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 2026-09-03. Recomputed on live data.

#	Destination	Country	Fare from ORD	Score	vs global
1	Colorado Rockies (USA)	United States	$330	77.6	▲2
2	Riviera Maya & Cancún	Mexico	$350	76.0	▼1
3	Nashville	United States	$230	73.1	▲11
4	Mexico City	Mexico	$360	72.4	▲5
5	Punta Cana	Dominican Republic	$450	72.1	▲7
6	Los Cabos	Mexico	$460	72.0	▲10
7	Buenos Aires	Argentina	$960	72.0	▲23
8	Dubrovnik	Croatia	$900	71.9	▲3
9	Scottsdale	United States	$350	71.7	▲11
10	Lisbon	Portugal	$650	71.3	▼4
11	Norwegian Fjords (Bergen)	Norway	$800	71.1	▲12
12	Bangkok	Thailand	$1,050	71.0	▼10
13	New Orleans	United States	$290	70.9	▲19
14	Vancouver	Canada	$390	70.8	▲10
15	Tulum	Mexico	$390	70.8	▲13
16	Bali	Indonesia	$1,200	70.7	▼11
17	Miami	United States	$300	70.7	▲1
18	Porto	Portugal	$700	70.6	▼1
19	Athens	Greece	$800	70.5	▼6
20	San Diego	United States	$340	70.4	▲7
21	Kotor	Montenegro	$950	70.2	▲14
22	Costa Rica (Guanacaste)	Costa Rica	$510	70.0	▲12
23	Phuket	Thailand	$1,150	69.5	▼16
24	Iceland (Reykjavik)	Iceland	$590	69.2	▼2
25	Budapest	Hungary	$780	69.1	▲1
26	Tokyo	Japan	$1,090	68.9	▼22
27	Madrid	Spain	$700	68.6	▼6
28	Vienna	Austria	$800	68.6	▼3
29	Prague	Czechia	$750	68.6	—
30	Charleston	United States	$310	68.6	▲19
31	Barcelona	Spain	$700	68.5	▼12
32	Kuala Lumpur	Malaysia	$1,050	68.4	▼24
33	Algarve	Portugal	$710	68.4	▲7
34	Banff	Canada	$430	68.0	▲21
35	Seoul	South Korea	$1,090	67.9	▼20
36	Jamaica (Montego Bay)	Jamaica	$410	67.7	▲10
37	Singapore	Singapore	$1,150	67.4	▼27
38	Da Nang	Vietnam	$1,100	67.4	▼1
39	Maui	United States	$740	67.4	▲8
40	Wyoming (USA)	United States	$440	67.4	▲27
41	Kyoto	Japan	$1,140	67.1	▼10
42	Hudson Valley (USA)	United States	$410	67.0	▲9
43	Lake Bled	Slovenia	$900	66.9	▲14
44	Dublin	Ireland	$600	66.7	▼6
45	Panama City	Panama	$470	66.6	▲11
46	Hoi An (Vietnam)	Vietnam	$1,100	66.5	▼4
47	Napa Valley	United States	$400	66.2	▲11
48	Montana (USA)	United States	$470	66.1	▲22
49	Paris	France	$750	65.6	▼13
50	Mallorca	Spain	$800	65.4	▲2

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