The Destination Index — by departure city

The Best Incentive Travel Destinations from Chicago

The IncentiveTrips Destination Index re-ranked for programs departing Chicago (ORD). Fares are city-specific modeled ballparks — the published distance curve priced from ORD — and reachability draws from the US Central row; the four origin-independent pillars — momentum, safety, infrastructure, and planner fit — are unchanged. The global Index remains the canonical ranking; this is the same math, priced from Chicago.

Standings as of 2026-10-30. Recomputed on live data.

#	Destination	Country	Fare from ORD	Score	vs global
1	Riviera Maya & Cancún	Mexico	$350	71.8	—
2	Nashville	United States	$230	69.3	▲9
3	Punta Cana	Dominican Republic	$450	68.8	▲4
4	New Orleans	United States	$290	68.5	▲15
5	Buenos Aires	Argentina	$960	68.5	▲21
6	Mexico City	Mexico	$360	68.4	▲3
7	Scottsdale	United States	$350	68.4	▲8
8	Vancouver	Canada	$390	67.8	▲9
9	Miami	United States	$300	67.7	▲1
10	San Diego	United States	$340	67.7	▲10
11	Bangkok	Thailand	$1,050	67.6	▼9
12	Los Cabos	Mexico	$460	67.5	▲10
13	Lisbon	Portugal	$650	67.3	▼7
14	Jackson Hole	United States	$480	66.4	▲34
15	Athens	Greece	$800	66.3	▼2
16	Porto	Portugal	$700	66.1	▲7
17	Costa Rica (Guanacaste)	Costa Rica	$510	66.0	▲15
18	Phuket	Thailand	$1,150	65.8	▼10
19	Prague	Czechia	$750	65.8	▲2
20	Budapest	Hungary	$780	65.8	▲5
21	Kuala Lumpur	Malaysia	$1,050	65.7	▼17
22	Vienna	Austria	$800	65.6	▼4
23	Dubrovnik	Croatia	$900	65.6	▲6
24	Tokyo	Japan	$1,090	65.2	▼21
25	Bali	Indonesia	$1,200	65.2	▼13
26	Tulum	Mexico	$390	65.2	▲11
27	Charleston	United States	$310	64.9	▲22
28	Barcelona	Spain	$700	64.8	▼12
29	Jamaica (Montego Bay)	Jamaica	$410	64.8	▲13
30	Colorado Rockies (USA)	United States	$330	64.8	▲13
31	Panama City	Panama	$470	64.5	▲9
32	Madrid	Spain	$700	64.4	▼8
33	Maui	United States	$740	64.4	▲11
34	Petra & Dead Sea	Jordan	$1,150	64.3	▼6
35	Singapore	Singapore	$1,150	64.2	▼30
36	Napa Valley	United States	$400	64.1	▲10
37	Seoul	South Korea	$1,090	63.9	▼23
38	Algarve	Portugal	$710	63.9	▲7
39	Dublin	Ireland	$600	63.8	▼9
40	Geiranger	Norway	$760	63.7	▲17
41	Kotor	Montenegro	$950	63.2	▲14
42	Banff	Canada	$430	63.2	▲18
43	Iceland (Reykjavik)	Iceland	$590	62.8	▼4
44	Paris	France	$750	62.7	▼17
45	Da Nang	Vietnam	$1,100	62.7	▼4
46	Norwegian Fjords (Bergen)	Norway	$800	62.6	▲4
47	Amsterdam	Netherlands	$650	62.3	▼14
48	Rome	Italy	$750	62.3	▼14
49	London	United Kingdom	$700	62.2	▼18
50	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	$910	61.9	▲13

Fares are modeled round-trip ballparks from Chicago (ORD), not live quotes. “vs global” is each destination's move against its position on the global Destination Index.

How this ranking works

Only the two pillars that genuinely depend on where attendees fly from are re-scored. Value shifts with the fare difference between the US-blend baseline and this origin; air access blends each destination's global nonstop coverage with a published origin-to-region reachability score. Both adjustments flow into the composite at the Index's published pillar weights — value 15%, air access 20%.

value_o = value + 20 · (fare_US − fare_origin) / max(fare_US, 300), capped ±20
air_o = 0.5 · air_access + 0.5 · reach(origin → region)
total_o = total + 0.15 · Δvalue + 0.20 · Δair
fare = $118 + 0.913 · d^0.75, anchored per destination
city fares: fare = ($118 + 0.9127 · d^0.75) × destination anchor, d = great-circle km from ORD

Fares come from a distance-based model anchored to each destination — modeled ballparks, not live quotes. Every input is published; no destination pays to be ranked. The global Destination Index is the canonical standing.

Also ranked from

By region: US East · US Central · US West · Europe · Latin America · Asia-Pacific · Middle East & Africa