2026 SITE Crystal Awards

Thank you for your interest in the 2026 SITE Crystal Awards! Entries will be accepted for any incentive travel programs and campaigns held between: June 1, 2024–May 31, 2025

All applications are due by Friday, August 1 2025, at 11:59pm CT

IMPORTANT: The program must be a fully hosted incentive travel program with qualifying criteria that demonstrates business results. No “buy-in” or funding by participants, whether partial or full, is permitted. (Exception is optional tours)

Entry Fees

• SITE members: $250 USD for first entry; $200 USD for additional entries.
• Non-SITE members: $500 USD for first entry; $250 USD for additional entries

If paying by credit card or PayPal, you will be prompted to complete your payment before submitting your application. If you choose to pay by ACH/wire transfer, you will be sent an invoice from site@siteglobal.com 24hr after submitting your application for your entry fee payment. Please note that submissions will not be marked complete until SITE receives full payment. We highly recommend that you use a credit card to expedite payment. We only accept payment in USD for Crystal Award entries.

Judging Criteria

All entries are awarded points based on the criteria outlined in each specific category. There are 100 total points possible. Entries must receive at least an average of 85+ points to be eligible to win. If all entrants for a specific category do not meet the minimum point requirement, that category will not have a winner. There may be multiple winners per category.

A minimum of three judges evaluate all entries. The panel of judges consists of reputable and experienced industry leaders in all disciplines, who remain anonymous until the Crystal Awards Ceremony.

Please note: to ensure the transparent, impartial and fair judgment of all entries, name/company name/picture/logos must NOT appear anywhere on the entry. Applications displaying the applicant company name will be disqualified. Displaying the client’s name (end-user) anywhere on the application is permitted but is not mandatory.

Please review your submission, including all supporting documents (budget/photographs, PowerPoint, video, etc.) to absolutely ensure your company name is not revealed.

Things to note:

This system is configured to automatically save your submission once you start the application. 

Please read all the application questions before entering your answers. Make sure that each of your answers provides new information about the program and avoid repetition. The Program Overview field is intended as a high-level summary of your program, while we will require more detail on specific aspects of the program in subsequent questions.

Please make sure to upload as many photos and video files as you have. We recommend that you upload any video files to YouTube or Vimeo and provide links under the "Attachment" tab in your application. To share photography, please add your photos to a slideshow or a PowerPoint presentation, and upload only one file for all your photos.

You can sign-up more than 1 program per category - you will need to complete the application payment for each submission. 

You can include the same program in 2 different categories - you will need to complete the application payment for each submission. 

Categories

1. Best Destination-Based Experiential Incentive Travel Program

Purpose: The purpose of this category is to spotlight destinations that have done a truly effective job at hosting an incentive travel experience. Entries should highlight how the destination's infrastructure, history, culture, arts, gastronomy, etc. combine to deliver a unique, unrepeatable, world-class incentive experience. This category is open to entrants from all sectors of the incentive travel industry: destination marketing organizations (DMOs) convention & visitors’ bureau (CVBs), national tourist boards (NTBs), and destination management companies (DMCs) are ideal entrants in this category.

2. Excellence in Incentive Travel:

• Africa/Middle East
• Asia Pacific
• Europe
• North America
• Latin America & Caribbean

Purpose: The purpose of this category is to recognize outstanding organizations for their work in creating and delivering an exceptional incentive travel program that resulted in a high return on investment (ROI) to the corporate end-user. This category is open to entrants from all sectors of the incentive travel industry. Please submit entries based on where the incentive reward took place — e.g., if you are a European company submitting an incentive program that took place in Thailand, you will need to enter your program into the Asia-Pacific category. Corporate organizers, Incentive Houses, and DMCs are ideal entrants in this category.

3. Best Destination Marketing Campaign

Purpose: The purpose of this category is to spotlight organizations that have done a truly effective job at marketing and promoting the incentive-readiness of a destination. Entries can feature print and digital campaigns and/or in-person activities such as educational/familiarization trips. This category is best suited to destination marketing organizations (DMOs) convention & visitors’ bureaus (CVBs), national tourist boards (NTBs), destination management companies (DMCs), media organizations, and/or marketing agency partners.

4. Most Impactful Effort Toward Corporate Social Responsibility as Part of an Incentive Program OR Most Environmentally Sustainable Incentive Experience

Purpose: The purpose of this category is to recognize organizations for their outstanding efforts in incorporating practices and principles of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) within an incentive travel program OR to recognize organizations for their extraordinary efforts in creating an exceptional incentive travel program, delivered with sustainable principles and practices. Corporate organizers, incentive houses, DMCs, hotels, special event planners, and production companies are ideal entrants in this category.

5. Most Creative Solution Deployed to Overcome Adversity

Purpose: The purpose of this category is to award incentive travel professionals and their organizations who display uncommon levels of innovation, creativity, and ingenuity in identifying solutions for the continuation, deployment, and implementation of incentive travel awards at a time of crisis. Such solutions may be deployed during travel advisories / bans, cancellation of air access / carrier, bankruptcy, etc. or may be in respect of overcoming logistical or operational challenges caused by extreme weather, civil unrest, illness, acts of terrorism, epidemics that occur either before or during program operations. They can also apply to situations involving negotiations in respect of attrition, postponement or cancellation, cost containment, cost mitigation, or emergency response pre-trip or onsite. Finally, it can apply to situations where an in-person incentive travel program is required to be fully or partially replaced by a virtual or hybrid event.