Ten places worth a serious look for a 2027 program — what each one is genuinely good for, who it suits, and where the catch is.
Peak Performance · Incentive Travel Group LLC
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The 2025 Incentive Travel Index found that 69% of buyers were actively seeking destinations they had not used previously, and that 63% had already booked a new one for programs running in 2026 and 2027. Novelty is no longer a differentiator; it is the baseline expectation.
So this is not a list of the ten prettiest places on earth. It is ten destinations we think are worth contracting for a 2027 program — with what each one actually solves, and what it costs you in return.
A destination earns a place here by being newly viable for a group program, not merely by being fashionable. Four things move that needle:
Everything below clears at least three of those four. Where a destination misses one, we have said so.
The strongest value play in Asia right now. A long stretch of coastline south of Da Nang has filled with genuine five-star beach resorts of a size that takes a whole program, and Hoi An’s old town gives you an evening nobody forgets — lantern-lit, walkable, and completely unlike a hotel ballroom.
Who it suits: groups of 80 to 200 wanting international scale on a mid-tier per-head. The catch is flying time; from North America this is a serious journey and you need five nights on the ground to justify it.
Bruce Rickert · Peak Performance
Which is why every entry below is judged on what you can build there, not on how it photographs.
Four hours or less from most of the US East Coast, and it still feels genuinely foreign when you land — a walled colonial city, a serious food scene, and boutique properties inside the old town that groups can take over outright.
Who it suits: East Coast field teams where flying time is the binding constraint and the budget will not stretch to Europe. The catch is perception rather than reality — expect questions about safety, and answer them properly in the announcement rather than waiting for the rumour to circulate.
The destination has to survive eleven months of anticipation. That is a higher bar than looking good in a brochure.
Greece without the island logistics. The resort estates around Messinia were built at a scale that can take an entire program — golf, spa, beach and conference space on one site — and the mainland setting gives you Olympia and Mycenae as genuine excursions rather than a boat transfer.
Who it suits: programs of 100 to 250 that want Europe with the operational simplicity of a single resort. The catch is season — the window that works is narrow, and everyone else wants it too.
The alternative to Dubai for groups that want the infrastructure without the saturation. Saadiyat Island has resort supply alongside a real cultural district, the airport is well connected from both Europe and North America, and buyouts are more achievable than in Dubai.
Who it suits: programs that need certainty — reliable service standards, easy logistics, no weather risk between October and April. The catch is that it reads as a business destination to some fields; the program design has to work harder to feel like a reward.
Portugal keeps getting recommended for the same reason it keeps working: strong properties, real food and wine content, easy access from both sides of the Atlantic, and prices that still compare well with Spain or Italy. Comporta is the quieter, more design-led option an hour south of Lisbon; the Algarve is the proven one.
Who it suits: almost anyone, which is both the appeal and the limitation — it is on a lot of shortlists. Comporta’s supply is small, so it is a top-tier destination; the Algarve takes a full field.
The best guest-inclusive program on this list. Direct flights from multiple US cities, resorts built for groups on the Papagayo peninsula, and a genuine adventure menu — rainforest, volcano, surf — that gives you an activity day people actually talk about afterwards.
Who it suits: programs bringing partners and spouses, and any company with a sustainability story it wants the destination to support rather than undercut. The catch is the green season; dates matter more here than most.
Angkor is the rare destination that impresses people who have already been everywhere, and the hospitality around it has quietly improved to match. Sunrise at the temples is a moment a program cannot manufacture anywhere else.
Who it suits: well-travelled top performers, and programs that want a meaningful community or purpose element without it feeling bolted on. The catch is heat and scale — this is a 60 to 120 person destination, November to February.
Japan has become an incentive favourite and Kyoto has paid the price for it. The interesting programs have moved — the Seto Inland Sea, the art islands, the ryokan and onsen towns of Kyushu — where the experience is better and the crowds are not.
Who it suits: a top tier of 30 to 60 people who have travelled a lot and are hard to impress. The catch is capacity: authentic properties here are small, so this is a Chairman’s Club destination rather than a whole-field one, and it needs the longest lead time on this list.
Established rather than emerging, and routinely skipped in favour of more obvious long-haul options — which is exactly why it lands well. Few destinations generate the same reaction on an announcement slide, and the city gives you beach, mountain and a nightlife scene in one place.
Who it suits: energetic fields and younger sales teams, and South- or East-Coast US programs where the routing works. The catch is that it needs a strong local operator; this is not a destination to run thinly staffed.
The top end of the list, and the one that functions as a genuine career memory. Gorilla trekking is not something a winner books for themselves, the lodges are world-class, and Kigali is an unexpectedly easy arrival point.
Who it suits: a Chairman’s Club tier of 20 to 40, where the per-head is high and exclusivity is the point. The catch is cost and permit capacity — this needs the longest runway on the list and will not scale to a full field.
Buyers seeking an unused destination
Already booked one for 2026–27
Months of lead time most of these need
The first two figures are from the 2025 Incentive Travel Index. The third is our own planning convention, and it is the one that matters most here — the whole market is chasing the same unfamiliar destinations, which means the properties worth having in them are contracted a long way out.
Read the list as a shortlist to start sourcing against now, not as somewhere you can book next spring.
It is tempting to pick the least familiar name on a list like this, and it is usually a mistake. Brand-new resorts are still finding their service standards in year one. Destinations with thin air access punish you every time a connection slips. And a place your field cannot picture does not motivate anybody — the announcement has to land in a sales meeting, not in a travel magazine. Ask what a property was like twelve months after it opened, not on opening week.
Ten good options is a harder problem than two. Four questions narrow it fast:
Watch lists age quickly, and this one will too. What does not change is the order of operations: pick for the field, source for the calendar, and sign before you say a word.
Bruce has designed sales incentive and channel reward programs for technology, manufacturing and energy clients since 2003, including multi-tier referral structures and President’s Club trips across four continents.
