Bleisure Travel

The world grows together and this affects the way we work: regional and international business trips are becoming more and more common. That is why a new trend emerged which especially affects young executives: “bleisure” combines work trips and leisure travelling. Learn more about the origin and the significance of this trend and how it influences work and vacation.

“Bleisure” is a blend of the words “business” and “leisure”. This blend already denotes its meaning: bleisure travel means that vacation days are spent right after the business trip in the destination.

Imagine for a moment that you fly to Paris for a business meeting. The moment you exit the airplane marks the beginning of a working day: you arrive at the hotel, prepare your presentation, join the meeting and speak in front of your audience. At the end of the day, you leave the meeting. Usually, your business trip would end at this point and you would return home as quickly as possible. Bleisure travel is different – instead of returning home as soon as the business purpose is accomplished, you extend your trip and spend a few days in the French capital – as a tourist, not a business traveler.  “Bleisure” is a blend of the words “business” and “leisure”. This blend already denotes its meaning: bleisure travel means that vacation days are spent right after the business trip in the destination. Imagine for a moment that you fly to Paris for a business meeting. The moment you exit the airplane marks the beginning of a working day: you arrive at the hotel, prepare your presentation, join the meeting and speak in front of your audience. At the end of the day, you leave the meeting. Usually, your business trip would end at this point and you would return home as quickly as possible. Bleisure travel is different – instead of returning home as soon as the business purpose is accomplished, you extend your trip and spend a few days in the French capital – as a tourist, not a business traveler.

The reasons for this trend are clear: balancing work and life is extraordinarily difficult for travelling salespeople with lots of appointments. Bleisure offers the possibility to relax, experience new cultures and explore new cities after long business trips. A survey among 600 business travellers conducted in 2014 concluded that 83 % of participants use their time in their travel destination to explore it actively. 60 % indicated that they have tried bleisure travel at least once and 30 % use two vacation days to extend the duration of their stay. The most popular activities are:

1. Sightseeing
   
2. The local cuisine
   
3. Culture and art
   

This trend is not a fad: 94 % of the respondents in the lower age range surveyed suggested that they want to try bleisure travelling within the next five years.

What rules should you adhere to with this kind of travel? Firstly, you need to talk with your employer about your goals. Aside from more obvious issues like planning vacation days, you have to keep in mind that your hotel room or even the flight tickets you book have to be used exclusively for business purposes. You cannot use your business trip as a means to privately take people with you. Make sure to get your employer’s approval for your bleisure trip.

Secondly, if you want to bring along family members or friends, you need to plan and coordinate it accordingly. Most of the time, they would arrive after the business part – so you have to organize the transfer and pack your luggage for the extended bleisure stay.

Finally, depending on your company’s regulations you can take advantage of membership programmes when you travel a lot. Programmes like these are offered by hotels and they include exclusive benefits for members like room upgrades or discounts. They are oftentimes categorized in membership, loyalty or business cards. 

To sum it up: business trips no longer have to be just that – if you combine business and leisure, you can experience the best of both worlds!