State-of-the-art of incentive strategies – Implications for longitudinal travel surveys

There is a recent decline in the willingness of respondents to participate in surveys. The provision of incentives is one of the strategies available for reducing non-response. Incentives can be described as rewards the surveyor offers to respondents in order to increase the likelihood of their participation. The first objective is to provide a state-of-the art on the use of incentives in and beyond the field of transport research (both for cross-sectional and panel surveys). The second objective is to contribute to the discussion on how various incentive strategies can be used for longitudinal research in practice, and more specifically for the Netherlands Mobility Panel (MPN). Additionally, we discuss the lessons learned in the MPN with respect to the use of incentives in a household panel, the respondents’ knowledge of the height and type of incentives, and the impact of changes in incentive strategies.