What is bleisure?
Extend the business travel for sightseeing is a trend that is revolutionizing the way business travel is done. This is because it is a combination of business and leisure.
This practice is increasing every day among companies, and it has been confirmed that almost 40% of business travelers take advantage of their trip to spend a few days off in the destination city.
Not only that, but during corporate travel many travelers enjoy leisure in their free time.
Many companies are joining this new trend, giving employees the freedom to plan their corporate travel themselves.
In addition, these companies are including a new section in their travel policies, in order to offer a greater margin of expenditure for employees, who feel greater personal satisfaction.
The increasing demands of working life have given way to establishing a relationship with personal life. So this is one of the reasons why bleisure has grown among companies.
The result of this new trend has been satisfactory, being noticed in those who make it an improvement in work performance, in addition to working with less stress and more desire.
Bleisure Tourist profile
In general, the trend in this type of tourism is towards young people between 25 and 40 years of age.
A study by Expedia Group has found that this movement is on the rise and shows the different behaviours and preferences of travellers when it comes to extending business travel for tourism.
The study focuses on British, Chinese, American, German and Indian travelers. It shows the growth that the bleisure trend has had, assuring that more than 60% of corporate travel has been extended for leisure purposes in recent years.
The majority of bleisure travelers (36%) make an average of 1 trip every 2 or 3 months. In addition, 71% of the trips made in total are usually domestic destinations.
This traveler's profile is usually dynamic and updated to the latest developments. They seek to be able to combine work and leisure activities in order to achieve their goals while being satisfied with what they do.
In addition, they are usually profiles whose jobs are related to technology and finance.
The majority of travellers choose to enjoy gastronomic and cultural activities. In addition, the favorite destinations are those where you can enjoy nature, the beach or the historical monuments of a city.
Therefore, it highlights the importance of offering personalized services in a sector that is increasingly demanding offers of this type. To this end, it is useful to have a tool that offers target content for our travelers in order to enhance the experience during the trip.
Another requirement of this type of travellers is to have good mobile technology. During the trip, travelers have the need to make any kind of management through their phone.
Extending business travel to tourism: better destinations
Sometimes it is difficult to find ourselves in a city of interest where we can spend time on our business goals and still enjoy time. However, there are a number of destinations where we can do both:
- London. It's certainly the best destination for business travel. This great capital has a magnificent transport network, as well as a wide range of hotels where you can stay. In spite of being known for its great financial zone, in it we can find the best leisure centers to visit, restaurants and places for which it is worth extending the business trip to do tourism.
- Barcelona. It is undoubtedly one of the most attractive cities for business travelers. Barcelona has a wide range of activities to do while we spend a few days for work. Large companies have their headquarters in this great city and this is no coincidence. With its varied points of interest, its gastronomic offer, transport and activities has become a great place to visit. bleisure.
- Frankfurt. It is the center of the German country as far as financial capital is concerned, besides being the seat of the European Central Bank, which makes it a strong center for business. In addition, Frankfurt also stands out for having a wide zone of neighborhoods, squares, breweries for which to visit in the free time.
- Paris. What to say about the French capital. Possibly one of the most attractive and beautiful cities we can find in the whole world. Paris has a cultural heritage known throughout Europe, which allows us to visit a lot of important monuments in the city. In addition, it has infinity of corners and terraces in which to spend free times taking something pleasant.
The hotel industry supports extended business travel for tourism
The emergence of this new trend in business travel has resulted in a change in the supply of hotels and accommodation in general.
The hotel chains are expanding their services, offering new cultural, sports, and interest experiences adapted to the traveler who chooses to extend the business trip for tourism.
Customization is becoming increasingly important. Adapting services to this new type of tourist is a task for hotel chains.
Furthermore, this type of tourism is usually carried out throughout the year and not in the summer months, due to labour needs. This helps to reduce the seasonality characteristic of this type of accommodation.
Most bleisure travelers require some services such as:
- Good food
- Sports facilities
- Good location of the accommodation
- Accommodations with current or modern designs
- Broadband wifi in case you need to work.
This trend of extending business travel for tourism is expected to continue to rise in recent years, generating more than 1.4 billion euros in 2026.
