into their incentive’s award ceremony evening. They worked closely with their client to publicy praise and celebrate each qualifier in front of their colleagues and invited guests, incorporating personalized walk-up tracks and detailed remarks onstage.  

360insights, the 2025 Crystals CSR winner and co-recipient of the 2025 “Par Excellence” Crystals Award, demonstrated how to make personal touches empowering ones, too — while giving back. The team worked with their host destination partner, Banff & Lake Louise Tourism, to give participants a gift card that could be spent exclusively at local businesses in Banff. 

This gave participants an opportunity to “pick their path” one evening and decide independently how they’d like to spend their time, while simultaneously ensuring that spend would positively impact the incentive host community. 

A strong and motivated team, as the key ingredient 

This year’s Crystal Award winners reaffirmed the importance of investing in the resources required to build standout teams.

A great example of the importance of a unified and well-equipped team came from Meetings & Incentives Worldwide, the 2025 “Overcoming Adversity” Crystals recipient. The M&I team delivered two equally strong waves of a 2023-24 incentive reward despite facing down the elements of nature — literally, after a hurricane disrupted the original first wave — and attributed their success to strong working relationships within their own organization, that then extended to the relationships team members built with the client and with local suppliers. 

Another good example comes from CWT. A strong, shared understanding of the client’s goals and commitments helped CWT deliver bespoke experiences, grounded in mutually aligned values. Qualifiers enjoyed two unique opportunities to interact with members of different local communities within their program host destination. These experiences made possible through the team’s dedication to aligning on a shared mission and vision for the travel reward. 

What’s next for 2026? 

It’s clear as Crystal what makes incentive programs rise to the top right now: finding the new and next destinations to explore; going custom; personalizing program elements; and investing in strong team cultures to collectively deliver just-as-strong results. 

While these factors might sound straightforward, putting them into practice is far from simple or easy — making the accomplishments of our 2025 Crystal Award winners shine bright, as leaders in delivering exciting, transformative motivational rewards.