Trade shows bring buyers and suppliers to the same table, but they often arrive with different goals. New research from the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE) shows buyers prioritize existing relationships, while suppliers focus on finding new business.
SITE’s Trade Shows and Business Development survey drew 747 responses, the largest response in its PULSE series. The initial analysis covers 657 respondents across four groups: buyers, hotels and suppliers, destination management companies (DMCs), and destination marketing organizations and convention bureaus.
Asked to select the single most important function of tradeshows, 43.3 percent of buyers chose building and deepening existing relationships. Among agencies and incentive houses, that figure reached 52.4 percent.
By comparison, lead generation and building a sales pipeline ranked first among hotels and suppliers at 38.7 percent. It also led among DMCs at 43.4 percent and destination marketing organizations and convention bureaus at 44.4 percent.
“A full appointment diary can represent very different ambitions for the people sitting on either side of the table,” said Pádraic Gilligan, SITE’s head of consultancy and research.
DIFFERENT GOALS FOR BUYERS
Corporate buyers also differed from agencies. Contracting and closing business led their priorities at 25.7 percent, followed by strengthening relationships at 24.8 percent. Another 17.8 percent selected education and development.
Overall, education ranked fourth, with 9.3 percent choosing it as their most important function of tradeshows. However, the question asked respondents to choose one primary purpose. It did not measure whether they valued education alongside other activities.
The survey also found confidence in the future of major tradeshows. Nearly six in 10 respondents expected them to grow in importance over the next three years. Another 24 percent expected their importance to remain broadly unchanged, while 3.5 percent anticipated a decline.
COSTS REMAIN THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE
Despite that confidence, respondents identified financial and practical barriers to getting value from shows. Cost and budget constraints ranked first at 46.1 percent. Time away from work and clients followed at 18 percent, while 16.4 percent cited difficulty demonstrating return on investment.
Those pressures varied by business type. For example, one-third of agencies identified time away as their biggest challenge. Meanwhile, hotels and suppliers were the group most likely to cite difficulty demonstrating return on investment, at 24.1 percent.
SITE conducted the survey Sept. 8–23, 2026, before IMEX America. Most respondents in the initial analysis were based in North America, so the findings reflect that concentration within the incentive travel audience.
The report is available through SITE’s PULSE research page.
Press release submitted by the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence. Edited by Exhibit City News for clarity, length, and style.
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