A new type of business traveller has come to the fore: one who fits in leisure travel while on the road.
In the past, business trips meant long hours of boardroom meetings, tough negotiations and subsequent reporting. But throw in a couple of nights with your partner at the spa, the chance to bring in your family for a weekend break or a visit to a nearby theatre and you can convert the stressful trip miles away from home into a family bonding retreat or a romantic getaway.
Compromising between the demands of a busy career and a healthy home life necessitates the concept of Bleisure.
More business travellers extend their stay at their destination for leisure purpose. It is called ‘bleisure travel’ or ‘bizcation’ and involves business trip leading to a vacation, with some rest & relaxation – R&R.
According to a 2015 trend report by travel website Skift, work travel is emerging as a lifestyle rather than necessity for some people.
In a survey of international travelers published last year, 60% said they’ve taken bleisure trips, usually adding two vacation days to work-related travel.
Nearly half of them did so on most occasions, and six out of 10 said they were more likely to take bleisure trips today than they were five years ago.
Needless to say, bleisure travel brings value for money because it doubles the advantages of a journey. This is because it’s highly efficient. It’s a perfect case of having it all. This is not just in terms of money but also with regard to personal energy.
Rather than catch a Friday evening flight home and arrive late and buggered, today’s bleisure traveler finishes the last meeting at 4.00 pm and finds themselves already at the place where they want to have a mini-weekend break. This is a perfect chance of a weekend away with the family while on a business trip.
According to research by the Global Business Travel Association, Bleisure travellers tend to be Millennials or Generation Y.
This market segment is the most inclined to own smartphones and to use mobile apps to communicate and carry out tasks. About 43% of Millennials in Asia are inseparable from their smartphones and prefer to access and pay for services and products instantly via tools and apps.
Moreover, hoteliers welcome the trend. Knowing that business travelers are likely to want some down time, hotels advertise work and play packages to potential guests.
A growing trend for hotels is to offer the group meeting rate to guests for a few days before and after a corporate meeting or conference. That way, the business traveler can tack on days to visit local attractions, or take some time off to join the family that came along for the ride and has been playing all day while she was in meetings.
Business trips used to be synonymous with boardroom meetings and long hours of endless negotiations. But bleisure traveling has revolutionized business trips. Everyone is ‘happy’: employees save on the costs of the air ticket, the employer has no additional cost but gets a more satisfied employee!